Amidst pressure from several avenues, Microsoft was forced to cut features from its new Windows emulation software in order to deliver G5 compatibility without further delays.
Virtual PC 7.0 released under pressure, lacks planned features
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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When Micro$oft initially bought Virtual PC, I never expected to see another version running on the mac.
However, it seems that they’re up to their (different) old tricks again. Buy a good product that competes with MS in some way and kill it or better yet cripple it. They don’t kill it so that some other developer won’t step in to fill the void. But they cripple enough so that the people that rely on it would be forced to move to a real PC.
A year and a half late, with no new features other than that it runs on the G5 now (better preferences are not new features). Suddenly, MS ‘was forced’ to cut all the planned features from the environment. Well, can’t say I’m surprised a bit. I’m actually surprised that they didn’t kill it completely, or at least let it wither at version 6.1.
…So what is the reason to upgrade? Without the bonuses of better graphics support, more ram, and faster I/O (multiprocessor support) I can see no reason this will be any better than 6 EXCEPT that it will run on the G5. Woohoo! Oh wait, no, that sucks. Guess I will keep following QEmu for the various platforms as there is no way I am going to pay for this worthless piece of software.
… Like I’m gonna believe Microsoft doesn’t have enough resources to work on Virtual PC! Pleaaaaaaase. They’re just like a bunch of headless chickens in Redmond.
You’re right …
Well, maybe VMWare can step into this and release something for the 3 platforms (Windows, Linux and OSX)
I use Linux a lot, and OSX. Microsoft has a lot of crippled software on the Mac. Look at Office for OSX. A lot of problems, IMHO. Try using numbering and so …
That no matter What project MSFT does, it is over hyped, Late,and missing features.
While I’m not a fan of Microsof. But I thought to myself, hey if they pull this VPC 7 release off maybe they aren’t so bad a company afterall! Well, then look at what happens. Bitten again.
Umm…. VMware is a Virtual Machine (hence the VM), NOT an emulator. VirtualPC is an emulator. If you add in the ’emulator’ feature to VMware, it is no longer a virtual machine, and performance suffers dramatically. Therefore, VMware will stay x86 only, and will leave VPC to handle the emulation part.
It took micro$oft a while to release this new version because they needed to rewrite the emulation core. The previous versions of virtualpc made heavy usage of and endian-swapping instruction present on the pre-G5 processors. This instruction is gone on the G5s, and the endian swapping still needs to be done. It’s not because ‘microsoft wanted to piss me off’, they basically re-wrote the emulation backend.
VMWare cannot do this unless it’s paired with qemu or any emulation backend, being that VMWare is just a virtualization environment.
While everyone makes the point that microsft has purchase VPC to cripple it down or rather kill a good product, I have a different point to make.
I am a embedded developer. Now microsoft has a totally different licensing plan for WinCE and XPe. Pay royalty per deployment rather than paying heavily for licensing at start.
Microsoft needs to distribute along with the development enviromnet a emulator. I can develope for a PPC environment on my normal windows x86 box. Microsoft clearly chose to buy VPC since it was a good product to developing their own emulator.
So guys stop this…cripplr down stuff. Microsoft is making more profit in using VPC in their embedded products line, than what these “Conspiracy Theory” guys want to project.
Buy a good product that competes with MS in some way and kill it or better yet cripple it.
What product did VPC compete with that MS produced ? Until MS bought VPC they didn’t have any emulation software.
What do most people use VPC for ? Oh thats right to run Windows.
This is one time I have to AGREE with Microsoft management.
This is a GOOD sign, it appears there actually is mgmt at Microsoft. People have been screaming for VPC 7.0 for the G5. That’s the most important “feature”.
Ship that now so that these people can work.
Then, when the cookies are done, like Linux core development, ship the other features, only when they’ve been thouroughly tested and actually work.
That’s professional product management, and it surprising to actually see it from Microsoft. It’s welcome news.
First off you’re all wrong. The “Native Graphic Card” support everyone has been claiming as a feature was started on a Mac rumor site and like a virus went from site to site. As a VPC Beta tester, I can say that video performance has been greatly improved and is much smoother. Running my business apps is much improved. This is a huge win for some of us because it’s the only way we are allowed to even keep our Macs. Our business include numerous apps that are PC only…
For all you losers that are whining because you want to run Doom III in VPC, get off the smack. PC users are upgrading to $500 video cards, adding more RAM, upgrading their CPUs or ditching their old computers entirely and buying new hardware. VPC has never been about running games. Buy a PS/2, Xbox, etc.