Whoops! If, because of yesterday's spiel on QuickTransit, you're imagining the Windows version of Doom III running at blazing speeds on a mid-range Power Mac G5and a Golden Age of x86 Emulation free from Redmond's evil clutches, you may want to take it down a notch. Faithful viewer Colin Cornaby noticed something on Transitive's technology overview page that we didn't; it notes that QuickTransit maps between "similar operating system calls" that exist between "any two Unix/Linux-like operating systems." That strongly implies that one of QuickTransit's four key components-- and much of the software's vaunted speed-- goes out the window if QuickTransit is used to translate from one operating system to a dissimilar one, such as Windows to Mac OS X; no wonder they demo the Linux version of Quake 3 running on a PowerBook and not the Windows one. We imagine it'd be possible for Transitive to build a Windows-to-Unix/Linux operating system mapper to regain some of that performance, but that's obviously further down the line, assuming it's on the agenda at all.

That's not to say that it isn't still some promising software; the operating system mapper is just one of QuickTransit's nifty tricks, and we may still see Windows emulation at least partially based on its technology sometime in the future. But if it happens, it's not going to be for a while, and when running Windows apps the speed might not be that much better than Virtual PC's after all. But hey, at least we wouldn't be completely at Microsoft's mercy to get viable x86 emulation on our Macs, and if nothing else QuickTransit looks like it'd still do graphics subsystem mapping for native 3D performance, and even Virtual PC still won't do that.

That's right, we said it still won't-- at least, not in the long-awaited version 7 that's slated to ship next month. Oh, sure, we know that was one of the most eagerly-awaited features planned for Virtual PC 7, since it'd make at least some non-ancient Windows games adequately playable on fast Macs. But AppleInsider is reporting that Microsoft has chucked a "significant number" of planned features from version 7's spec sheet in order to hit its (already really late) October ship date. So wave buh-bye to native graphics card support and 3D acceleration; say sayonara to punching through the 512 MB RAM ceiling; bid adieu to RAM disk support; spit out a big, fat paalam na po to better multiprocessing usage. Shades of Longhorn, anybody?

The upshot, then, is that the one planned feature that Virtual PC 7 does retain-- its long overdue compatibility with the G5 processor-- might not be enough to deliver the blazing speed users have come to expect from this upgrade. Sure, if you have a G5 it'll be infinitely faster than not running at all, but most of the features that Microsoft cut stood a chance to deliver significant performance improvements. Don't like it? No problem, just go buy the competition's product instea--

Oh. Right.

Well, don't fret; AI says that "most, if not all of the features cut from the development of Virtual PC 7.0" will simply migrate to future upgrades. Sure, you've been waiting for over a year already, but c'mon, are you really going to need those features before "next summer" anyway? Besides, now you can spend all that time weaving your complex conspiracy theories about how Microsoft is "accidentally" keeping Windows emulation hobbled on the Mac platform just so the buying public doesn't see a Mac with Virtual PC to be a workable substitute for a real Windows system. Memo to the Transitive folks: if you are planning to bring QuickTransit to the Mac platform as a Windows emulation solution, you may want to beef up security around the office and hire a team of food-tasters. You know, just to be... cautious.