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Bosox3

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 7, 2007
207
1
I was wondering which program would work best for what I want to do.
boot camp or Parallels.

I have a full version of Office for windows and really didnt want to have to buy it again for mac...and Id also love to be able to run paltalk.
 

TBi

macrumors 68030
Jul 26, 2005
2,583
6
Ireland
I was wondering which program would work best for what I want to do.
boot camp or Parallels.

I have a full version of Office for windows and really didnt want to have to buy it again for mac...and Id also love to be able to run paltalk.

Parallels in coherance mode will be perfect for you. Assuming you have a spare windows license.

You can always get a free trial of it to see if it suits your needs. Plus it can run your bootcamp partition as a virtual machine so you can have both with only one license.
 

Howard Brazee

macrumors 6502a
Oct 24, 2006
517
7
Lafayette CO
I didn't know that boot camp and parallels could run the same Windows. We have Parallels, and a couple of my wife's old games won't run right. If Boot Camp is cheap with Panther, we will see if we can use it to run her current Parallels XP options.

Will that work?
 

72930

Retired
May 16, 2006
9,060
4
I didn't know that boot camp and parallels could run the same Windows. We have Parallels, and a couple of my wife's old games won't run right. If Boot Camp is cheap with Panther, we will see if we can use it to run her current Parallels XP options.

Will that work?

Boot camp is tiger only, as it only works with intel macs. The latest beta of parallels lets you use your boot camp partition, but some features are disabled.
 

TBi

macrumors 68030
Jul 26, 2005
2,583
6
Ireland
Yes but parallels runs everything. I prefer to pay for something that runs everything i want, every little program that i need, rather than just the ones they support.

They don't seem to support paltalk do they? Or a myriad of other programs you might want to use.

I know, i know... you could just reboot into bootcamp to run these programs but wait... Parallels will let you run your bootcamp partition as a VM so you aren't losing anything.
 

Howard Brazee

macrumors 6502a
Oct 24, 2006
517
7
Lafayette CO
Yes but parallels runs everything. I prefer to pay for something that runs everything i want, every little program that i need, rather than just the ones they support..

It doesn't run a couple of my wife's RealArcade full-screen games correctly yet. (the mouse icon doesn't match what the game sees)
 

Roric

macrumors regular
Sep 29, 2005
176
45
WI
When I ran a comparison between Bootcamp and Parallels (last October), I found Parallels lacking in a couple places and excelling in others.

The following is based on a 1.5GHz Core Solo Mini with 512 RAM:
Processor - 777MHz (P) 1.5GHz (BC)
Memory available to Windows - 178MB (P) 512MB (BC)
Network - wired OR wireless (P) wired AND wireless (BC)
Video - SVGA (P) 3D Graphics (BC)

Parallels also had some advantages over Bootcamp too:
Startup - from within Mac OS (P) Reboot (BC)
Sharing Data - Shared folders configurable (P) Mac can read windows, Windows not see Mac (BC)
Clipboard Cut N Paste - Installable as tool (P) None (BC)
OS Capabilities - Windows 3.11 to 2003, Vista, FreeBSD, OS/2, Solaris (P) Win XP Pro SP2 and above (BC)

(P) = Parallels (BC) = Bootcamp

It is possible Parallels is better now, but for lower end machines, the overhead of runnning Mac OS and Parallels and Windows doesn't leave much for the application you actually want to use. If you have the processor and memory for it and can accept the video and network limitations and feel the $79 is worth it, Parallels could do the job for you. Otherwise, save the money and just use Bootcamp. Either way, you need a Windows license.
 

TBi

macrumors 68030
Jul 26, 2005
2,583
6
Ireland
Buy windows OEM, much cheaper that way. XP Home OEM is only 90 dollars, PRO OEM is 140.

EDIT: Or you can always just take your XP license from an old computer you aren't using any more. Where i work we have XP Pro (Corp) on all our machines which all have a valid XP Home license stuck on the box. I'm not sure of the legality of it but those licenses are all paid up and going to waste...
 

Howard Brazee

macrumors 6502a
Oct 24, 2006
517
7
Lafayette CO
It took me a while to figure out how to install Windows under Parallels. I had an old XP Pro that appeared to be non-upgrade, but when installing it, Windows tried to find an existing Windows. So I bought a non-upgrade W98 on the net, hoping to install it first. Turns out I didn't need that, all I needed was to show that CD to the installation while installing XP.

I wonder if I could have used one of my many upgrade CDs instead.
 

TBi

macrumors 68030
Jul 26, 2005
2,583
6
Ireland
This is why i recommend OEM. Cheaper and less hassle to install. You just don't get a pretty box.
 

Bosox3

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 7, 2007
207
1
thanks for everyones help! Im new to the mac world..so everything is fairly new to me.

I was wondering, I dont have a XP disk..since my other computer came with it installed already. I have a Install / dell disk only.

Would Windows 2000 work just as well.. instead of XP?
 

cbrain

macrumors 65816
Dec 9, 2006
1,049
0
North-East, UK
thanks for everyones help! Im new to the mac world..so everything is fairly new to me.

I was wondering, I dont have a XP disk..since my other computer came with it installed already. I have a Install / dell disk only.

Would Windows 2000 work just as well.. instead of XP?

In Parallels, but not bootcamp.
 

Bosox3

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 7, 2007
207
1
ok..1 last question on this... Ive read a few other posts on this but Im not sure if it would effect me as well.
Is 1 GB enough to run parallels? I heard it might run slow but I was thinking that if I only try to use paltalk..would it do the job?
I wouldnt be running multiple programs at one time..just paltalk.

All of this wouldnt be a problem if the people at paltalk would just make it for mac as well.
 

72930

Retired
May 16, 2006
9,060
4
ok..1 last question on this... Ive read a few other posts on this but Im not sure if it would effect me as well.
Is 1 GB enough to run parallels? I heard it might run slow but I was thinking that if I only try to use paltalk..would it do the job?
I wouldnt be running multiple programs at one time..just paltalk.

All of this wouldnt be a problem if the people at paltalk would just make it for mac as well.

Give 400MB RAM to windows and you'll be laughing...
 
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