Topic: Application for MAC to switch between OS at will...

[RebelRebel]

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/04/06/parallels_offers_mac_vt_beta/

US software company Parallels has posted a pre-release version of its upcoming virtualisation tool for Intel-based Macs. Coming in response to the release of Apple's Windows XP-oriented Boot Camp utility, the Parallel product eliminates the need to choose which operating system the users at start-up. Instead, users can flip between operating systems at will.

Parallels also said the software doesn't limit users to Windows XP as an alternative to Mac OS X - they can opt to run "any version of Windows (3.1, 3.11, 95, 98, Me, 2000, NT, XP, 2003), any Linux distribution, FreeBSD, Solaris, OS/2, eComStation or MS-DOS".

[Nick Graham]

I've got a Beta version...really nice app. Much better than Bootcamp (no rebooting the computer to switch between OS), and not slower than Christmas like Virtual PC.

[mhibbs]

so how's the performance of parallels vs. boot camp?  I'd expect XP to run better under boot camp since it's not emulating inside of another OS.

[nic]

its been out of beta for about month or so now.
think its near $50 or so.

runs very smoothly but you cant do 3d games...besides, thats what a console is for! 

[bgalizio]

I haven't used Parallels because I don't feel like paying to use Windows on my Mac Boot Camp works fine for me, though I wouldn't be opposed to OS X 10.5 containing Windows virtualization or the ability to run Windows programs directly through OS X. Perhaps we'll know next week at WWDC...

[Depechemode1993]

I know this is an old topic I didn't know if it was right to post another question about bootcamp to a totally different subject than taping.

Can Bootcamp play PC games? Thats all I want to know. If not I don't want Windows files to plague my computer. 

[greenone]

Boot Camp isn't the operating system, just the enabler to switch OSes. It allows you to switch between OS X and XP on any Mac machine that has an Intel processor. So if your PC games play on XP, and you have XP to install on a partition of your drive, you're good to go.