Microsoft Officially Kills Virtual PC

[Lollypop]

The reason MacBU has had to abandon VBA is that the Mac compiler won't work on Intel Macs. And Microsoft has already announced that VBA is being deprecated on Windows (it will go on working for a few years, then will end). So there's no point devoting enormous efforts to making a new compiler only for it all to go away shortly afterwards. There is some reason to believe that eventually VB.NET will work on the Mac as it does on Windows, as a cross-platform solution. Until then, VBA macros need to be translated to AppleScript. There can be no better signal that MacBU is committeed to the Mac than to see the huge investment they have made in AppleScript. Office's AppleScript is already working as of Office 2004, and it mirrors the VBA model identically: macros can be translated to AppleScript _now_, and will then "just work" in the next version of Office too.

I was actually wondering about just this, if MS is going to a new open standard for documents, and apple also does in their own products, wont word be just another nice frontend that performs the same functions as most other apps. Most people, me included, use Office for mac for compatibility, if thats out of the way I wont use office anymore. Will the new open format (ODF I believe) use its own scripting language, or what?

 

[idea_hamster]

If I were an MS shareholder, I would be OUTRAGED.

How much did they pay for that? To be fair, I don't recall if MS bought just VPC or all of Connectix, but it hardly matters!

That's got to be a giant pile of shareholder wealth pissed away in a half-assed attempt at being part of (read: smothering) the increasing popularity and utility of Apple.

I would really love to see the numbers on that boondogle.

The connectix deal wasn't a 'boondogle' at all - connectix had other products than VPC. MS Virtual Server is based on the code they got from connectix. The server virtualization market is absolutely huge compared to VPC's potential market. I'm sure to Microsoft, VPC was a drop in the bucket in terms of revenue, and if I were a shareholder, I'd be happy as hell that they dropped it.

You're not the only one to point this out:

They got their value out of Connectix in Virtual Server. Like it or not the Mac stuff was just the tip of the iceberg.

So, I'll say that my outrage (which was at best hypothetical) has subsided substantially.

Just goes to show what happens when one thinks the world revolves around him-/herself. I suppose my only exposure to Connectix was with VPC -- turns out my whole experience was some kind of also-ran footnote. Oh, well....

 

[stephenli]

Wonder how much they paid Connectix just to abandon it.

dont worry. M$ got what they needed already.
Did someone else remembered XBox 360 Developer Machine is........G5?
while Xbox 360 is powerPC based while Xbox is intel based, they just need Connectix's technology to run old Xbox games on 360....

For M$ does not planned to do a universal version, would they develop VPC for intel mac only? will they still develop VPC for our G5 to run "vista 1.0" a bitttttttttt faster? will they support graphic card in native?

 

[gnasher729]

They got their value out of Connectix in Virtual Server. Like it or not the Mac stuff was just the tip of the iceberg.

Also, Microsoft made its money not through Virtual PC, but through the Windows license that you had to buy with it. If you buy Parallels, or use Bootcamp, Microsoft loses a few dollars from the Virtual PC sale, but they still get a big chunk of money for the Windows license. I would say 75% of their revenue and 100% of their profit stay intact.

 

[Will_reed]

If theyre gonna kill it they could probably do somthing like I dunno give it away for free? some of us have PPC macs we cant run paralels

 

[rayz]

take it easy on them, they saved apple's ass in the 90's. if it weren't for them apple would have gone 'rupt. they also have to worry about a thousand different hardware configurations whereas os x 10 has to worry about the mac line.. give 'em a break. (not an ms fanboy)

That is not strictly true. The MS purchase of Apple shares was little more than a token gesture to show that MS still believed in the company. It was good publicity for Apple, but it really did fall far short of 'saving their asses'.

 

[glassbathroom]

No real surprises here.

Long live Parallels.

 

[janstett]

Anyone else remember those old rumors about how MS was buying VPC just to kill it off? I thought that was silly back then, but I'm wondering now. Considering how they sat on the thing for ages and never really did anything with it and now have caved at the first sign of competition, you have to wonder. They clearly were not very committed to keeping it going.

Not true, you just have to change your perspective. MS isn't interested in Virtual PC as a consumer product, as useful as it is; VPC as a power user tool is a well kept secret. They always had their eye on it for use in virtual servers. That's why it's going to be built into Vista Server and they are pushing it now as "Virtual Server 2005".

Sad to see Virtual PC go, both on the Mac and on the PC too (I run Red Hat on my Dell via VPC, very handy). Thank God a product like Parallels came along, and also that it also exists on the PC... I will have to make new virtual machines of my favorite operating systems one more time, but I do have to say Parallels is better than VPC.

 

[jagolden]

... Who needs their crappy software anyway?

I do! I need entourage, xcel and Word, PERIOD. It's not so much a matter of choice as fitting in with the rest of my company. Mac users used to exist in a bubble, but no for many years now. They must also fit in with corporate.

When some little known Russian software company can do in months what Micrsoft can't do in years it's obvious where this is going.

Going out on limb here but frankly do not have much trust for software from Russia or its nieghbors. Being so far out of the normal picture, who knows what sort of backdoor code these seemingly legit companies from there are putting in. Sounds partanoid, sure, but...

VMWare will come out with a better virtualization technology and Windows will continue to become irrelevant. iWork needs a spreadsheet and you'll be hard pressed to find a reason to run anything Microsoft on your mac.

Only if an iWork spreadsheet is going to open EXACTLY as created in Excel and have all the capabilities of Excel.

I said it before on these posts and got laughed to scorn, Microsoft is dead. Everyone knows it. Even die hard Windows fanboys are starting to have doubts. Vista will fail miserably and the company will be broken up. Why anyone would use something second rate, more expensive, less secure, and of inferior quality in the light of such a polished and mature operating system is beyond comprehension.

Please. Dead? Not by a long shot. Hurting? Emarassed? Oh yeah. But as long as they don't realise they are dead they'll still be a power to be reconed with.

 

[Thataboy]

The reason MacBU has had to abandon VBA is that the Mac compiler won't work on Intel Macs. And Microsoft has already announced that VBA is being deprecated on Windows (it will go on working for a few years, then will end). So there's no point devoting enormous efforts to making a new compiler only for it all to go away shortly afterwards. There is some reason to believe that eventually VB.NET will work on the Mac as it does on Windows, as a cross-platform solution. Until then, VBA macros need to be translated to AppleScript. There can be no better signal that MacBU is committeed to the Mac than to see the huge investment they have made in AppleScript. Office's AppleScript is already working as of Office 2004, and it mirrors the VBA model identically: macros can be translated to AppleScript _now_, and will then "just work" in the next version of Office too.

Interesting information.

So Office 2004 AppleScript can translate VB on the fly (and 2007 VB can translate AppleScript), or that's the goal and we aren't there yet?

If they can keep the scripting compatible, then I can definitely see a plus in dropping VB for Mac Office.

 

[dernhelm]

Microsoft has announced that it has halted development on a universal version of VirtualPC.

Microsoft has claimed that to port VirtualPC to Intel would be much like making VirtualPC 1.0 all over again.

Funny how the folks at EMC (VMWare) didn't seem to think so...

 

[Whistleway]

apple made a strategic mistake of not buying parallels. it is gonna hurt them in the long run. steve is too old fashioned and dragging the company down. it is a great product.

 

[whatever]

Microsoft has announced that it has halted development on a universal version of VirtualPC.

Digg This

I used to use VirtualPC mainly to take screenshots for various Flash tutorials and demos that I created. Then one day I was in a rush and I took all of my screenshots using Safari and boy did people notice. The couldn't believe how much clearer the screens were and then one of my friends came forwarded and pointed out that most screenshots we see are taken from Macs in the first place.
I soon stopped relying on VPC more and more. My IT department upgraded our e-mail servers so that I use either Mail or Entourage to see my e-mail and slowly I stopped using it completely.
Back when the G5's came out, I could upgrade my machine because there was no support for VPC on a G5 (that changed eventually), but the thought of not being able to run VPC on Mac Pro has never crossed my mind.
The need for VPC in the Mac/Intel age is gone and Microsoft is wise to move on.
Perhaps they're doing this because they can now eaisly create and port native Mac OS apps.

Whatever

 

[berkowit28]

So Office 2004 AppleScript can translate VB on the fly (and 2007 VB can translate AppleScript), or that's the goal and we aren't there yet?

Unfortunately, no. It needs someone (an AppleScripter who knows VBA) to do the translating. But time will tell if some of this can be done instead in the XML, which would be cross-platform for the new files.

 

[F14CRAZY]

Connectix was pretty sweet. I guess their legacy is dead, except for those priceless Ram Double floppies I have stashed away for a different day and age.

 

[davegoody]

M$ killed it way before they pulled it !

Microsoft has announced that it has halted development on a universal version of VirtualPC.



VirtualPC has long-been the king of the hill for Virtualization on Macintosh. With the Intel transition, however, came competitive pressure from Parallels, which has since released the final version of its product, and VMWare which is showcasing a beta of its solution at WWDC.

Microsoft has claimed that to port VirtualPC to Intel would be much like making VirtualPC 1.0 all over again.



Digg This

As a Powerbook G4 User, VPC was all of unusable, really slow. I know that it has (had ?) to emulate an entire Hardware platform, but knowing how much bloatware M$ produce, I am sure it could have been a hell of a lot faster if it was coded better. I know that M$ purchased this software from Connectix, but successive versions gained features and lost speed !

 

[eme jota ce]

good, that was hard to use anyway...

Never worked well for me either.

Maybe the makers of parallels could focus on a Microsoft Office replacement, too.

 

[SiliconAddict]

apple made a strategic mistake of not buying parallels. it is gonna hurt them in the long run. steve is too old fashioned and dragging the company down. it is a great product.

As I've had to mention before. How so? There are more Windows on Mac solutions now then ever before. Apple doesn't need to do crap. The biggest barrier in the past was the PPC chip. With that out of the way the gates are open to let companies like VMWare do there thang.

 

[IJ Reilly]

That is not strictly true. The MS purchase of Apple shares was little more than a token gesture to show that MS still believed in the company.

Not really. Microsoft had no reason to show that they "believed" in Apple. The investment was a condition of legal settlement. See post #98.

 

[Passante]

I guess MS realized that there would be no more PPC Macs in existence by the time they finally released Virtual PC.

 

[50548]

This is just another nail in MS's coffin...they are a zombie walking to nowhere right now, and they have no idea where to go in terms of overall corporate strategy.

The sole MS product currently needed in Macs is Office; and by the time the agreement vanishes, we'll surely have more than 2 GREAT productivity suite choices. MS shot itself in the foot when it accepted an open XML format...from then on they have nothing strictly proprietary to tie users up.

As for Vista, it's just a dead dog now. Most of its originally advertised features have been stripped away, and most serious users aren't even considering an upgrade.

MS is close to becoming a gaming rig company, and I couldn't care less.

GO APPLE!

 

[shelterpaw]

You are all nuts!!!

I find it quite amusing that so many people think MS is doomed. Especially since they are killing VPC. I don't think it was or ever will be a big revenue maker for MS, so it probably cost them more to keep it around then to shelve it.

I certainly think it would be great to see them lose about 40% of their desktop market share to OS X and Linux, but if that ever happens, it wont be a long time to come. All this MS is doomed and has messed up crap is nuts. Funny, but nuts.

 

[50548]

I find it quite amusing that so many people think MS is doomed. Especially since they are killing VPC. I don't think it was or ever will be a big revenue maker for MS, so it probably cost them more to keep it around then to shelve it.

I certainly think it would be great to see them lose about 40% of their desktop market share to OS X and Linux, but if that ever happens, it wont be a long time to come. All this MS is doomed and has messed up crap is nuts. Funny, but nuts.

Mr. Gates has already dropped the ball; I just hope Monkey Ballmer stays long enough to finish his bad job at MS...we would be all grateful.

 

[shelterpaw]

Monkey Ballmer

He's much too big to be a monkey. More like a gorilla. Maybe call him Gorilla B.

Plus he likes to throw chairs around and gorilla's like to throw poop around, so I can see the crossover. Poop slinging Gorilla B.

 

[MacSedgley]

Next step: Microsoft announces they've acquired Parallels, Inc.

Good point - however, a 'top secret' virtual machine inside leopard would mean they have wasted their money.

Does anyone really give a toss about Virtual PC being dead? It was pretty crap anyway.