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deepy

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 28, 2006
160
0
Woahhh I just installed Parallels on my macbook with windows xp sp2....wow!!

Makes me actually *like* windows again because its running within mac os lol. Its so smooth and nice!

How well will it run NFS Most Wanted? lol i'm installing it now but its taking forever because its doing it via CD images on my pc over wireless. Mind you, I only havve 512mb of RAM so i'm guessing it'll be rubbish lol.
 

deepy

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 28, 2006
160
0
almonde said:
I think the 3d acceleration in Parallels is experimental to non existent at the moment. So it probably won't run.


Too right!
 

yoda13

macrumors 65816
Sep 26, 2003
1,468
2
Texas
Whoever thought us Mac users would get so excited about running Windows on our machines.:D
 

Abulia

macrumors 68000
Jun 22, 2004
1,786
1
Kushiel's Scion
MacRumorUser said:
The next version of Parallels will apparently support GPU acceleration. That should be 'sweeeeeeet' :)
Personally, I think it'll be 'barely acceptable.'

GPU rendering in a virtual environment with the OS overhead of two OSes != good performance.
 

Shadow

macrumors 68000
Feb 17, 2006
1,577
1
Meh. Parallels uses too much RAM, even when I told it not too. Its too slow, and its Windows (I dont have/want a Linux install disk-got XGL 0.2 though:cool: ).
 

BSME

macrumors newbie
Sep 8, 2006
25
0
it's a beautiful solution to running office 2003.

i was trying out open office, and it just isn't the same...
 

Gosh

macrumors 6502
Aug 14, 2006
349
0
Mitthrawnuruodo said:
I just love the ultimate irony in running Windows in a window... :D

Yes it makes XP subordinate to OS X - rather than its equal as in Boot Camp - my thinking anyway!

The other more unfortunate irony is of course a Mac user paying out for Windows!

Let's hope he doesn't pay out for MS Office and uses equally good OpenOffice in XP or NeoOffice in OS X!
 

BSME

macrumors newbie
Sep 8, 2006
25
0
Gosh said:
Let's hope he doesn't pay out for MS Office and uses equally good OpenOffice in XP or NeoOffice in OS X!

i have to argue that point.

i had tried to adapt to using both openoffice and neooffice, and neither one can match the quality of MS Office. i can see either being decent enough for one who would rather not spend the money, but if you've got the cash and want a superior program, nothing out right now tops Office 2003...
 

4np

macrumors 6502a
Feb 23, 2005
972
2
The Netherlands
Is it actually possible to use the same windows partition with both parallels and bootcamp? It would be nice to boot into bootcamp for gaming or use parallels for other applications that don't require extensive directx usage...
 

balamw

Moderator emeritus
Aug 16, 2005
19,365
979
New England
4np said:
Is it actually possible to use the same windows partition with both parallels and bootcamp? It would be nice to boot into bootcamp for gaming or use parallels for other applications that don't require extensive directx usage...
No you can't. You can however mount your Boot Camp partition from within Parallels which would allow you to potentially cut down on the files thet need to be in your Parallels VM.

B
 

Gosh

macrumors 6502
Aug 14, 2006
349
0
BSME said:
i have to argue that point.

i had tried to adapt to using both openoffice and neooffice, and neither one can match the quality of MS Office. i can see either being decent enough for one who would rather not spend the money, but if you've got the cash and want a superior program, nothing out right now tops Office 2003...

I'm no pro user of office software but I find Open/NeoOffice more than ample. Excel has nothing on Calc and Writer is pretty much as good as Word. Saving to pdf and Open Document formats (as well as MS Office formats) feels like being on the winning side of a world war - or at least the just side! MS Office has familiarity on its side becuase we all get indoctrinated with it from an early age!

I respect your pov though!
 

4np

macrumors 6502a
Feb 23, 2005
972
2
The Netherlands
balamw said:
No you can't. You can however mount your Boot Camp partition from within Parallels which would allow you to potentially cut down on the files thet need to be in your Parallels VM.

B

Hmm bummer.... And how is a Parallels VM installed? Is the WM's 'harddrive' contained in one big file or is it on seperate partition?
 

Josias

macrumors 68000
Mar 10, 2006
1,908
1
Grrr! I tried to get FireFox in Windows XP (Bootcamp) on my MacBook, but IE 6 keeps crashing.

I still don't like Windows.

However, my MacBook can give me more than 30 fps at 640x480 in Halo at lowest settings, and a good 20 fps at 1280x800 at lowest settings. Haven't tried 1280x800 at highest settings...:D
 

bankshot

macrumors 65816
Jan 23, 2003
1,368
425
Southern California
ChrisG said:
Meh. Parallels uses too much RAM, even when I told it not too. Its too slow, and its Windows (I dont have/want a Linux install disk-got XGL 0.2 though:cool: ).

Out of curiosity, how is it too slow for you? I've been running it for a few months now (2.0 GHz Macbook, 2 GB RAM) and it screams in every guest OS I've given it. 3-D graphics is the one serious bottleneck as everyone knows, but that doesn't affect me too much as I do primarily software development and compatibility testing. Near as I can tell, most of that stuff runs pretty darn close to native speed.
 

balamw

Moderator emeritus
Aug 16, 2005
19,365
979
New England
4np said:
Hmm bummer.... And how is a Parallels VM installed? Is the WM's 'harddrive' contained in one big file or is it on seperate partition?
One file, which can be on an external drive. It's pretty good about keeping the size to the absolute minimum required storing only the bits with data in them.

B
 

bankshot

macrumors 65816
Jan 23, 2003
1,368
425
Southern California
4np said:
Hmm bummer.... And how is a Parallels VM installed? Is the WM's 'harddrive' contained in one big file or is it on seperate partition?

It's one big file per virtual hard disk. Rumor has it they're working on being able to boot directly off of a separate partition so that users can keep the same install for both Bootcamp and Parallels, but it's not there yet.

Bah, beaten by one minute! :rolleyes:
 

4np

macrumors 6502a
Feb 23, 2005
972
2
The Netherlands
balamw said:
One file, which can be on an external drive. It's pretty good about keeping the size to the absolute minimum required storing only the bits with data in them.

B

So it can also be on a SMB share? ;) Anybody tried that? :) It's probably pretty slow I guess...
 

Am3822

macrumors 6502
Aug 16, 2006
424
0
Groningen, The Netherlands
Parallels question

How do I transfer files between the parallels-hosted OS (XP/linux/2K) and OS X? Is it a simple drag and drop thing? Is there a way to transfer files between the parallels guest OS and OS X? Some sort of internal networking between the two operating systems, perhaps?
 

Gosh

macrumors 6502
Aug 14, 2006
349
0
Am3822 said:
How do I transfer files between the parallels-hosted OS (XP/linux/2K) and OS X? Is it a simple drag and drop thing? Is there a way to transfer files between the parallels guest OS and OS X? Some sort of internal networking between the two operating systems, perhaps?

There's a Shared folder (or folders) for your files! You can drop n' drag text though between OS's. Also if you have a dotMac account there is an iDisk utility for XP which works really well - I like it more than accessing iDisk via OS X!
 

BSME

macrumors newbie
Sep 8, 2006
25
0
Gosh said:
I'm no pro user of office software but I find Open/NeoOffice more than ample. Excel has nothing on Calc and Writer is pretty much as good as Word. Saving to pdf and Open Document formats (as well as MS Office formats) feels like being on the winning side of a world war - or at least the just side! MS Office has familiarity on its side becuase we all get indoctrinated with it from an early age!

I respect your pov though!


i completely agree regarding the PDF issue (which is why i've still got openoffice installed), and can't comment on Calc vs. Excel, but i found Writer to be quirky, wanting to finish my words if it thought i was writing something longer, and the spell check function needs some work.

for what it is, it's definitely more than adequate, there's just so much more behind the MS Office products that you can't ignore them, regardless of cost.
 
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