Yet more Virtual PC news

Some fairly good news: It looks like Microsoft have tentatively agreed to port Virtual PC to the new Intel Macs. MacNN have a posted an article quoting Roz Ho - the GM of Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit - as saying "Virtual PC 7 remains the top emulation software for Mac PowerPC users. However, applications like Virtual PC that are highly dependent on the OS will not run under Rosetta."

Unforunately Roz would not however commit to even an approximate release date. "We’ll have a better idea once we have the new machines and can accurately evaluate just what is required to transition the product," was all he had to say.

Well, what can I say? It's better than nothing, but we're talking many months here before we see Virtual PC on Intel Macs. Without the benefit of near-native speed Windows apps, the idea of switching to an Intel Mac has lost some of its appeal. Sure, the computers are two or three times faster than their predecessors, but it was the orders-of-magnitude speed increase in Windows applications that should have been the 'killer' feature. It seems I'm not the only one who is less than impressed with the situation - Insanely Great Mac has posted a cutting analysis of the announcement.

Related entries

Don't chuck out Virtual PC yet, the MacBook doesn't do Windows - 12 January 2006
Windows on Intel Macs - 7 June 2005
Tri-booting Intel-Macs - 26 July 2005
MGS Virtual Pool 2 reviewed - 8 January 2005
Google Maps vs. Virtual Earth - 9 August 2005
Mac news schizophrenia - 27 September 2005
Back online, sort of - 6 April 2005
More WebKit and SVG news - 10 July 2005
Intel demos Mac mini lookalike - 4 March 2005

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