An Easy, Cheap Way to Run Non-OS X EVE Tools on your Mac

08 September 2009

The era of having only PC applications to plan skills, ship fittings and market strategy is rapidly coming to an end. MacEveAPI, for example, is an excellent skill planning alternative to EveMon, and there are several other OS X-native programs in various stages of development.

Fortunately, those of us who are impatient for an OS X version of Eve Fitting Tool (EFT), and who are not qualified to assist with development, do have a few options.

We can use Bootcamp to switch to a hard drive partition that runs the Windows operating system. Now we have the reverse problem. We can play EVE and run EFT and other Windows applications, but without access to our familiar OS X tools. No Spotlight, no Finder, no Keychain ... no [insert your favorite Mac feature here]. Ack!

Alternatively, we can reside within the comfort and safety of OS X and still run useful Windows stuff inside a virtual machine, using VMware Fusion or Parallels (about $80). Particularly if you are a new Mac user, the thought of paying for an application to run Windows inside of OS X can really hurt.

Fortunately, there is a less expensive way to enslave Windows to its OS X master. VirtualBox is an open source virtualization program that will run in OS X (and pretty much every other operating system), and host any number of different ‘guest’ operating systems, including Windows. Like Fusion and Parallels, VirtualBox will display programs like EFT in a dedicated window, without that nasty Windows desktop in the background. Download and installation is not complicated, and updates are released regularly by Sun Microsystems, the project sponsor.

Until recently, Windows 7 (the most recent release candidate) was also free. While Microsoft is no longer offering free download of Windows 7 RC, they will still provide a product key until October 21, 2009, if you already have the download. Maybe one of your friends still has a copy.

Windows 7 RC will expire on June 1, 2010, and will let you know of the impending expiration by shutting itself down every 2 hours, beginning March 1, 2010. But in the meantime, this may be the frugal person’s best option for playing EVE with the Mac client while ship-fitting and market-analyzing with PC applications.

“Take Windows 7 for a Spin with VirtualBox” - Steven J. Vaughn-Nichols for Computerworld

“Installing Windows 7 Beta in Sun’s VirtualBox” - Two Guys Tech