For a long time, a lot of Windows users have been clamoring for the opportunity to run the Mac OS X operating system on their Windows PCs. As Mac OS X was designed to run on a different CPU architecture (PowerPC), running Mac OS X directly on Intel's CPU would not work. It wasn't until recently that PC users saw a ray of hope, when Apple announced that it was moving to Intel's CPU architecture and would hence port Mac OS X to run natively on Intel's x86 CPU architecture. However, the joy was short-lived, as Mac OS X can still run properly only on Apple's customized hardware, not commodity PCs that run Windows. (There are hacks to make Mac OS X run natively on PC hardware, but that is not the legal way to do it).
The only logical means of running the Mac OS X operating system on your Windows PC is to run it in an emulator capable of emulating the PowerPC CPU architecture. While popular virtualization software programs like Virtual PC and VMware have been around in the market for a long time, none support running Mac OS X. Fortunately, an open source project, PearPC, makes it possible to run Mac OS X on Windows. PearPC is an architecture-independent PowerPC platform emulator. (It is released under the General Public License (GPL)-a freely used free software license.) PearPC emulates the PowerPC architecture by using a JIT (Just-in-Time) emulator to dynamically translate PowerPC code into x86 code.
In this Short Cut, you will learn how to install Mac OS X on your Windows PC using PearPC. I will walk you through all the steps needed to successfully get Mac OS X working, as well as configure additional settings to make Mac OS functional.
Wei-Meng Lee (weimenglee.blogspot.com) is a technologist and founder of Developer Learning Solutions, a technology company specializing in hands-on training of the latest Microsoft technologies.
Wei-Meng speaks regularly at international conferences and has authored and coauthored numerous books on .NET, XML, and wireless technologies, including ASP.NET 2.0: A Developer's Notebook and the NET Compact Framework Pocket Guide (both from O'Reilly). He writes extensively for the O'Reilly Network on topics ranging from .NET to Mac OS X.
Comments about oreilly Running Mac OS X on Windows:
I, personally, enjoy reading this e-book. It's clear and concise. I've followed the instruction and work it out successfully - not just on Windows but Linux.
I like this e-book which presents.
9/9/2006
(5 of 6 customers found this review helpful)
3.0
Contradictory Goal
By Anonymous
from Undisclosed
Comments about oreilly Running Mac OS X on Windows:
I have used PearPC before. If you come from the Apple side of the fence, you can think of it as SoftPC, RealPC, SoftWindows, or VirtualPC-like software.
PearPC is an emulator program, not to be confused with a virtualization program like VMware Player or Workstation. Both are Windows applications, but VMware allows you to run operating systems that will natively run on the underlying hardware. Because the MacOS has been historically compiled to run on Motorola processors, you could not just install the software onto an Intel x86-based machine.
PearPC provides the translation of PowerPC instructions into Intel x86 instructions to enable execution on that hardware -- inside a Windows application window.
The confusion comes because there is now a version of MacOS that will run on Intel processors. Arguably, you could potentially install that version on an x86 machine and have it work WITHOUT emulation.
My concern here is that the license agreement for MacOS X states that you will run it on Apple hardware. While this is an entertaining exercise, you wouldn't go into production with this solution.
9/8/2006
(3 of 8 customers found this review helpful)
1.0
Contradictory Goal
By Alan
from Undisclosed
Comments about oreilly Running Mac OS X on Windows:
This seems to start of suggesting the Goal is to run Mac OS X on an Intel PC, which I take to mean, a computer using a (recent) PC CPU from Intel such as a Pentium 4. It suggest that this isn't achievable without emulation.
It then implies that the above Goal should be interpenetrated as that of running Mac OS X on an computer with Windows, a "Windows PC", which I take to mean running Mac OS X on the Windows OS, or running Mac OS X well also running windows.
These two Goals are quite different, and the later will, enviably require an emulator of some kind, either a Power PC or Intel PC emulator depending on the version of Mac OS X you decide to use.
Could we please have some clarity as to the articles Goals.
