What does a switcher do....Virtual PC

switchfromdellswitchfromdell
Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
One of the reasons pushing me to switch was the ability to use my old software using Virtual PC for Win 98!!!! Over 10 yrs I have accumulated much SW and files with no equivalent in Mac. The buyout by MS concerns me about Virtual PC support and long term impact on Apple. Also, I hate to bow to MS!!!!



Are my concerns valid?? Is there other SW which does what Virtual PC does???

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 3
    the pie manthe pie man Posts: 425member
    [quote]Originally posted by switchfromdell:

    <strong>One of the reasons pushing me to switch was the ability to use my old software using Virtual PC for Win 98!!!! Over 10 yrs I have accumulated much SW and files with no equivalent in Mac. The buyout by MS concerns me about Virtual PC support and long term impact on Apple. Also, I hate to bow to MS!!!!



    Are my concerns valid?? Is there other SW which does what Virtual PC does???</strong><hr></blockquote>



    At this point there really is no way to know what Microsoft intends to do with VPC. In the short to medium term I can't imagine they would pull support - so I would defiintely say don't let this affect your plans.



    In the end, if MS were to decide to drop VPC, I would imagine that the open source side of the fence would step in to take up the slack (if not Apple themselves). Bochs is an open source windows emulator - currently it isn't nearly as polished (fast) as VPC (which isn't saying much) but if VPC disappeared I bet we would see a quick surge in interest.
  • Reply 2 of 3
    mcqmcq Posts: 1,543member
    I don't believe there is other software for the PC emulation. If you plan on keeping around an old PC and have an ethernet network, then you can use Windows Remote desktop connection to log in to your PC, which is actually a nice, free way to do things.



    I wouldn't worry too much about VPC being acquired by Microsoft just yet. They have no plans to change things immediately, so buying VPC in its current form should be just fine if you want to run any version of Windows, and should Microsoft mess VPC up for whatever reason in a future release, you have no necessity to buy it... considering Microsoft's next OS isn't coming out for a couple years.
  • Reply 3 of 3
    the pie manthe pie man Posts: 425member
    <a href="http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/unix_open_source/bochs.html"; target="_blank">Bochs</a>



    Obviously this isn't for the faint of heart - no double click to install here - but if VPC disappeared, I bet it would get a lot of attention. It even might just because MS bought Connectix and people are nervous.
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