Entries tagged with “windows” from O'Reilly Digital Media Blog

VirtualBox 2.1.0 adds Intel VT-x hardware virtualization support as well as the ability to run 64-bit Guest OSes on a 32-bit host OS. I installed Xubuntu (based on Ubuntu 8.1.0) and brought in the previously built Windows 2000 Guest OS for testing. The results look good so far.

The consensus seems to be that Mac OS X does not need anti-virus software. However, I thought about anti-virus in terms of Windows running as a Guest OS as well as people running Windows XP/Vista with whom I exchange documents. So, I took a look at the free ClamXav (based on the Open Source ClamAV proejct) as an anti-virus tool.

Sun VirtualBox 2.0 was released on Sept. 4, 2008. I tried this free Open Source cross-platform virtualization hypervisor on an iMac running OS X Leopard. Microsoft Windows virtualization looks somewhat improved. But, running Fedora 9 Linux resulted in problems that I did not see with VirtualBox 1.6.2 a few months ago.

VMware Fusion 2 Release Candidate 1 addresses the major problems I ran into when I tried the Beta 2 release a month ago. There are a few glitches I ran into. But, it looks like Fusion 2.0 is on track for a production release soon.

VMware Fusion 2.0 RC1 includes free McAfee VirusScan Plus 1-yr subscription for Microsoft Windows Guest OSes on your Mac. But, IMHO, it is a pretty "heavy" product and you might still want to look around.

VMware Fusion 2 Beta 2 looks good when used with Microsoft Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008. I ran into problems when testing it with Fedora 8 though. It is a Beta release, however. So, I'm not passing judgement on it until I see the Release Candidate and production release.

The cost of fixing bugs found early in development is much less than the cost of fixing bugs found late -- like during Q A or after a product ships.

VirtualBox 1.6.2 is an Open Source virtualization hypervisor that runs on Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux. I tested it by installing Windows 2000 and Fedora 9 on my iMac. It doesn't have all the features of VMware Fusion or Parallels Desktop. But, the price is right and it does a pretty decent job. Read on for more impressions from my testing...

Like many Mac afficionados, I have to resort to using Windows for some of the work I do, and while working on a Windows machine, I rely on the familiar QuickTime and iTunes combo to add some music to my work day. The installer for this software includes a special stand-alone utility which helps keep the software up-to-date. Much like the Software Update utility on the Mac. The most recent update from last week, though, presented a fresh copy of Apple's Safari webbrowser even if the software was not installed yet. And the discussion on the 'Net on whether this behavior is acceptable, or not, is now in full swing.

I had set this year as the year I would become Microsoft free. I have nothing against Microsoft --- there were just some products I wanted to stop using: IE, Office, and Windows.

O'Reilly just released Windows Vista Annoyances and you can read the multimedia solutions chapter online for free.

Cakewalk, one of the first music software manufacturers to achieve Windows Vista compatibility, just launched a musicians' resource site for the new OS. It explains the musical benefits, lists audio gear with Vista drivers, and features links to other sites with Vista music information. Speaking of which, be sure to check out O'Reilly's Vista site as well, where you'll find...

I stumbled across this little Windows tech support article on Mercury News. I suppose it wouldn't occur to me to copy the raw files from CDs onto Windows rather than use a program like iTunes or Zune Software to do the rips, but apparently there's a built-in security feature in Windows that automagically sets copied CD-ROM files to read-only. If...

Adobe announced the public beta of Adobe Lightroom software for the Windows platform, a digital imaging workflow solution for professional photographers. Now available for both the Windows and Macintosh platforms, all professional photographers can import, select, develop and showcase large volumes of digital images. Windows-based photographers now have the opportunity to assist with the development of Lightroom by testing...

Looking to do more with FireWire audio on Windows? CEntrance has released a free beta version of its universal audio driver. Among the features are device aggregation (which lets you use multiple FireWire audio interfaces with a single program) and multi-host capability (which lets multiple programs address a single interface). Those were among the top requests from developers at last...

Here's a simple tutorial on configuring WMA files to open Web pages in sync with the audio playback—on Mac or Windows. Are you getting lots of ideas yet? I am....

Modern prevailing GUIs lack the ability to get down and dirty. For some reason, the character-based user interface has gone the way of the teletype... that is, save for *nix users. Oh yeah, and the other thing Windows doesn't have....