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Rating: 
Summary: Excellent emulation - but at a huge speed premium.
Review: Virtual PC (VPC) 3.0 had worked extremely well for me for several years using Mac OS 8.5 and 9.0. When I switched my business over to OS X I had no choice but to upgrade to VPC 6.0. I use VPC for exactly two tasks: managing an old legacy database for my business originally written in DOS - now obsolete since we completed a Mac database - and to run Quickbooks Pro - another legacy application. VPC 3.0 did the job flawlessly on a 600mhz G3 iMac. While it was no speed demon, it was fast enough that it was faster than the old PII 200 that originally ran the applications. Hello VPC 6.0 in OS X. There is no upgrade path from VPC 3.0 to 6.0, so I had to purchase a full version. This was disappointing, but not a deal-buster. Now, I admit that many things run a little sluggishly in OS X - certainly it lacks the snap of OS 9 on my 600mhz G3. However, VPC 6.0 is intolerably slow. Obviously, I'm near the bottom of the hardware requirement spectrum, but my hardware is supported. Quickbooks Pro launched in about 10 seconds in VPC 3.0, in VPC 6.0 it can take up to two minutes! Working in the application is painfully slow. My DOS database which opened in the blink of an eye in VPC 3.0 takes about 25 seconds in VPC 6.0. I am also experiencing printing issues in VPC 6.0 that I never ran into with VPC 3.0 and I can't blame OS X since nothing else has a problem printing. The bottom line: it's too slow on a G3 to be practical. I have some G4's but have not tested it on one yet. If I get a chance to do so, I'll amend this review. Eventually I just bought the new Quickbooks 5.0 for Mac and migrated my data from VPC to the new application. I only keep VPC as a program of last resort - so much so that I've removed it from the Dock.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent emulation - but at a huge speed premium.
Review: Virtual PC (VPC) 3.0 had worked extremely well for me for several years using Mac OS 8.5 and 9.0. When I switched my business over to OS X I had no choice but to upgrade to VPC 6.0. I use VPC for exactly two tasks: managing an old legacy database for my business originally written in DOS - now obsolete since we completed a Mac database - and to run Quickbooks Pro - another legacy application. VPC 3.0 did the job flawlessly on a 600mhz G3 iMac. While it was no speed demon, it was fast enough that it was faster than the old PII 200 that originally ran the applications. Hello VPC 6.0 in OS X. There is no upgrade path from VPC 3.0 to 6.0, so I had to purchase a full version. This was disappointing, but not a deal-buster. Now, I admit that many things run a little sluggishly in OS X - certainly it lacks the snap of OS 9 on my 600mhz G3. However, VPC 6.0 is intolerably slow. Obviously, I'm near the bottom of the hardware requirement spectrum, but my hardware is supported. Quickbooks Pro launched in about 10 seconds in VPC 3.0, in VPC 6.0 it can take up to two minutes! Working in the application is painfully slow. My DOS database which opened in the blink of an eye in VPC 3.0 takes about 25 seconds in VPC 6.0. I am also experiencing printing issues in VPC 6.0 that I never ran into with VPC 3.0 and I can't blame OS X since nothing else has a problem printing. The bottom line: it's too slow on a G3 to be practical. I have some G4's but have not tested it on one yet. If I get a chance to do so, I'll amend this review. Eventually I just bought the new Quickbooks 5.0 for Mac and migrated my data from VPC to the new application. I only keep VPC as a program of last resort - so much so that I've removed it from the Dock.
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