Previously I suggested that the WIndows OS be let free. Well, that's almost happened as it was announced that Virtual PC for the Mac is now free. Will this make way for a Dashboard-style invocation of Windows apps in OSX?

💬 Comments from the original post

Brent O. · 2006-07-18 09:00:10

Virtual PC was never the most cost-prohibitive factor because it only allows you to run an OS. You still have to actually license the OS - meaning, if you want to run Windows, you gotta install Windows, and that's where the money pops up. They're giving away Virtual PC because with every copy of Virtual PC, that means someone is running Windows, and that's where they want to make the real money.

Lloyd D Budd · 2006-07-18 09:19:30

Brent has the right of it. Windows is far from almost free. The virtual PC market has been changing because of the work of Xen. Early this year VMWare released their server version (in beta) free for Windows and Linux hosts.

Jesse · 2006-07-18 09:33:24

nope - virtual pc for the mac isn't free... virtual pc for windows is free. On top of that virtual pc for the mac doesn't work on intel hardware and they have no (announced) timeframe for making it so.... It really sucks that I have a licensed copy of virtual pc which came with XP Pro --- and I cannot use either! (the xp pro is linked to the virtual pc --- which microsoft doesn't support)

High Earth Orbit » Blog Archive » For all your slow Windows needs · 2006-07-19 08:01:22

[...] Apparently Microsoft Virtual PC for Mac is now free. This isn’t surprising, as there is now BootCamp and Parallels Desktop for Mac, yum, 2 os’s at the same time. (via FactoryJoe) [...]

CrossOver Beta brings PC apps to the Dock at FactoryCity · 2006-09-01 15:24:20

[...] I wrote about this idea in July and it appears that the reality of OSX subsuming Windows is coming ever-closer. [...]