Parallels ... Mac and Windows

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kapovski

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I need 2 PC's. One windows based for business stuff and one that runs GarageBand for my hobbie. An obvious delima results.

I've read a bit about running wondiws on a Mac using parallels. Does anyone have first hand expeirence with this. Does it work? Does it work well? Is it easy to operate if you have basci PC literacy or is it a bit more complex.

Complex for me was installing Ubuntu. I lasted a week. Too much techno stuff required around search for drivers and tweaks and fixes etc...
 
Running under parallels (and afaik vmware) is easy. It looks and feels just like windows for most applications.

I would however, install bootacamp first, then use that as the base for parallels - that way if you come across something that wont run virtualised you can still boot into windows 100% natively. :)
 
Is bootcamp free? I'm adding up costs. Parallels plus Windows is about R3000 as far as I can tell.
 
Bootcamp is indeed free (with Leopard) but the issue to remember is that it's not a virtual machine but an entirely new partition on your hard drive.

I personally don't think it is as fast as a dedicated Windows machine but it's as close as you can get.
 
kapovski said:
Is it fast enough for email and word?
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Its as fast as any Windows PC of the same spec if not faster. I am running it on a C2D Macbook and it runs just fine - Word opens quicker than on my C2D PC.
 
Rewind said:
I personally don't think it is as fast as a dedicated Windows machine but it's as close as you can get.
Click to expand...

When you run Windows through Bootcamp, your Mac now *is* a dedicated Windows machine. Windows will run as fast as it would on any other notebook with identical specs.
 
See my logic gets that as well, it just doesn't seem as fast as it should. I've got basically the exact spec in a desktop and it definitely runs faster in Windows. Start up takes forever on a Macbook booting into Windows but maybe now that I think if it the problem is the small hard drive space it has.

Never mind, move along :)

If you want to use a laptop for word and emails there are perfectly good programs that can do those jobs in OSX. There's no real need for Windows unless you need something very specific.
 
As far as speed goes dont forget the MacBook Pro was cited as being the fastest vista laptop by PC World magazine so it cant be all that bad. :)
 
Rewind said:
If you want to use a laptop for word and emails there are perfectly good programs that can do those jobs in OSX. There's no real need for Windows unless you need something very specific.
Click to expand...

I agree with this. My wife however would sooner stab our kids than learn how to use a mouse with only one button.

I just want it for GarageBand. I intend to run Windows 90% of the time and OSX only when I practice music.
 
Rewind said:
See my logic gets that as well, it just doesn't seem as fast as it should. I've got basically the exact spec in a desktop and it definitely runs faster in Windows. Start up takes forever on a Macbook booting into Windows but maybe now that I think if it the problem is the small hard drive space it has.
Click to expand...

The hard drive in your PC is probably 7200rpm, while the one in your MacBook is certainly only 5400rpm - that's a 33% spindle speed improvement. For another thing, if your desktop hard drive is fairly recent, it may also have more cache than the notebook drive - that makes a huge difference even if the spindle speeds were the same.
 
kapovski said:
I agree with this. My wife however would sooner stab our kids than learn how to use a mouse with only one button.
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Are you kidding me? Who the heck owns a single button mouse these days? :eek: Even Apple's own mighty mouse has two (ok more) clicks to it.
 
The Apple Mighty Mouse is by far the nicest mouse I've ever owned.
PS: keep the wife away from the kids and get her any mouse that has two buttons, they mostly all work in OSX.
 
Rewind said:
The Apple Mighty Mouse is by far the nicest mouse I've ever owned.
PS: keep the wife away from the kids and get her any mouse that has two buttons, they mostly all work in OSX.
Click to expand...
Really? Fair enough - I'm a trackpad guy myself so they all feel pretty foreign in my hands :)
 
My previous mouse was a wireless Microsoft mouse. While it was nice accessory I much prefer the weighting of the Might Mouse. The buttons are great as well. All in all, very happy.
 
Rewind said:
My previous mouse was a wireless Microsoft mouse. While it was nice accessory I much prefer the weighting of the Might Mouse. The buttons are great as well. All in all, very happy.
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WRT weighting - one battery or two?
 
Two, no mousepad. It's a fun sexy time.

Never actually tried it with one actually, cant imagine it better though.
 
The rug rat keeps making off with mine - sometimes I dont see it for days - TG for teleport :D
 
kapovski said:
I agree with this. My wife however would sooner stab our kids than learn how to use a mouse with only one button.

I just want it for GarageBand. I intend to run Windows 90% of the time and OSX only when I practice music.
Click to expand...

Eish.. cant we run a 2 page advert in the Sunday Times that Mac dropped that about (insert no here) operating systems ago. Everybody that sees my Macbook complains about one mouse button until I show them that the mouse has about 6 buttons and they all work if I want them to. People, Mac OSX uses *two* (multiple) buttons
 
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adsl3g said:
Eish.. cant we run a 2 page advert in the Sunday Times that Mac dropped that about (insert no here) operating systems ago. Everybody that sees my Macbook complains about one mouse button until I show them that the mouse has about 6 buttons and they all work if I want them to. People, Mac OSX uses *two* (multiple) buttons
Click to expand...
The trackpad also used to be annoying to some but even with that you can achieve a secondary click by having two fingers on the pad when you click. :)
 
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