Citrix Demos of a New Kind of Virtual Machine for Mac

[MacRumors]

Citrix made a number of announcements last week related to Mac and iPhone. While most of these announcements were targeted specifically towards IT/enterprise customers, one announcement has more potential mainstream significance.

To start, Citrix released a free iPhone app called Citrix Receiver [App Store] which is a secure client application that allows you to run Windows applications over a Citrix network. It offers a more efficient method of transmission than VNC and should offer better performance. The app is available for free in the App Store and is intended for existing Citrix customers. Citrix also unveiled an "App Store" for IT applications called Dazzle allowing managers to offer specific applications to their clients on both Mac and Windows. Dazzle and the Receiver application for Macintosh won't be available until the second half of this year.

Perhaps most interesting, however, was Citrix's demo of their new virtualization solution XenClient for the Mac. Virtualization is the process by which you can run multiple operating systems simultaneously on a single computer. It has been frequently used on the Mac to run Microsoft's Windows in conjunction with Mac OS X. Citrix first started publicizing their plans for a new kind of Virtualization called "Type 1 hypervisor" back in January.

The technology promises to offer a faster and more secure virtualization environment than existing solutions. Parallel's and VMWare's solutions are considered "Type 2 hypervisors" which must run under a host operating system such as Mac OS X. While this simplifies the implementation, it also results in potential security vulnerabilities as well as a performance penalty due to the added level of abstraction. In contrast, "Type 1 hypervisors" run directly on the "bare metal" hardware.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgMUKaXuAzU

This video (above) shows this software running on a PC and naturally focuses on security and IT usage, but does touch on the fact that each virtual environment has full access to the 3D hardware. Traditionally, these features have been handicapped on virtual machines, requiring Mac users to reboot to take full advantage. A video from the Citrix keynote event showing a brief Mac demo is available and starts at 42 minutes in. Citrix did not give an exact release date for the Mac version of XenClient.

What this means to the average consumer, however, isn't entirely clear. The creation of such a low-level virtualization solution apparently required a close partnership with Intel and we're not certain if other solutions will be able to easily mimic the functionality.





Article Link: Citrix Demos of a New Kind of Virtual Machine for Mac

 

[kaisdaddy]

Always glad to see...

...new (and faster) virtualization solutions for the Mac. Having said that, I'm not a gamer and Parallels does a great job of letting me check how badly Internet Exploder treats my otherwise perfect XHTML/CSS.

 

[madrag]

very nice!, although I'm happy with the current speed I get with paralles on my MBP 2.2, but it does help if it is "seamless"...

the iPhone app is a great idea!, I'm going to investigate more on this one.

 

[fredsarran]

This is really cool. Parallels works OK but it does kill the performances of OS X when running Parallels.

This Citrix stuff is very interesting, and seems to be very efficient. Looking forward to it.

 

[zeasar]

Erm... BIOs virus FTW?!?

 

[dbwie]

citrix

I use citrix at my job, would love to have a Mac to run it on instead of a crappy Dell.

 

[Bakafish]

I hate to rain on your parade.

But a type 1 hypervisor on Mac hardware is something that VMware or Parallels could have done ages ago, the issue is without Apple supporting OS X Client (not Server) as a hosted OS, it is totally worthless to OS X users. Basically until Apple is willing to let us run OS X client in a type 1 hypervisor (and they don't allow this at this point, even on Apple Hardware) you could only run Linux and (some versions) of Windows.

The other important point I want to make is that Type 1 hypervisors are much better suited for server environments than workstations, and although they are certainly more efficient in distributing resources across VM's the current client hosted offerings, like Fusion and Parallels, are way better for client workloads. Don't expect type 1 hypervisors to support accelerated graphics emulation and so forth, that hardware isn't designed for low level virtualization like the processors are. You are just barking up the wrong tree here claiming that there would be performance gains since they would be limited to workloads unlike anyone here is likely to be using a Mac for. And before someone starts talking about all the headless xServers they are running, I will point you at Parallel's Hypervisor solution that runs OS X Server (and has done for some time I believe.)

 

[DELLsFan]

Very useful from a corporate IT perspective. I look forward to its development and deployment.

I wonder if this could be used to Virtualize an installation of Mac OS X on a PC, Apple EULA concerns notwithstanding?

 

[Veri]

Why not just port CP/CMS to Intel? It was open source, IIRC, but my memory of the late '60s is as good as anyone's.

 

[arn]

But a type 1 hypervisor on Mac hardware is something that VMware or Parallels could have done ages ago, the issue is without Apple supporting OS X Client (not Server) as a hosted OS, it is totally worthless to OS X users. Basically until Apple is willing to let us run OS X client in a type 1 hypervisor (and they don't allow this at this point, even on Apple Hardware) you could only run Linux and (some versions) of Windows.

Well, that's what the thinking was, which makes this so interesting. I think the implication from the video is that this is not Mac OS X Server, but Client. Are you suggesting that Citrix is doing this so people can run Mac OS X Server on their MacBook (again, see they keynote video).

Here's also another comment by a live-blogger of the event (doesn't confirm anything, but gives some context)
http://www.brianmadden.com/blogs/br...2-quot-cloud-amp-datacenter-quot-keynote.aspx

9:23 Ian Pratt is now back out to show their "one more thing." He's showing a Mac running OSX and says they can stream Windows apps there. So you click the link, and the seamless app opens via the local VM. Hmm.. People are cheering, but I'm not sure why. Um, you know VMware and Parallels have had this feature on Mac OSX for years, right? Actually, I wonder if people think this was a Type 1 hypervisor on a Mac. $100 says 'no,' and that it was a Type 2 client VMM, probably Virtual Box. My guess is that the "new thing" is just some code to link the app in the Windows VM to an icon on the Mac. [UPDATE: I confirmed that this Mac demo was a true Type 1 XenClient hypervisor. The story is that the Apple license agreement says that the Mac OS must run on Apple hardware, so it's cool. So to that, let me say WOW!]

 

[twoodcc]

wow. can't wait to see this available for mac and windows, though i wonder what the price will be?

 

[jon86]

The story is that the Apple license agreement says that the Mac OS must run on Apple hardware, so it's cool. ...

So as far as I understand, this means that OS X Leopard can run on a Mac laptop/desktop inside XenClient?

 

[11800506]

How exactly is this any more beneficial to the user than just booting into Boot Camp?

 

[bobrik]

But a type 1 hypervisor on Mac hardware is something that VMware or Parallels could have done ages ago, the issue is without Apple supporting OS X Client (not Server) as a hosted OS, it is totally worthless to OS X users. Basically until Apple is willing to let us run OS X client in a type 1 hypervisor (and they don't allow this at this point, even on Apple Hardware) you could only run Linux and (some versions) of Windows.

As far as I understand from the video, OS X is running inside the Type 1 hypervisor: (~43:00) "we're actually running 2 VMs here: we're running the OS X and Windows. We can just switch down ..."

 

[arn]

How exactly is this any more beneficial to the user than just booting into Boot Camp?

Isn't that benefit enough? Seamless switching between Windows and Mac OS X operating systems? Not having to save everything and reboot just to use a single windows app?

arn

 

[bryanl]

Xen for MacOSX would be interesting. I would love to run para-virtualized linux installations.

 

[thesmileman]

Great news. Finally AIX will have some virtualization competition

This is really good news though I do not think the majority user's will ever see this. I could be wrong but Citrix rarely seems to price anything in the general consumer's price range. This definately has consumer level benefits and would likely do very well (depending on the quality of implementation). AIX has had a Type 1 hypervisor since the p5 and I think maybe even before that on certain p4 architectures. Because Apple's PowerPC processors were based on the power3 and later the power4 (shortly before switching to Intel) it was always strange why Apple never attempted to utilize such abilities. Maybe their motivation is they new they were switching hardware so it wasn't that important. I now they had the Rosetta hardware for a while which wasn't the same at all but rather more of a type 2 hardware acceleration device and software. Anyway this type of hypervisor requires great hardware assistance from the both the motherboard and the cpu maker that is why IBM, who owns the AIX OS and the power architectures, has been able to do this and do it well. It will be interesting to see how this pans out. If intel does something proprietary this could have drastic implications for AMD in the enterprise sector, where they are already having trouble. I certainly don't want to see there be no direct competition for intel but it seems to be where we are headed unless AMD can pick up the pace (And no AMD CEO I am not talking about the salsa made in New York city. .

I have seen the benefits and they are tremendous. It is astonishing to see and participate in a system upgrade, from cpu's, memory, to network virtualization changes that appear as hardware changes all while an entire enterprise backbone keeps on processing and chugging away without a single end user noticing a thing.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

So with this XenClient, could they run OS X on PC hardware?

 

[Beerfloat]

Basically until Apple is willing to let us run OS X client in a type 1 hypervisor (and they don't allow this at this point, even on Apple Hardware) you could only run Linux and (some versions) of Windows.

Good point. That's a real problem. There are virtualisation solutions out there that can run MacOSX already but Apple won't allow it to become legit.

The other important point I want to make is that Type 1 hypervisors are much better suited for server environments than workstations, and although they are certainly more efficient in distributing resources across VM's the current client hosted offerings, like Fusion and Parallels, are way better for client workloads. Don't expect type 1 hypervisors to support accelerated graphics emulation and so forth, that hardware isn't designed for low level virtualization like the processors are.

Accelerated graphics, sound, direct USB support etc, these are the holy grail of any type of virtualisation.

The type 1 hypervisors that we've seen so far (which to me includes include VMware ESX, even though it does some things in software because they claim it is faster, as well as Xen and MS HyperX) do not support these or all of these, but that's mainly a result of the fact that they are targetted at server environments. Some type 2 hypervisors (like VMware Workstation and Fusion, and Virtualbox) do have limited support for DX9 accelerated graphics or USB passthrough however.

If Citrix XenClient really shoots for type 1 virtualisation for clients, and can provide either direct hardware driver access, or a thin passthrough layer, then that could be a big step forward. I'm keeping an eye on this one.

 

[janstett]

How exactly is this any more beneficial to the user than just booting into Boot Camp?

You're joking, right? Are you one of those guys who knows that Boot Camp is there but never used it?

Boot Camp is nothing more than an EFI bootloader and Windows drivers, that let you boot Windows on Apple hardware. You shut down OSX and boot into Windows, bare metal.

With these VMs you can run OSX and Windows at the same time, side by side. You can run Windows applications in OSX.

You can already do this with VMWare and Parallels, but those involve time to boot/restore the Windows VM (anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes), and all the hardware is virtualized (so no direct access to 3D graphics, etc., and there is a performance hit). Believe me Windows apps do not start up as quickly in either VMWare or Parallels as they did on that video.

In fact, it's possible (don't know about implemented, however) to put the shoe on the other foot, and let OSX apps run in Windows... Let the user pick their desktop environment and run everything.

This type 1 XenClient looks amazing. Can't wait for this to come out. VMWare and Parallels should be on red alert.

 

[Sehnsucht]

Good, now maybe if this is affordable I might use it to run Windoze 7 instead of Sun VirtualBox. Still can't get around the fact that I have the dinkiest low-end ATI graphics card with just 128 MB of VRAM...so just 64 MB for the Aero theme.

 

[pilotError]

Was it me or did they allow you to run Citrix Applications offline?

One of the big PITA about Citrix was if you lost your VPN, you couldn't launch certain things. If you could offline some of the App's, that would be extremely helpful.

I have to say, Citrix just may get rid of that "Sh**rix" nickname with this release. LOL

They've been pretty big Mac supporters for a few years now. I love being able to VPN to work and use my Mac's all day.

 

[theagentx]

this is actually huge for enterprise users!!! In a windows centric company, a Mac user can have access without having 2 computers or the clunky VM's running on the local machine. It is secure from an IZT perspective because nothing site on the Mac (From a windows virtualized desktop perspective)

 

[ifjake]

what current apple hardware will technology like this run on? it seems to be tied pretty closely with certain intel platforms. is that currently available platforms or would this require an upgrade?

 

[jzuena]

From Citrix's website I see support for ICA (the Citrix thin client) on OS X but not XenDesktop. ICA is more like VNC than Fusion/Parallels.

Q. Which operating systems will XenDesktop support?

A. XenDesktop supports delivery of the following virtual desktop operating systems:
Windows XP SP2 or later,
Vista 32 Enterprise, Ultimate and Business editions

The Desktop Delivery controller supports:
Windows 2003, 32 and 64 bit

ICA clients are supported on a variety of platforms:
Windows Operating Systems
Unix for Desktop Appliances and thin clients
MAC OS
Other platforms are supported via the Java client

As soon as you move from Type 2 Virtualization with OS X as your host OS to Type 1 virtualization (or even to Type 2 with OS X as a client), you run afoul of Apple's EULA.