virtualization
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Broadcom closes its $61 billion megadeal with VMware
Broadcom's mega $61 billion VMware acquisition has closed following considerable scrutiny by regulators.
Parallels 17 promises better M1 Mac performance and Windows 11 support
Parallels, the company best know for its virtualization software that lets you run Windows and Linux directly on your Mac, has had a busy year. In addition to building a version of Parallels that can run on Chrome OS for the first time, the company also had to figure out how to quickly make its software work with the new, ARM-based M1 Macs that arrived last fall. Now, Parallels Desktop 17 is being released with improved performance on M1 Macs, as well as full support for the upcoming macOS Monterey and Windows 11 operating systems.
Parallels 14 boots faster and uses less of your storage
It's been well over a decade since Macs have been able to run Windows. Ever since, Parallels has been one of the top options for running Microsoft's OS alongside macOS. With the big Mojave update just around the corner, Parallels today is releasing version 14 of its virtualization software. The company says that today's update, which you can download now, launches four times faster than the previous version and is ready for macOS Mojave.
Shadow virtualizes a high-end gaming PC on your desktop clunker
In the early days of computing, local storage and processing weren't actually a thing. Instead, your individual computer acted as a terminal, pulling data from a central processing server. Well, the French startup Blade likes it that way and has released a similar system but with a 21st-century twist. Its cloud-computing system, dubbed Shadow, can impart the performance of a $2,000 high-end gaming rig onto any internet-connected device with a screen. And now the company is bringing Shadow to California.
Red Hat buys the creator of a Chrome-based OS for servers
The underpinnings of Chrome OS have found their way into the server room in a very roundabout way. Red Hat has acquired CoreOS, the creators of an operating system for containerized apps (Container Linux) that shares roots with both Google's Chromium OS project and Gentoo Linux. The $250 million deal promises to help Red Hat fulfill its dreams of helping people use open code to deploy apps in any environment they like, whether it's on a local network or multiple cloud services.
Windows 10 now does Windows within Windows within Windows
Call it Windows Inception. Microsoft has revealed that the latest Windows 10 Insider Preview supports nested virtualization, which lets you launch a virtual machine within another virtual machine -- yes, you can run Windows inside of Windows inside of Windows. The trick is a new feature that supports hardware-based virtualization within a primary virtual machine, providing for that one extra layer. There are limits, of course. Features like dynamic memory won't work, and nesting currently requires an Intel processor with VT-x support (most chips from the past several years will do). So long as everything lines up, though, you too can create a hall of mirrors effect on your PC -- even if it doesn't serve much of a practical purpose for most people.
VMware Fusion is ready to put Windows 10 on your Mac
Parallels may have been the first to bring Windows 10 virtualization to the Mac, but its rival VMware isn't far behind. Its newly released VMware Fusion 8 has full support for Microsoft's latest platform, including Cortana -- you can ask it questions whenever the virtual machine is open, even if it's in the background. Graphics also get a big helping hand this year, with faster overall performance, support for DirectX 10-only software (read: some games) and compatibility with super high-resolution 5K iMacs.
Dell's new Android HDMI dongle turns screens into virtualized desktop computers for $130
Dell's betting that a bunch of businesspeople want to be able to carry their work computer around in their pocket. Not literally, of course, but with the release of the company's $130 dollar Wyse Cloud Connect dongle (formerly known as Project Ophelia), you can do just that. It connects to any TV or display with an HDMI or MHL port, and hooks up to mice and keyboards via Bluetooth or mini-USB. There's also a microSD slot to give you up to 32GB of local storage, should you want it. Plus, you can access your desktop using yours or your company's choice of virtualization technologies: Citrix, Microsoft or VMWare. Once plugged in, users can access a full Jelly Bean Android experience or their Windows and Mac machines via the aforementioned remote clients, and see them in 1080p resolution (on compatible displays, of course). Dell's pitching the dongle as primarily an enterprise solution, but the company also thinks it's well-suited as an educational tool, too.
AMD brings full-on Android to Windows through BlueStacks
BlueStacks has helped Windows users run Android apps on their PCs for a few years, but now the AMD-backed company is going a step further. The graphics titan has just announced that a new version of BlueStacks will be able to run full-on Android, right on your desktop, tablet or notebook loaded with Microsoft's operating system. Rather than leaning on the BlueStacks App Player for virtualization, the coming version of the software will run the entire OS, giving folks access to a veritable Android interface, settings, configuration and more. What's more, apps running through Google's OS will have access to files that reside on the host desktop. Still, BlueStacks retains the ability to run applications in windows or in full screen. The firm says optimizations courtesy of its 4th-gen APUs help make this possible, but it's not clear if the software will only work on machines using their silicon. There's no word on when this refreshed software will drop or what version of Android it supports, but expect more news to trickle out as CES continues.
PPLConnect makes physical phones virtual, is now available via open beta to Android users
Your phone is a prisoner. No, it's not chained to a particular cell, but it is confined to whatever handset your SIM is stuffed into. PPLConnect wants to free your phone from that confinement through the powers of cellular virtualization. And today, if you have an Android phone and live in the US or Canada, the company can do just that with the launch of its eponymous app and open beta. In case you missed our earlier coverage of PPLConnect, let us give you a quick refresher on its technology. By creating a PPLConnect account and linking it with your phone number via an Android app, you gain access to your contact list, text messages and phone calls from any device with an internet connection -- letting you both make and take calls and send and receive texts straight from the browser. And the best part? Because it's fully virtualized, your phone doesn't even need to be turned on for you to use it remotely.
VMware launches Fusion 6 virtual desktop for Mac with Mavericks support, Windows Store app integration
VMware regularly upgrades its Fusion virtual desktop client to support major new operating systems, and it's keeping up that tradition with today's release of Fusion 6. The new Mac app is optimized for OS X Mavericks' most important features, including a reworked full-screen mode that plays nicely with multiple displays. The software is equally ready for Windows 8.1 virtual machines, and lets users place shortcuts for Windows Store apps in a Mac's Applications folder or the Dock. There's also fine-tuning for Haswell-based Macs, a simplified setup assistant and support for virtual machines with up to 16 processors and 64GB of RAM. Fusion 6 Professional users get a few business-friendly upgrades, such expiring virtual machines and cloned machines that link back to master copies. Both variants of Fusion 6 are available today, although pricing has increased significantly since Fusion 5. It now costs $60 for a stand-alone purchase of Fusion 6, and $130 for its Professional edition. Anyone who buys Fusion 5 between August 1st and September 30th can get the newer version for free, but they'll otherwise have to pay either $50 (for a standard copy) or $70 (for Professional) to stay on the cutting edge.
NVIDIA enables full virtualization for graphics: up to eight remote users per GRID GPU
You probably won't have noticed the following problem, unless you happen to be the IT manager in an architecture firm or other specialist environment, but it's been an issue nonetheless. For all our ability to virtualize compute and graphical workloads, it hasn't so far been possible to share a single GPU across multiple users. For example, if you'd wanted 32 people on virtual machines to access 3D plumbing and electrical drawings via AutoCAD, you'd have needed to dedicate eight expensive quad-GPU K1 graphics cards in your GRID server stack. Now, though, NVIDIA has managed to make virtualization work right the way through to each GPU for users of Citrix XenDesktop 7, such that you'd only need one K1 to serve that workforce, assuming their tasks were sufficiently lightweight. Does this mean NVIDIA's K1 sales will suddenly drop by seven eighths? We couldn't tell ya -- but probably not.
Microsoft reportedly working on Mohoro, an Azure-hosted remote desktop service
Microsoft is plumbing the depths of cloud computing yet again with the development of what could be a pay-per-use desktop virtualization service called Mohoro. According to ZDNet's Mary Jo Foley, Mohoro is essentially Azure's answer to Remote Desktop, but as a hosted service. Intended for "companies who want thin clients or to run legacy apps on new PCs," her source states that, "With Mohoro, you click a few buttons, deploy your apps, use Intune to push out configuration to all of your company's devices, and you're done," thus skipping the need for server infrastructure. As Foley points out, however, Azure-hosted virtual machines aren't currently set up to run Windows clients under Microsoft's licensing terms. What's more, Mohoro development is reportedly in its early days, and as such, Foley speculates that it won't be a reality until much later -- she's guessing the latter half of 2014.
MacTech finds Parallels beating VMWare Fusion again in annual virtualization rundown
MacTech has posted its annual rundown of benchmarks between two of the most popular virtualization solutions out there on the Mac: VMware Fusion 5 and Parallels Desktop 8. Both are of course used to run Windows-compatible software inside of an OS X environment, and especially on the high end IT side (which MacTech covers well and focuses on with its ongoing conference series), just a few measures of speed or performance can make a big difference in productivity. Or, as the benchmarking study shows, game playing. As you can see in the comprehensive report, MacTech set up a series of Mac desktops and laptops, and then installed and ran both VMWare Fusion and Parallels on them, along with a series of games (including the great Warhammer 40000: Space Marine) and other productivity and benchmarking software. So who won? "When we look at the 'big picture' of all the top-level test results," says MacTech, "Parallels is, once again, the clear winner." Parallels has been beating VMWare in these tests for the past few years, and this year won over 68% of the tests by a total of 5% score or more. So if you need a powerful, comprehensive solution for virtualization, MacTech says the choice is clear. However, MacTech also says once again that both of these pieces of software work very well, and that virtualization is more viable than ever as a way to run even the newest Windows software like Windows 8. Bootcamp is still another option for running Windows on your Mac, but if you want to do it without even leaving your OS X environment, either Parallels or VMWare's Fusion will serve you well.
AMD's dual-GPU FirePro S10000 gobbles watts, spews out nearly 6 TFLOPs for server graphics
It can't be easy, running a modern IT department. Not only are people making ever more graphics-hungry demands on your servers, but NVIDIA and AMD are locked in an unending spec war that can make it hard to keep up with the market. The FirePro S10000 is merely the latest salvo: a dual-GPU, server-focused version of the W9000 that greatly increases overall compute power, delivering 5.91 TFLOPs of single precision calculations and 1.48 TFLOPS of dual precision performance in a single PCIe 3.0 card with 6GB of GDDR5 RAM. Even though the Graphics Core Next GPUs have been slightly underclocked to 825MHz, and even though they technically offer better performance per watt than a single-GPU configuration, their overall 375w power draw could still get you in trouble with your local power station. That level of consumption is around 50 percent higher than a regular server card like the S9000 or Tesla K10 and it may well require you to research new server cases and coolers in addition to weighing up the $3,600 cost for the component itself. See? This was never going to be straightforward.
Microsoft delivers Windows Server 2012, puts the enterprise on cloud 8
Forget Windows 8, Windows Server 2012 is where it's at... if you're a corporate IT manager, that is. Microsoft has just posted the finished version of its suit-and-tie OS for immediate sale in download form. Not surprisingly given Microsoft's big cloud push, the emphasis with the upgrade is on improving how well the software scales for internet hosting -- the company wants one common backbone that can handle as little as a small e-mail server to large-scale Azure deployments and virtualization. Server 2012 is also defined by what you won't find: while the Metro-style interface from the platform's Windows 8 cousin shows its face in the Essentials version, it's noticeably stripped down and goes away in the more advanced tiers. The real shakeup for some might just be the new price points, which drop the cost by a large amount for offices that don't need more than a slice of what the all-out Datacenter edition has to offer. We'll admit that most of our attention as end users will be focused on what happens several weeks from now, but if you're one of those rare server operators that can't wait to start testing a new OS release almost immediately, you've got a head start on most of us.
Parallels Desktop 8 for Mac: Retina Support, Dictation, Instant switching and 30 percent faster performance
Parallels 8 has arrived with a raft of tweaks that makes running Windows on your Mac that much easier. The newest version lets you use Mountain Lion's dictation feature in Windows, open any website in Internet Explorer with a single click and you can even add Redmond-hewn apps to Launchpad. Retina display support is now included, offering you eye-popping detail no matter your operating system and the company's claiming performance has been boosted by up to 30 percent. It'll cost you $80 for the full version, while students get it for $40, and if you purchased Parallels 7 after July 25th, you're eligible to upgrade for free. Meanwhile, if you're more into running Windows software on your iOS device, Parallels Mobile is available from the App Store for $5.
VMware announces Fusion 5 with support for Windows 8
Mac users that run Windows on their machines will be happy to know that VMware just updated its Fusion software to support Windows 8. The new Fusion 5 is also optimized for OS X Mountain Lion, so you can run the best of both desktop platforms when Windows 8 debuts later this year. The latest update adds more than 70 new features including support for USB 3.0 devices, better memory management on devices with 16 GB or more of RAM and improved power management. You can also now use AirPlay with the software as well as run Mountain Lion or Mountain Lion Server in a virtual machine. The standard version of Fusion 5 is available for $49.99. Customers who bought version 4 since the release of Mountain Lion are eligible for a free upgrade. There's also a professional version available for $99 that'll let IT administrators deploy Fusion in a corporate environment. [Via Engadget]
VMware intros Fusion 5 virtualization software with support for Win 8, integration with Mountain Lion
With Mountain Lion newly available and Windows 8 on the verge of shipping, now was a pretty good time for VMware to update its Fusion virtualization software, dont'cha think? The company just announced Fusion 5 with 70-plus new features, including support for Win 8 and tight integration with OS X 10.8. For instance, you can now view Windows programs in Mountain Lion's Launchpad, while VMware software updates pop up in the Notification Center. Fusion also supports AirPlay for the first time, and you can also run either Mountain Lion or Mountain Lion Server as a virtual machine. The company also added support for Retina Display MacBook Pros, so that everything looks crisp on that 2,880 x 1,800 screen. Also of note: Fusion now supports USB 3.0, and Linux users get some love in the form of Open GL 2.1 graphics support. The standard version of Fusion 5 is available now for $49.99, but people who bought Fusion 4 since the release of Mountain Lion can upgrade for free. There's also a professional version ($100 for one license), which includes all the above features, and also lets IT departments lock down settings for employees' virtual machines.%Gallery-163118%
InstallFree Nexus offers cloud-based Office to iPad
It's not easy for iPad owners to edit and share native Office 2010 apps on their tablets. Since Microsoft hasn't released an iPad version of Office, Office users must choose between App Store alternatives and online services like Onlive Desktop. Customers looking for a new service should take a closer look at the web-based InstallFree Nexus. Nexus uses virtualization to serve up Office 2010 to customers and is compatible with the iPad's mobile Safari browser. Besides editing, the service also lets customers store and share files using third-party services like Dropbox, Google Drive, and Office 365. Because it is a web app, Nexus is available across different desktop and mobile platforms. InstallFree Nexus will come out of beta and launch publicly in August. When it launches, Nexus will offer both a free, basic subscription and a paid premium plan. The basic service will provide LibreOffice for document management, Microsoft Office file viewing and third-party file storage options. The premium account will give customers all the features above, along with a subscription license to Microsoft Office 2012. It'll cost US$5 a month for academic users and $20 a month for all other users. If you sign up now for the service, you will receive a free 60-day subscription to the premium version. [Via CNET]