An open source (a favorite word of mine) virtualization software that now has a beta out for the Mac. It definitely is not as finished as a Parallels or a VMWare Fusion, it does the very basics that I need a virtual XP box and Open Suse box to do. You can check it out at:
http://www.virtualbox.org
What it does on the fly:
- Creates partitions inside of your main PC (my iMac)
- Allows for Windows, Linux, and whatever else you can think of machines
- You can create folder shares, mount devices, etc.
- Free versus $79.99 for each Parallels and Fusion
For me, I just loaded XP and Office onto the Virtual box. I turned off the majority of services on XP so the basic use of it easily moves with 512MB of RAM. The base OS uses roughly 20 MB of RAM before I call any applications.
Why have I done this? Temporarily really, and mostly for my wife and for resume writing. I haven't gotten too used to moving around inside of Office for Mac yet. But it's free. And I don't need much out of Virtualization.
I recommend it. I know they have Mac and Linux versions, and I believe a Windows one as well. It was just purchased by Sun Microsystems, so it should be getting more attention.
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