Hot. Hot. Hot.

That’s all I can say about the launch of the beta program for VMware’s virtualization platform for Mac OS X on Intel.

There is a great write-up on the new beta on tuaw.com (The Unoffical Apple Weblog)

What’s exciting about this release?

• Run multiple OSes.  You can run a large number of x86 OSes on VMware, including Windows & Linux.
• Run as many instances as you want.  Why stop at running two?  VMware customers have gotten used to running as many as their hardware can support.  The Mac  Pro with four Xeons can certainly handle more than two.
• Virtual Appliances.  Pre-configured OS images set up to serve as network servers – all running on a single machine.  There are over 300 virtual network appliances to choose from.
• Leverage Multiple Cores. Unlike Parallels, VMware understands how to use multi-core chips, like the Intel Core Duo and Xeon chips that Apple machines use.
• Drag & Drop between Windows & Mac.  This is the major gap in the current Parallels software.  You will want to move files between the two.

I currently don’t find the need to run Windows much – except for Outlook at work.  Given the fact that no other Intel machine can run Mac OS, this makes owning a Mac likely the most flexible choice for people who prefer the Mac for personal use, but need Windows or Linux from time to time.