William Sommerwerck said:
I wonder if Apple will ever create an OS that will run Windows
applications
directly and transparently. I don't think it's impossible, but it would
require a huge programming effort.
You have a basic misunderstanding of how the OS works. Software is written
and compiled to run on a particular OS/processor combo. You can't run a
Windows app on a UNIX box "natively" any more than you can drive a boat on
an asphalt highway... on a very fundamental level it just doesn't work.
I don't know how this "parallels" software works BUT I am guessing (and I'm
pretty sure about this) that it's a virtual dos machine environment similar
to VMWare or WINE where there is an application which emulates a windows OS
computer and which is displayed on the Mac OS X computer. It may APPEAR
that you are switching between the two OS's, but in reality you are running
OS X UNIX on the processor full-time and DISPLAYING (full-screen or
otherwise) a PROGRAM which is running the Windows app (perhaps within the
familiar Windows desktop). the only other way it could be done is the way
IBM and the big boys have been doing it for decades: partition the system
(memory, cpu cores, i/o bus, etc.) so that different OS's run CONCURRENTLY
on different processor cores within the same physical machine. OS X is
simply not designed or implemented to do this. Kudos to the writers of
Parallels for their most excellent-sounding product, I will check it out.
Having jumped back into the Mac world recently with my iMac purchase, I will
say that much as I dislike Microsoft, they have a better interface for
administering some things like network connections and firewalls, but that
is only my opinion. My background is in UNIX system administration, so I am
thrilled that the OS x backend is UNIX but... the GUI tools to administer
the vast power of the OS is geared towards trendy Jim whose skills lie in
perhaps advertising or image manipulation and who has no ability or desire
to completely control his machine... he wants a warm fuzzy "automagic"
interface which eliminates any technicial ability requirements. Just about
all of the Apple documentation deals with the fuzzy simple interface and
does not address the underlying OS which is UNIX. Although I've been in the
IT field for several decades, I had one helluva time configuring my wireless
adaptor to talk to my wireless print server in ad hoc mode... it took me
literally two hours. That having been said, my techno-illiterate wife could
sit down and follow the instructions to get the machine talking via ehternet
to our DSL modem (insecure as THAT is given OS X's default setting for their
less-than-perfect firewall is "OFF" out of the box) and hence onto the
internet... Apple is bang-on meeting the needs/wants of their intended
market.
Dave S.