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For six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Switch to the Mac? Just switch to the Web

Charles forwarded me this interesting post, which is really more about virtualization than it is about switching:

Now I'm back on the Mac.

The most wonderful thing about the Mac in 2007 is that it has what Bill Joy refers to as the "it works" feature.

The second most wonderful thing about the Mac in 2007 is that it is all three of the major operating systems in one: you get the Mac user interface and applications; you get Unix underneath the covers...

...And by running Parallels or VMWare Fusion you also get Windows XP.

Virtualization is the biggest thing to hit the operating system world since protected memory.

You know, I'm not so sure.

Desktop-based virtualization (on the Mac or Linux) is only a big deal because 99 percent of the software out there runs on Windows. There is virtually (ahem) no one on Windows wishing they could run any Mac apps, even though some are quite good. I think a bigger trend, actually, is the "Webification" of applications like email and, eventually, even productivity applications. This will make next-gen OSes less important than their predecessors (as discussed in this otherwise lame New York Times article, which presents absolutely zero new information). I think we are coming to an age of equalization between platforms, but it will be because of the Web, not virtualization, and not any other desktop technology.

That said, obviously, if you have a need for this, virtualization is huge if it performs well. It never has performed well enough for me, not even Parallels, which is the best desktop-based virtualization platform I've tried (and I've tried them all).

Thanks Charles.

Labels: Mac, PC

[ Posted at 8:39 AM | Permalink ]