Running windows in OSX

Submitted by mbennett2 on Tue, 2008-03-25 17:26.

Member's Forum

I just received a new Mac Pro desktop workstation (my first with the Intel chip). Yay.

I was just wanting to see how other people are going about running windows on these machines. Are you using boot camp? Parallels? Is there something new-fangled that I don't know about?

I would obviously prefer to run windows through OSX, rather than having to reboot to fire it up. Quite honestly, I avoid windows as much as possible, but I would need to use it mainly for website testing and possibly for file conversions and things like that.

Thanks for any info... enlighten me.

Anyone??? Bueller??

Submitted by mbennett2 on Wed, 2008-03-26 17:28.

Anyone??? Bueller??

I thought about it, but decided better...

Submitted by spigot on Thu, 2008-03-27 02:22.

I run windows on a cheap laptop instead.

~ spigotdesign.com

Me too. :) ---- Powerpoint

Submitted by natobasso on Thu, 2008-03-27 14:26.

Me too. :)

----
Powerpoint is not a design application

Ferris has left the building.

Submitted by 3dogmama on Wed, 2008-03-26 18:01.

Hey,
If you get no answers here today, I'll run your query by my uncle. He's a guru when it comes to computers and is proficient on both platforms--that's his job.
Sorry that I couldn't be of assistance. I just use an old laptop when I need to access anything windows related.

ttfn!
3dogmama

me again--got an answer--my uncle rocks!

Submitted by 3dogmama on Wed, 2008-03-26 19:09.

See

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2990&article=Apple+Bootcamp+versus+Parallels

SUMMARY

1. If working mostly in Mac, occasional Windows use for an application that's not picky about hardware, use

Parallels if running Windows XP
VMWare Fusion if running Windows Vista

2. Only if your Windows application requires access to specific hardware (for speed or functionality) use BootCamp

DETAIL

With BootCamp you choose which OS you are going to use at boot.
(+) Windows is running natively, i.e. has full control of the hardware.
(-) You have to boot into one or the other

With Parallels, Windows is run within a virtual machine inside MacOS.
(+) You can run both Windows and Mac apps simultaneously, and share data more easily.
(-) Because Windows is in a virtual machine, some operations in Windows that require direct access to the hardware will either be slower or in extreme cases not work

There's also a third option: VMWare Fusion. This is a virtual machine system provided by VMWare.
Same advantages and disadvantages as Parallels.

You can look at comparisons at

http://www.mactech.com/articles/mactech/Vol.24/24.02/VirtualizationBenchmark/

and

http://www.macrumors.com/2007/12/19/boot-camp-vs-parallels-vs-vmware-benchmarks/

Hope this helps,
Chris.

ttfn!
3dogmama