Bootcamp or Parallels?

[stewdog1]

I am considering purchasing a 2.8 iMac and maxing out the RAM. However I'm not familiar enough with Bootcamp or Parallels to know if it is worth paying for Parallels.

I would like to use Office, but not for Mac as MSDN doesn't have Office for Mac available for download. I figure Parallels would be best since it can "boot" Windows while I'm in MacOS. But what is there a performance hit? Also, if I were to game, which would be a better option?

Also, can Bootcamp support other installs like Ubuntu or RedHat?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

[CWallace]

I use Parallels for everything except gaming and it works fine on my 2.4GHz MacBook Pro with 4GB of RAM. I run Windows XP and give it 1.5GB of RAM and it's happy. I also like the fact that using Parallel's Coherence, the Windows applications behave as if they were OS X apps so I can move them around the desktop as necessary and not keep them confined to the Windows desktop area.

For games (which for me is RPGs), I use Boot Camp.

 

[Mr. Zarniwoop]

Boot Camp, CrossOver, Parallels, VMware Fusion in three bullet points each!

Virtualization does take a performance hit, but most people find it not noticeable for productivity applications like Microsoft Office.

CrossOver is also an option for running Microsoft Office for Windows under Mac OS X with better performance than virtualization, because it doesn't have the overhead of Windows, but it can't run nearly as many Windows applications as real Windows can.

Some games kinda-work under virtualization or under CrossOver, but in general Boot Camp is much better for games.

 

[dubhe]

I don't use Windows that much so Boot Camp is fine for me. I like keeping it separate, though I can still transfer files across the partitions.

 

[maestrocasa]

I really like VMWare Fusion. (this over parallels, based on discussions in this forum). I have noticed no performance hit, but I'm not using any real heavy processing in windows. I tried to do boot camp, but it wouldn't take my OEM version of windows XP, so virtualization only for me. If you have a retail version of windows, you can install it in a boot camp partition, AND install Fusion, which will utilize that partition. that way, you can virtualize when you want, and run windows "natively" from boot camp for your gaming.

good luck

 

[stewdog1]

Thanks for the responses. Good information.

Does anyone know if Bootcamp can install anything other than Windows? I didn't see it on Apple's site.

 

[dubhe]

I really like VMWare Fusion. (this over parallels, based on discussions in this forum). I have noticed no performance hit, but I'm not using any real heavy processing in windows. I tried to do boot camp, but it wouldn't take my OEM version of windows XP, so virtualization only for me. If you have a retail version of windows, you can install it in a boot camp partition, AND install Fusion, which will utilize that partition. that way, you can virtualize when you want, and run windows "natively" from boot camp for your gaming.

good luck

I installed an OEM version of XP (Home) no problem.

 

[CWallace]

Does anyone know if Bootcamp can install anything other than Windows? I didn't see it on Apple's site.

Yes you can. Here is an article on installing Linux.

And I also have had no problems installing OEM versions of Windows XP in Boot Camp.

The only thing I do wish Parallels would support is 64-bit operating systems (like Windows Vista x64), but I expect it is coming as VMWare Fusion does.

 

[maestrocasa]

I installed an OEM version of XP (Home) no problem.

Interesting. Apple's documentation said it wouldn't work, and that was my experience. I tried to install an OEM XP Pro SP2 and no luck. (tried twice). I'm using Tiger, did you have luck with Tiger, or are you running Leopard?

 

[mcnees287]

VMware, have used parallels, VM is superior

Bootcamp has its advantages over both however.

 

[dubhe]

Interesting. Apple's documentation said it wouldn't work, and that was my experience. I tried to install an OEM XP Pro SP2 and no luck. (tried twice). I'm using Tiger, did you have luck with Tiger, or are you running Leopard?

Leopard

 

[CWallace]

Interesting. Apple's documentation said it wouldn't work, and that was my experience. I tried to install an OEM XP Pro SP2 and no luck. (tried twice). I'm using Tiger, did you have luck with Tiger, or are you running Leopard?

I had no issues in either Tiger (I came in around 10.4.5 or so) or Leopard (10.5.0-onwards).

 

[stewdog1]

Yes you can. Here is an article on installing Linux.

Great, thanks!