Remember the old days when Mac users and PC users used to argue about who had the better computer? Hmmm... Never mind. So maybe things haven't changed that much. But perhaps those Apple fans who swore off Windows might be coming around a bit? Or, maybe PC users are now crossing over to the other side, but don't want to give up their Windows applications just yet? Either way, it looks like virtualization software Remember the old days when Mac users and PC users used to argue about who had the better computer?Hmmm… Never mind. So maybe things haven’t changed that much. But perhaps those Apple fans who swore off Windows might be coming around a bit? Or, maybe PC users are now crossing over to the other side, but don’t want to give up their Windows applications just yet? Either way, it looks like virtualization software could be stepping in to try and mediate this ancient argument. Why not have the best of both worlds?Products like Parallels Desktop for Mac and VMware Fusion have entered the scene once dominated and now abandoned by Connectix and Microsoft to help address this issue. Both companies, along with their virtualization products, give Intel-based Mac owners the ability to run Microsoft Windows operating systems and Windows applications on their Mac OS. Yes, blasphemy for some… but evidently an opportunity for others. Sales for the Apple Mac are doing quite well. Apple recently announced their financial results for its fiscal 2008 second quarter and said they posted revenue of $7.51 billion up from $5.26 billion a year earlier. And Apple shipped 2,289,000 Macintosh computers during the quarter, representing 51 percent unit growth and 54 percent revenue growth over the year-ago quarter. Earlier in the month, IDC reported that Apple’s share of the US PC market during the first quarter of 2008 had reached 7.1%, up from 4.9% a year earlier, which represented a 45% growth. So is virtualization helping Mac sales soar? I think so.VMware said that Fusion has made a significant impact on the market since its launch in August 2007. And the company is excited about how well the Mac community has embraced the virtualization product.Pat Lee, Group Manager, Consumer Products at VMware, said, “Our market share has been growing month over month and VMware Fusion is now the leading Mac virtualization product at Amazon.com, the US Apple Online Store, Apple Online Store Australia, and the Apple Online Store Japan. In fact, VMware Fusion is the number 6 overall Mac-related (hardware or software) top seller at the Apple Store Japan and the number 5 overall software (PC or Mac) title at Amazon.com.” Lee added, “In addition to strong consumer adoption, VMware Fusion is helping to validate Mac use in the enterprise. For example, IBM recently finished a pilot program to test migrating users from existing Windows PCs to the Mac and IBM provided VMware Fusion to their pilot users, allowing them to run Windows-only applications. At the end of the test, 86% of the pilot users kept their Macs using VMware Fusion to run Windows-only applications.”In addition to impressive product sales, VMware Fusion has also achieved a number of awards during its first nine months in the market. Lee noted that VMware received a “coveted MacWorld Editor’s Choice Award” which he said was an amazing accomplishment for any new product and added “we couldn’t be more proud.”Parallels is also helping to bridge the gap and mend fences between the PC and Mac community. Parallels recently announced that its Parallels Desktop for Mac product has sold more than one million copies and added that it has made Parallels the number one company in desktop virtualization. The software is now sold in 10 different languages – Chinese, Czech, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, and Spanish. “Parallels Desktop not only broke down the barrier between the Mac and PC worlds, it also broke down the barrier that kept desktop virtualization from becoming a mainstream technology for consumers and professional users,” said Serguei Beloussov, CEO of Parallels. “We will continue innovating to extend our position as the desktop virtualization leader and provide our users with the fastest, easiest and most seamless solution available.”Parallels Desktop for Mac also won the MacWorld Editor’s Choice Award along with more than 30 other industry awards. So while Mac users and PC users might still be having “loud discussions” with one another over who has the better platform, someone in the Mac community is using virtualization software to run Windows on Macs. It sounds like progress is being made, although now we’ve added a new debate into the mix – Parallels or VMware? Software Development