Heli-Jock
Since I'm on here and Brilliant isn't, I'll give an answer and hope that he isn't offended by my rudeness in answering the question posed to him.
A virtual machine is essentially a computer system acting as if it were another. In Brilliant's case, it sounds like he's using VM Ware, which allows the use of Windows (and Linux, etc.) on a Mac equipped with an Intel processor. The virtual machine is a piece of software that allows a second operating system to run on the same computer at the same time. So, one would start up the Mac, then start VM, which would launch Windows. Now, a Windows-only program, like RANT, can be run on the Mac hardware. Because two operating systems are running at the same time, one "inside" the other, it is desirable to have a fairly high-performance processor and plenty of RAM. The Windows application might not run quite as quickly as if it was on a PC with equivalent hardware specs, but it's much cheaper than a second computer and actually quite adequate. These same Intel-based Macs can also boot natively on Windows, which means it comes on as a PC when started. Another virtual-machine software is Parallels, though I understand VM Ware works a little better, and I prefer and use the latter.
Last edited by rotorfan; 9th June 2012 at 07:52.