Earlier this year, a company called Parallels, Inc. got a lot of attention when it showcased its Parallels Desktop software for the Mac. The application — which uses a technology called virtualization — allows users to run Windows XP alongside OS X on Mac systems with Intel processors.
The ability to run both of those operating systems at the same time has obvious advantages for Mac users, since it lets them take advantage of the wider availability of software on the Windows platform. But you don't need to run Windows on a Mac to reap the rewards of virtualization and run multiple operating systems, because Parallels Workstation 2.2 — which is currently available in beta — provides the same capabilities to those running Windows on PC-compatible machines.
Going Virtual
In a nutshell, what makes virtualization interesting is that it can map the physical hardware resources of a system to multiple virtual machines. With virtualization, a single computer can run multiple operating systems, each running concurrently in its own virtual machine. These virtual machines are completely isolated from the host system (and from each other) and behave as though they have their own dedicated CPU, RAM, storage devices, etc.
Even if Windows is your primary environment, there are many reasons why you might want to run multiple operating systems side by side — you may want to experiment with a new OS like Linux; you might have an older application that requires a earlier version of Windows to run properly; you may want to have somewhere to test a new application before loading it on your "real" system; or you might want a way to browse the Net without putting your system's personal data at risk.
Painless Setup and Installation
You don't necessarily need a state-of-the-art system to use Parallels Workstation 2.2, but it certainly doesn't hurt. Either Windows 2000/XP (or 2000/2003 server) is required as the primary operating system (Parallels Workstation also comes in a Linux version), and a 1.5 GHz or faster CPU is recommended. Equally important is that you have enough RAM to accommodate your primary OS plus as many "guest" operating systems as you plan to run simultaneously — you can probably get by with 512MB, but we'd recommend at least 1 GB.
PW gives you a wide variety of guest operating systems to choose from. It supports all versions of Windows back to version 3.1, most major flavors of Linux, and even archaic operating systems like OS/2 and DOS. (In case you were wondering, you can't use PW to run OS X on your PC, since OS X isn't available as a PC product.) This probably goes without saying, but we'll say it anyway — PW doesn't actually include any operating systems, so you must supply your own OS installation disc. (You should also be mindful of licensing requirements, since most OS vendors likely consider a virtual installation to be a separate system.)
After installing PW the first step is to create a virtual machine using the wizard provided. The wizard will let you specify the OS type and version (i.e. Windows/2000 or Linux/Red Hat) and then configure the virtual machine with the appropriate settings, including the amount of RAM and disk space (PW uses virtual hard disks that are contained within a single file). You can modify these settings later or specify your own custom virtual machine options from the get-go.
When you pop in your OS CD and start the virtual machine (PW uses simple DVR-like controls to start, stop, and restart VMs) Parallels Workstation displays a BIOS screen and boots up just the way a normal system would. We set up virtual machines with Windows 2000 Professional, XP, and SUSE Linux 10 without any problems — each install routine completed without a hiccup.
