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Virtual apps get Windows dressing

Quoting IT Week

Parallels has made a name for itself in the virtualisation market through its Desktop for Mac tool that enables Intel-based Mac systems to run Windows applications. But the company also develops products for Windows and Linux, and plans to bring similar capabilities to these platforms shortly. It is also moving into the server space with a product that looks set to offer wider cross-platform capabilities than rivals.

While other developers have focused on whole machine virtualisation, Parallels has taken a slightly different approach. Its Desktop for Mac makes it appear that Windows applications are running natively alongside Mac OS X programs.

“We’re taking virtualisation in a different direction – making it easier for the average user,” said Parallels’ Benjamin Rudolph.

When Apple introduced its Intel-based Macs at the start of 2006, Parallels saw it as an opportunity to give Mac users access to the broader range of business applications available for Windows systems, Rudolph said. Its first Desktop for Mac tool was largely similar in capabilities to offerings from other virtual machine vendors, such as VMware.

However, at the end of 2006, the firm added Coherence, a feature that displays Windows applications as if they were on the Mac desktop. This allows users to run Microsoft Outlook, for example, while hiding that it is actually running inside a virtual machine.

The same technology is coming to Windows and Linux users, as Parallels will add this functionality to the next release of its Parallels Workstation product. This will enter a public beta within the next couple of months, according to Rudolph, and will also add support for symmetrical multi-processing virtual machines, 64bit environments, and the latest virtualisation features in Intel and AMD processors.

Another feature being copied from the Mac product is SmartSelect, which makes virtualisation even more seamless. On the Mac, it allows users to set Windows files to automatically open with a Mac program, or vice versa. “You can double-click an email attachment on your Mac, and automatically have it open up in Word for Windows,” Rudolph said.

On the PC, Parallels has already announced support in its Workstation product for Windows Vista as a host platform. With the new version, firms will be able to use Coherence and SmartSelect to avoid compatibility issues by running existing applications inside an XP virtual machine, but letting users access them from Vista as if they were native software.

Parallels is also now moving into server-side virtualisation. A beta version of its server software is to be released in the next few months. This will run on Windows, Linux, Macintosh and Solaris servers and allows each to run multiple operating systems.

Read or comment on the original, here.

Published Sunday, July 15, 2007 12:27 PM by David Marshall
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