Parallels for Mac - run Windows on an Apple

By this point, you may have heard of a little program called Parallels that allows anyone with an Intel-based Mac (such as yours truly) to run Windows on their Mac with little to no headache.  The way this works is that Parallels basically allows Windows to be run inside a window (and yes, I know that sounds silly) just like another program on your Mac.  You run Windows just like you would run a word processor or game, but instead of just a program in that window, you have an entire operating system.  A computer, or more appropriately, a virtual machine.  And Parallels will let you move files between the Mac system (called OS X) and Windows.  Fairly cool, but there is one problem.

Wouldn’t it be nice to just open up a Windows program on your Mac and use it like you do any other program? No more sloshing around inside another window looking at a tee-tiny version of Windows on your screen.  You could just open Word or Powerpoint, Quicken or anything else and it would sit right alongside your Mac programs.

That time may soon be upon us.  The Parallels team recently released a beta release to the public.  One of the many new and improved features is something called coherence mode.  Coherence mode will allow you to do what I just described.  It will make the operating system a trivial choice.  You’ll just use the programs you want and not worry if it’s the Windows of Mac version.  Both could run equally well on your Mac, which would be just awesome.

If this beta release proves good enough, it will soon see the market.  And then one more excuse not to buy an Apple will be torn down, giving people one more choice when it comes to their computers.  Hooray for that.