In addition, virtualization gives 'switchers' (those switching from Windows to Mac) more comfort because they can use their old applications and more easily get to their old data. For that reason, MacTech recommends a virtualization product for most users. Despite a speed advantage for some things, that’s not particularly convenient. In addition, you can only use one OS at a time, it’s designed for Windows not Linux, and it doesn’t have support for Windows 8 or even XP. With Apple’s Boot Camp, you can run Windows 7 natively, but you have to reboot every time you want to switch between OS X and Windows. You may already understand your options for running Windows on a Mac, but in case you don’t, your first choice is to decide between Apple’s Boot Camp, and a virtualization product like VMware Fusion or Parallels Desktop for Mac. This includes not only your everyday Windows 7 or 8, but also other 64-bit OSes including Linux and more. This introduced some interesting opportunities for the Mac, including the ability to run operating systems other than Mac OS X on a Mac.

In 2005, Apple announced the switch of the Mac platform from PowerPC to Intel processors (the first Intel-based models were available in early 2006). By Neil Ticktin, Editor-in-Chief/Publisher Head-to-Head: How do VMware Fusion 5 and Parallels Desktop 8 for Mac compare? Why Virtualization?