New Year's Resolutions

I'm back! And I'm here on a mission: I'm going to review 12 freeware and possibly open-source software products for Mac OS X to replace that overly expensive set of tools you got last year. Isn't that your resolution this year — to actually save money this time?

Every month, I'll have a new product reviewed. There will be a download link, screenshots, and an in-depth look at the features. As for February, I'll have a free product on the 29th. I was busy getting some stuff ready for this review last month that I ran out of time for January. So this is for January, not February. Understand? Good. Then let's go.

The Actual Review

You're probably aware of the hype over VMware Fusion — the long-awaited Mac version of the popular VMware family of virtualizers. A virtualizer lets you run another operating system atop your current one. Many businesses use virtualization technology every day. VMware is out to fight with Parallels Desktop, the popular Mac OS X virtualizer. But do you really need to spend upwards of $60 when you want to run a $500 operating system?

Let's go to Linux land. QEMU is a free/open-source software that runs everywhere and lets you emulate a variety of processor architectures. However, it runs on the command line — Terminal.app — which makes the casual user not willing to use it. That's why Mike Kronenberg started Q. Q lets you run QEMU on Mac OS X, and much more.

Two versions of Q exist at the time of writing: 0.9.0, which is the stable release and runs on Mac OS X Panther, Tiger, and Leopard, and 0.9.1, the development release, which runs only on Mac OS X Leopard. I have Tiger, so the screenshots will be from Q 0.9.0. I also don't have a Windows that isn't activated (I used Vista on Boot Camp), so the Windows screenshots are from the Q website.

So what does my Q look like? It looks something like this:

First off is the Q Control. This gives you access to all your virtual machines — the actual operating systems themselves. You can add, modify, delete, start, and stop virtual machines with this.

The Q emulator window shows you the CPU usage, has options for switching CDs and floppy disks, and other items. You can even take a screenshot of the system itself — the one below is from openSUSE. Finally, you can run your operating system in fullscreen mode. Just hit ⌘-F and click OK. From within Fullscreen mode, you can access a toolbar like the one shown below that by hitting ⌘-B.

Q comes with a choice of hardware devices for your operating system. USB support isn't complete yet, though. The Network tab on the dialog to the right lets you configure QEMU's firewall, and the General tab gives you several other options. One of these options is Q Shared Files. You can share files via a CIFS/SMB/Windows share, and the Q Windows Drivers gives Windows systems access to this.

Don't want to hassle with the installation of an operating system? If you want to run a free operating system like Linux, don't worry — Q has you covered. Q gives you quick access to many free operating systems that are ready to run from the Free OS Zoo. Just choose the one of your choice and click Install. I tried some, and some did not work, but your results may differ. My advice is to go with the ones with the Q icon to the left.

Q can even import your Virtual PC 7 or QemuX (a similar project that preceded Q) and — get this — export your machine to a USB flash drive so you can run it on bare hardware. Pretty impressive, no? It also makes the switch to Q easier for VPC users. (Microsoft discontinued the Mac version of Virtual PC and continues to release Windows versions, now freeware.)

So is Q the right choice for you? Q doesn't run everything perfectly yet, as both Q and QEMU are still in beta stages. The KQEMU module, which makes QEMU run faster, isn't in Q yet. And there is nothing like Unity in VMware. QEMU does allow you to run Linux programs without starting an OS, but Q doesn't have this. Oh, and recent Linux distributions may show error messages or not install properly.

Before I go, I want to show you a screenshot of Q₂, the 0.9.1 release of Q for Leopard, from Q's website.

Summary

pros: 

- Easy to use and install, powerful hardware configuration options, export to flash drive, import from Virtual PC 7, download free operating system images in a single click, &c.

- You'll find everything you can expect from any commercial emulator.

- Compact hard drive format saves considerable space. Highly documented, but technical (see below).

cons: 

- Still in development — expect crashes.

- No support for reading from Boot Camp, Parallels, or VMware virtual machines.

- Bleeding-edge version only on Leopard at the moment. No kqemu module to accelerate emulation. A majority of the documentation is that of QEMU itself, not Q, so expect a technical overview of the details.

company: 

Q Development Team

product: 

Q

price: 

$0 USD

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