More and more people are asking me about the prospect of running the Segmented Project Planner on a Mac, so I've done a little research to find out what can really be done.
The news is good and getting even better! Through the end of 2005 there was just one solution, Virtual PC. This product is owned by Microsoft and I'm told it does a pretty good job of letting you use Windows based software on a Mac.
But, as of the beginning of 2006, all new Macs are based on an Intel processor and things are changing rapidly. Now there are 4 new solutions available that take advantage of this chip/processor change.
Unfortunately, most the solutions require that you have a copy of Windows XP and that will cost you about $100. The really cool thing, though, is that these 5 solutions give you the best of both worlds; access to both Mac and PC software on one machine. A couple of the solutions, those implementing a virtual machine, let you run Mac and PC applications at the same time!
The table below details what I've learned.
| Running Windows Applications on a Mac | |||||||
| Power PC - pre 2006 machines | Intel Mac - 2006 machines & later | ||||||
| Virtual PC Version 7 | Parallels | Boot Camp | VM Ware Fusion | XOM (XP on Mac) | Crossover | Wine | |
| Mechanism Provided by | Microsoft | Parallels | Apple | VM Ware | hack | codeweavers.com | winehq.org |
| Method | Emulation | Virtual Machine | Native Processor | Virtual Machine | Native Processor | Native Processor | Native Processor |
| Required Processor | 700mhz G3, G4, or G5 | Intel Mac | Intel Mac | Intel Mac | Intel Mac | Intel Mac | Intel Mac |
| Required OS | Mac OS X version 10.2.8 or later | Mac OS X version 10.4.4 or later | Mac OS X "Tiger" 10.4.6 or later | ? | ? | Mac OS X | Mac OS X |
| Windows XP copy required? | Yes | Not if starting from a PC | Yes | Yes | XP Pro | No | No |
| Cost | $130 | $80 | Free, to be included in OS X 10.5 | ? | Free | $60 | Free |
| Evaluation | The way to go for older macs | Expect it to be slower than a native processor solution | Must run either Mac or PC | Expect it to be slower than a native processor solution | Cute idea but obviated by Boot Camp | Should be faster than an emulator | Should be faster than an emulator |