Apple OS X & Windows XP, together in perfect harmony

A few months ago I bought a Macbook laptop, which is one of the Intel-based computers that Apple started producing about a year ago.  One of my goals was to eliminate all of my Windows based computers.  The Intel-based Macs can run Windows natively.  I wanted to run Mac OS X natively and then make occassional use of Windows.  Enter Apple's Bootcamp application, which allows me to partition part of my hard drive and allocate it for use as a Windows computer.

Only problem was I had to chose upon bootup which operating system I wanted to run.  I had heard about Parallels,which is 'virtual computing' solution that allows you to run a main operating system and then have other operating systems (called 'guest OSs') inside that main OS.  I started to play with Parallels and then sort of put that project on the backburner.  Then, the other day I was listening to Leo Laporte's TWIT netcast (aka "This Week in Technology") and he was raving about the beta version of Parallels that just came out.  It has this thing called "Coherhence" which makes the Windows integration seem even more natural.

I'm running my Macbook right now and I have Windows XP running in a separate screen.  I've loaded Internet Explorer 7 and I'm posting this using Windows as a 'guest OS'.  That's how I like Windows running.  If Windows misbehaves and needs to reboot, it can do that in it's own little screen while I keep working with my main OS.  And, of course, the best part is that I can run those few Windows applications that I need to run only occassionally and do it without rebooting my computer and losing the latest state of my Mac-environment. 

Oh man, this totally and completely ROCKS!!! 

(It's available for free in its beta-version.  And click here for more information).