If you need an office suite and have not tried OpenOffice.org or NeoOffice then you are missing out. NeoOffice just released version 2.1 final which is based on OpenOffice.org 2.1 and it rocks. Last fall I was using NeoOffice 2.0 beta which was based on OpenOffice.org 2.03 and it just was not up to par. So since I already use OpenOffice.org 2.1 in Linux and Windows, I installed OpenOffice.org 2.1 on my MacBook. The most negative thing about OpenOffice was that it has to run in X11 on Mac OS X. The native OpenOffice.org port for Mac OS X is still in progress.
Just yesterday (03/27/2007), NeoOffice 2.1 final (non-beta) was released. Since NeoOffice is a native Aqua application, I downloaded it and installed it over my previous NeoOffice 2.0 beta3 installation. My first impression is, wow! It works solidly and performance is significantly improved over the previous beta.
I have used it for spreadsheets, word processing, diagrams, and presentations and I can tell you that it does well in all categories. I have not tried the desktop database product but I am sure it works well. The bottom line is that I highly recommend that you use NeoOffice if you are a Mac user and do not have a need to run Microsoft Office. If you do use Microsoft Office on the Mac, then you might want to give NeoOffice a spin. It reads and writes all MS-Office formats with ease and more.
I now use NeoOffice 2.1 as my preferred office suite on my MacBook. It works great and has a lot of user-interface improvements over OpenOffice.org. It feels like native Mac OS X application and has all the capabilities of its OpenOffice.org roots.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Virtualization on the Mac
If you have not used or seen virtualization in action, this may not make a lot of sense. If you have seen virtualization technology in use then this is my first hand viewpoint of based on my experience with virtualization technology on the Mac OS X.
First, VMware has released VMware Fusion Beta for Mac OS X. The positive news is that your VMware virtual machine images or any of the virutal appliances at VMTN work as expected. The user-interface of VMware Fusion beta looks a bit different compared to VMware on Windows or Linux. It has been re-engineered for the Mac OS X. The negative news is that since this is a beta, it suffers from degraded performance due to debugging code that you cannot disable. At least not the in latest release I was using.
The other virtualization software I use on my MacBook is Parallels. This the premiere virtualization products for Mac OS X. It works as advertised and performance is excellent. I converted a Windows XP Professional VMware virtual machine into a Parallels virtual machine using the Parallels Transporter utility. This utility is similar to the VMware Converter which lets you convert a Microsoft Virtual Server or Virtual PC image to a VMware virtual machine.
The Parallels Transporter allows you to convert a VMware or Microsoft Virtual PC/Server into a Parallels virtual machine. I had a few issues when trying to convert a Linux VMware machine to Parallels. It converted the virtual disk but did not make it bootable. I am still looking into this.
Anyway, the Parallels Transporter also lets you convert a physical machine into a virutal machine. This is a capability that VMware Converter also has. I have not tried either one out yet but this allows you to create a virtual machine backup of any machine which is a pretty nifty idea.
One thing I like about Parallels is the user interface on the Mac OS X. It is definitely a Mac application that I was able to figure out intuitively in a short period of time. I like the animations is does when you switch from OS Window mode to Full Screen mode. The animation is a rotating 3-D cube similar to how Mac OS X animates the Fast User Switching feature. For those of you who have not seen this, it is just totally visually cool. I have not seen anything like on Linux or Windows. Also, when you run a Windows Parallels virtual machine in full screen mode, it much better than doing the same using VMware on Windows. At least in my experience.
Anyway, back to virtualization. Virtualization works nicely on Mac OS X. Just as in Linux or Windows, you must have a lot of RAM for this to work well. I recommend at least 1GB RAM and preferrably 2GB or higher. For virtualization the more RAM you have, the better off you will be. If you want virtualization that works great today, then Parallels is it. VMware Fusion is still in beta and based on my experience, not quite yet ready for prime time. VMware has not stated when the final 1.0 release will be ready. I read rumors that summer 2007 is when VMware is expected to put out a stable 1.0 non-beta Fusion product. Until then I plan to use Parallels and will compare the two once VMware Fusion is released as a non-beta product.
As for open source virtualization on Mac OS X, I have not had the chance to research that yet. I am sure there is some open source virtualization ports to Mac OS X like Xen or Virtuozzo.
If you need to run Linux, Windows or other operating systems in virtualization on Mac OS X, you can today and it works well.
First, VMware has released VMware Fusion Beta for Mac OS X. The positive news is that your VMware virtual machine images or any of the virutal appliances at VMTN work as expected. The user-interface of VMware Fusion beta looks a bit different compared to VMware on Windows or Linux. It has been re-engineered for the Mac OS X. The negative news is that since this is a beta, it suffers from degraded performance due to debugging code that you cannot disable. At least not the in latest release I was using.
The other virtualization software I use on my MacBook is Parallels. This the premiere virtualization products for Mac OS X. It works as advertised and performance is excellent. I converted a Windows XP Professional VMware virtual machine into a Parallels virtual machine using the Parallels Transporter utility. This utility is similar to the VMware Converter which lets you convert a Microsoft Virtual Server or Virtual PC image to a VMware virtual machine.
The Parallels Transporter allows you to convert a VMware or Microsoft Virtual PC/Server into a Parallels virtual machine. I had a few issues when trying to convert a Linux VMware machine to Parallels. It converted the virtual disk but did not make it bootable. I am still looking into this.
Anyway, the Parallels Transporter also lets you convert a physical machine into a virutal machine. This is a capability that VMware Converter also has. I have not tried either one out yet but this allows you to create a virtual machine backup of any machine which is a pretty nifty idea.
One thing I like about Parallels is the user interface on the Mac OS X. It is definitely a Mac application that I was able to figure out intuitively in a short period of time. I like the animations is does when you switch from OS Window mode to Full Screen mode. The animation is a rotating 3-D cube similar to how Mac OS X animates the Fast User Switching feature. For those of you who have not seen this, it is just totally visually cool. I have not seen anything like on Linux or Windows. Also, when you run a Windows Parallels virtual machine in full screen mode, it much better than doing the same using VMware on Windows. At least in my experience.
Anyway, back to virtualization. Virtualization works nicely on Mac OS X. Just as in Linux or Windows, you must have a lot of RAM for this to work well. I recommend at least 1GB RAM and preferrably 2GB or higher. For virtualization the more RAM you have, the better off you will be. If you want virtualization that works great today, then Parallels is it. VMware Fusion is still in beta and based on my experience, not quite yet ready for prime time. VMware has not stated when the final 1.0 release will be ready. I read rumors that summer 2007 is when VMware is expected to put out a stable 1.0 non-beta Fusion product. Until then I plan to use Parallels and will compare the two once VMware Fusion is released as a non-beta product.
As for open source virtualization on Mac OS X, I have not had the chance to research that yet. I am sure there is some open source virtualization ports to Mac OS X like Xen or Virtuozzo.
If you need to run Linux, Windows or other operating systems in virtualization on Mac OS X, you can today and it works well.
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