Previously, I had mentioned my laptop switch to a Mac running OS X. I finally got around to trying Parallels Workstation. Parallels Workstation is a virtual machine solution for Windows, Linux, and (now) intel-based OS X that allows you to run any x86 operating system within it. Its very similar to VMWare Workstation which I’ve used on and off for 6 years on Linux. I used VMWare for those pesky few work related apps over the years that just don’t run on anything but Windows and won’t run under solutions like CodeWeavers CrossOver Office. I always like to say I put Windows into a nice little box (where it can’t hurt anyone.)
Anyway, while in DC for NAR’s midyear meeting I found some time to work on ezRETS. Unfortunately, I haven’t fully finished my port to OS X and I wanted to do some testing. Off to Parallels website to download beta6 of Parallels Workstation and a Linux install CD/DVD. Parallels Workstation install was just a click and go package for OS X. I then configured a virtual machine to have a virtual CD-ROM that used the Linux install CD image as the CD that’s in the CD-ROM drive. One fairly quick Linux install later, and I was checking out a copy of the libRETS and ezRETS source code and starting the compiles. Inside the virtual machine it feels like the promised near-native performance is being achieved. Once it was all compiled, I was able to run the tests I needed on ezRETS.
So, now I can run Linux on top of OS X without leaving OS X. When I get back to the office, I’ll also install Windows in a virtual machine and my dev tools in there. Once I’ve got that, with my single MacBook Pro I can continue to do cross-platform development on the three platforms I care about without having to be in the office.
All in all, even while still in beta, I’m very impressed with Parallels Workstation. Compared to VMWare on my old Thinkpad A31p on Linux, the performance of the main OS doesn’t seem to suffer as much when processor intensive tasks are happening in the virtual machine. I don’t think that’s anything against VMWare though. Its either the fact that with the Intel Dual Core I’ve effectively got two CPUs in here or the Intel VT-x support in the Intel Dual Cores helping here.
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