With so many virtualization options available to users migrating from Windows computers to Mac OS X, it should come as no surprise to find that tools such as VMware are becoming increasingly popular. This means that with software such as VMware, VirtualBox or Parallels you can create a virtual computer and install Windows on it.
Whereas emulation will allow you to run software from a different platform by providing a software layer to translate the code into something that your host platform can use, virtualization allows you to create a virtual computer. These days, emulation has been pushed into second place in favor of virtualization. However beware – emulation isn’t the answer in most cases. Are you starting out with a new operating system, or want to sample software that is only available on a different OS? If so, you might be considering using emulation software to perform this task.
