Virtual PC

Virtual PC was an emulator originally developed by Connectix (of QuickCam fame), which got acquired by and dragged into as a way to run applications (and the whole of itself) inside a PowerPC .

With the moving on to , it was discontinued but remained one of the best ways to run software on PowerPC architectures–since it not only emulates the hardware and CPU, but also caches emulated code (a very nice trick that QEMU doesn’t do).

On , it has since evolved (or rather, mutated, since the core changed from an into a ) into a series of different products.

Notes

  • The Virtual PC 7.0.2 update restores “virtual switch networking” (i.e., layer 2 access by virtual machines) in versions up to (and including) .
  • CentOS 4.4 Server will not run inside it - , however, has absolutely no trouble.
  • Installing a slipstreamed version of with SP2 absolutely requires you to disable automatic installation of Virtual PC Additions - otherwise, it will hang on “Installing Devices”.
  • When running under Leopard, you will see VirtualPCNetworking1040.kext pop up on the dock. To hide it add a key of LSUIElement with value 1 to its Info.plist file.

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