A company called MXS announced a new software emulator called Cherry OS that makes it possible to install Mac OS X onto x86 hardware (running Windows). Similar to the PearPC project announced earlier this year, Cherry OS effectively mimics PowerPC hardware, making a Mac OS X installation CD think it is installing onto a Mac. This is also similar to the way VirtualPC works, emulating x86 hardware so that a Windows installation CD thinks it is installing on appropriate x86 hardware. From MXS:
Cherry OS is a software translator that allows you to install Appleis Operating System on x86 computer architecture. To put it simply you can now run Appleis award winning Panther OS on your PC! This breakthrough in OS development now gives home users, software developers and web designeris ultimate flexibility in both the operating system and hardware platform you use for your personal computer or testing environment.
Cherry OS runs Panther as a virtual machine on your Windows PC. This virtual machine has full network capabilities including the ability to share folders and access the web. The virtual machine also has complete access to the computeris hardware resources including, Hard Drive, CPU, RAM, FireWire, USB, PCI, PCMIA BUS and RJ45/Ethernet and Modem.
Arben Kryeziu, Cherry OS inventor and a software developer, got tired of carrying both a Mac and a PC around with him, so he invented Cherry OS. "Think about it," says Arben. "Now about 600 million PC users can have the MAC advantage. One computer to use all software and if PC users would use MAC software to get e-mail, perhaps they would avoid viruses, Trojans and spy-ware." He went on to say that, "You can build and test applications for a Mac on your development PC, test web site design for Mac web browsers without having to buy the hardware, run OS X, the worldis best Operating System, on a less expensive hardware platform and use your favorite Mac apps on a PC."
TMO will be testing this software shortly, and weill report on how well it works. PearPC, still in a relatively early development phase, is not yet efficient enough to make it usable, and we will be looking to see how usable Cherry OS is.
You can find more information on Cherry OS at the Cherry OS Web site. The software is priced at US$49.95, and is delivered as a download.