If you still have and use a G3-based Macintosh and are looking for an optimized version of DOSBox, look no further. Marcus Herbert has put together an “Inofficial DOSBox build for G3 Macs“.
Quoting Marcus:
Unfortunately the official 0.70 build of DOSBox for OSX has all kind of compiler switches set to juice the most performance out of your PowerPC G4 (and up) CPU and obviously doesn’t run on old G3 anymore. For those people I provide a precompiled DOSBox binary here.
The VirtualBox Public Beta for Mac OS X is now available. It can be downloaded here.
VirtualBox is a free/open-source Virtualization solution for Mac OS X running on Intel-based Macs. In addition it can be used on Windows-based and Linux-based machines.
Innotek VirtualBox is a family of powerful x86 virtualization products for enterprise as well as home use. Not only is VirtualBox an extremely feature rich, high performance product for enterprise customers, it is also the only professional solution that is freely available as Open Source Software under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL).
Presently, VirtualBox runs on Windows, Linux and Macintosh hosts and supports a large number of guest operating systems including but not limited to Windows (NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista), DOS/Windows 3.x, Linux (2.4 and 2.6), and OpenBSD.
VirtualBox is being actively developed with frequent releases and has an ever growing list of features, supported guest operating systems and platforms it runs on. VirtualBox is a community effort backed by a dedicated company: everyone is encouraged to contribute while innotek ensures the product always meets professional quality criteria.
VMWare Fusion 1.0b3 (Beta 3) has been released. This is considered a huge upgrade to the virtualization software from VMWare for Mac OS X. Among the changes – performance has been improved, Apple’s Boot Camp is supported (for using as a virtual machine), “Windows Easy Install” mode, similar to Parallels’ install, and better networking performance, among many other things.
Download (requires registration): VMWare.com/products/beta/fusion
Release Notes:
New and Improved Features in Beta 3
* Greatly improved performance — By popular demand, you can now disable debugging code to experience the full power and performance that VMware Fusion offers for running your favorite PC applications.
* Support for Boot Camp — VMware Fusion automatically detects your Boot Camp partition, so you can now run a Windows XP virtual machine from your existing Boot Camp partition. You no longer have to choose Windows or Mac: you can now run Windows side-by-side with your favorite Mac applications. Note: For this Beta 3 release, Windows Vista is not supported; only Windows XP is supported.
* Windows Easy Install — You want to run Windows applications, but you don’t want to become a guru just to install Windows. VMware Fusion has you covered; just answer a few simple questions, insert your Windows CD and let VMware Fusion take care of the rest and automatically create the optimal Windows virtual machine for your Mac, including the installation of VMware Tools.
* Virtual machine packages — Virtual machines are now encapsulated in a single, easy-to-manage package. Move your virtual machines to another hard drive or Mac simply by copying a file.
* Enhanced virtual machine creation — The entire virtual machine creation process has been streamlined, and the new Windows Easy Install feature makes creating a virtual machine even easier than before. The New Virtual Machine Assistant remembers the location you choose for future virtual machine creation.
* Enhanced virtual machine library — Managing multiple virtual machines is even easier with the Virtual Machine Library. Add new virtual machines by just dragging them into the Library, reorder virtual machines with drag and drop, and use the delete key on the Keyboard to remove virtual machines from the library. Open a Virtual Machine without powering it on, using the new Settings button, which opens a virtual machine directly to the Hardware Editor.
* Host-Only Networking — Host-Only networking creates a network that is completely contained within your Mac, with a network connection between the virtual machine and your Mac. Use host-only networking to set up an isolated virtual network.
* Improved suspend/shutdown state — When a virtual machine is suspended, VMware Fusion shows a screenshot of the last known state of the virtual machine and a friendly play button so you can get up and running again quickly.
* Improved hardware editor — Settings for virtual hardware are now complete: you can remove virtual hardware from the hardware editor when virtual machines are powered off.
* Improved international support — European and Japanese Apple keyboards now work properly in virtual machines.
This Beta 3 release of VMware Fusion for Mac includes the following improvements and bug fixes:
* Improved networking performance — In some cases, networking in earlier beta versions was slow with single-processor virtual machines. VMware Fusion Beta 3 solves this problem and greatly improves performance in this case.
* Virtual networking no longer fills system logs — VMware Fusion Beta 2 wireless networking added many entries to the system log. This Beta 3 release resolves this issue.
* In addition to the improvements listed above, this Beta 3 release fixes numerous bugs to greatly improve the stability and performance of VMware Fusion.
Yahoo! Finance is running an article from TechIQ about Parallels potentially giving Apple a boost in Xserve sales with an Enterprise-edition of Parallels Desktop for Mac. Quote:
SWsoft, the company that makes the popular Parallels virtualization software for Apple Macintoshes, is preparing an encore for Apple servers, The VAR Guy hears. The move could provide customers with an innovative solution for running Windows, Mac OS and Linux side by side on a departmental or small business server. And that could give Apple server sales a boost.
Rarely has a company “out innovated” Apple on its own platforms. But the existing Parallels Desktop for Mac is widely considered a better solution than Apple’s own Boot Camp software for running Windows and Mac OS X on Apple hardware. Those in the know suspect SWsoft will have another hit on its hands when the company extends its software to departmental and small business servers.
From a posting in the Parallels.com forums, it’s been revealed what the changes were in Parallels Desktop for Mac Build 3188 (Version 2.5) versus Build 3186 (Version 2.5). They are:
* Fixed guest Win98 extensive CPU usage when in idle state.
* Updated bundled Kaspersky Internet Security package.
