What impact will virtualization have on the home pc?
With the recent launch of VMware Fusion and existing Parallels Desktop for Mac, I sit and wonder how will this change the home computing environment? Seeing that I rely on many windows applications, the thought never crossed my mind to own a Mac, it was pointless. Having to buy a different version of Office just to do work, or dual-boot (anyone do this anymore) to load a different operating system seemed like too much of a hassle to me. But now, now being able to launch a Windows VM and isolate just the applications that I want to run within the OS, that intrigues me. A part of me wants to replace my home equipment, sans my server, for a loaded Mac Pro with a 30″ Monitor and run VMware or Parallels, maybe just for the geek factor. Chances are that I will eventually do this, just to try it out. Anybody else out there debating on making the switch? Or even made the switch because of the two virtualization products?
John Troyer (with VMware; manages the VMTN Blogs sites), Kimbro Staken (JumpBox), and I had a lively discussion about this a while back, mostly centered around the future of the OS. Would virtualization products begin to blur the distinctions between operating systems? Would the future of computing become cooperating groups of VMs running on a single physical platform? I coined the term “application agnosticism” with the thought that blurring the lines between operating systems and operating environments means that users no longer need to worry whether the program they are trying to run is written for Mac OS X, or Windows, or Linux; the virtualization layer will take care of all that. This idea has been brought to fruition by the introduction of Unity in VMware Fusion, which allows Windows applications to run seamlessly next to native Macintosh applications under OS X. If you haven’t seen it in action, it’s pretty impressive.
Personally, my switch to Intel-based Macs (I was already using PowerPC-based Macs) was driven strictly by the introduction of VMware Fusion. It’s rock solid, performs well, and allows me to easily mix and match the applications I need to do my job. I dare say that you would likely be well-served by a Mac Pro and VMware Fusion for all your needs as well.
I think I need to see Fusion and Unity hands-on, like you said, to truly be amazed by it. Prior to Fusion, had you used the Parallels Desktop for Mac product?
As for the future of the OS, I could see it just as you pretty much describe it, as “ala carte” desktop computing. Little bit of this from Windows, little bit from Linux and I am set.