>Thought this might amuse some folks ...
>
>Connectix (think QuickCams, think RAM Doubler, Speed Doubler etc.) is
>coming out with a "Virtual PC emulator" that's supposed to emulate an
>entire (BIOS and all) Pentium PC in software on a PowerMac running MacOS.
>
>I got my hands on a beta copy (1.0beta6) and decided to have fun by feeding
>it the NetBSD/i386 1.2 install floppies ... (this was on a PowerMac 8600/200)
>
> [...deleted...]
>
>(The 4-disk Plan 9 i386 distribution also goes down in flames, right off the
> bat.  So much for Connectix's claims to run "any" OS, UNIX included.)
>
>Anyway, just thought some of you might be amused.  It apparently can run DOS,
>Windows 3.1, Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0 without much trouble at this 
>stage.

I too tried the Beta 1.0b6 version of VirtualPC with NetBSD/i386 and 
FreeBSD, but with different results.  FreeBSD 2.1.7 aborts with illegal 
instruction errors during boot, but NetBSD/i386 1.2D booted and ran on 
the Mac I used (a Performa-5300 120Mhz 603e). I used the 1.2D snapshot 
that Perry built and placed on the NetBSD FTP Server.

A few minor problems I noticed with the emulator:
1) Floppy support was a little touchy. Some NetBSD disks were difficult 
to read.
2) Ethernet emulation would cause probe problems during boot. Had to 
disable the card.
3) CDROM was unsupported, but then NetBSD doesn't support ATAPI CDROMs 
yet.
4) Shared Folders didn't work.

The only problem I ran into with the 1.2D i386 snapshot, was the that the 
installer disk can't write disklabels to a brand new disk. Looks like a 
missing parameter in the install script bundled on the installer 
mini-root disk. A little manual intervention and I was up and running.

Can't say that it ran lightening fast or even anywhere near the speed of 
NetBSD/mac68k on my old Mac, but it was a real hoot to see NetBSD up and 
running on my PowerMac.

-bob