Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

fabric17

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 3, 2011
33
5
Any thoughts/rumors about the vmware app?

A lot of CPU/RAM/... to use (A9+ comparable to intel I5 cpu)

I think it can be very useful and add value to the iPad Pro


fabrizio
 

whtrbt7

macrumors 65816
Jun 8, 2011
1,015
73
If this does exist, it would be very interesting. Pointer emulation, running full OSs virtually, and background process running would be a very different experience. I'm not sure if Apple would allow this app to actually exist like VMware fusion for OSX however. I also think ARM processors may not support x86 emulation. I Citrix into several servers and some with VMware running on them so that's the other way to have access but local emulation would be pretty neat if it worked right.
 

chrfr

macrumors G5
Jul 11, 2009
13,702
7,264
Any thoughts/rumors about the vmware app?

A lot of CPU/RAM/... to use (A9+ comparable to intel I5 cpu)

I think it can be very useful and add value to the iPad Pro


fabrizio
It's important to understand that VMWare isn't doing emulation. There would be a huge performance and power penalty to move VMWare to being an emulator, running x86 code on the iPad.
 

I7guy

macrumors Nehalem
Nov 30, 2013
35,142
25,212
Gotta be in it to win it
Any thoughts/rumors about the vmware app?

A lot of CPU/RAM/... to use (A9+ comparable to intel I5 cpu)

I think it can be very useful and add value to the iPad Pro


fabrizio
I suppose it's technically possible, given enough money and time, but will Apple allow such an app in the App Store is the bigger question.
 

old-wiz

macrumors G3
Mar 26, 2008
8,331
228
West Suburban Boston Ma
I suppose it's technically possible, given enough money and time, but will Apple allow such an app in the App Store is the bigger question.
I shudder at the thought of trying to emulate x86 code on an A9 and fit a layer in for keyboard vs touch screen, but the resources needed to do it would be enormous. You would almost certainly need some changes to IOS, and I doubt Apple would help or allow it for that matter. While IOS does have OSx/Unix code it would still be a huge project.
 

dyn

macrumors 68030
Aug 8, 2009
2,708
388
.nl
Technically it is possible but it will be slow because it can only be full emulation (VMware does mostly virtualisation and mostly this is hardware assisted, but there is still some emulation going on) and there is no hardware support for doing this. The way it has to be done is completely against the rules of the App Store. The changes that have to be made will degrade the current high security of iOS and thus never ever happen.

Will VMware and the like bring out software like this for the iPad if they were allowed to? I'm not sure about that because the iPad is first and foremost a touchscreen device which means a completely different way of interfacing than most of the operating systems you'd run in a vm. Keyboard and mouse control is very basic or very lacking. In the end it would require so much changes of the underlying OS that you'll end up with something we already have: OS X. Like Apple keeps on saying: tablets and computers are different beasts. They can merely work together.

The only thing that might happen is VMware releasing remote support from the iPad for their Fusion/Workstation products which would be comparable to the remote control from Parallels. You could also use ssh/vnc/rdp clients to connect remotely to a machine (doesn't matter if it is physical or virtual).
 
  • Like
Reactions: old-wiz

MyopicPaideia

macrumors 68020
Mar 19, 2011
2,155
980
Sweden
Remote access is a much more elegant solution, I think. Microsoft's RDP for iOS is rock solid if you are going for Windows.

Yes, local would be nice, allowing one to not rely on an internet connection, but as other have already stated, VMWare software actually does virtualisation mostly, not emulation, and their stuff works in essence because of this - on Macs using Intel processors, no real emulation is needed, just a virtualisation of separate hardware. That's not an option on an ARM processor iPad.

I ran a VirtualBox Windows 8.1 VM on my home server for a long time, used the iPad to remote into it when away from home, it was literally like having a Surface tablet AND an iPad in my hands, that's how solid the experience was. I can recommend it if you absolutely need to run Windows. Ironically, there doesn't seem to be a solution out there that achieves the same kind of seamless experience between a remote OSX Mac and an iOS iPad. Sure there are remote access apps, but they all feel like you are using an iPad to access a Mac. Microsoft's RDP makes it feel like your running Windows on your iPad. You've got to hand it to them on that, they really nailed their new RDP software.
 
  • Like
Reactions: old-wiz
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.