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daneoni

macrumors G5
Original poster
Mar 24, 2006
12,016
1,915
....why should i pay for parallels as opposed to just downloading bootcamp which is free and using that i.e. whats so great about parallels?
 
Parallels will run side by side with OS X. BootCamp lets you run either OS X or Windows. The upside with bootcamp (for now) is it will allow 3D GFX Acceleration (ie you need it to play windows games).
 
Parallels also has a Compressor feature that can shrink down the amount of size Windows takes on your disk.
 
And, the latest Parallels beta has a feature called Coherence Mode, which makes it appear as if your Windows applications are running directly alongside your OS X apps, in their own windows. This is really useful when doing things like web development and I can have IE 6 and IE 7 open in their own widows without having a whole virtual machine window blocking most of my second monitor.
 
Fair points. Can it run windows off an external HDD or does it have to be the same HDD with different partitions. Come to think of it, can bootcamp do this as well?, run windows off an external HDD?
 
Also, correct me if I am wrong, but BootCamp is just a public beta assumed to be no longer free when Leopard is released. Meaning that you will need to buy Leopard to continue running BootCamp. I don't know if that is necessarily true but is the rumor, right?
 
Fair points. Can it run windows off an external HDD or does it have to be the same HDD with different partitions. Come to think of it, can bootcamp do this as well?, run windows off an external HDD?


Well, windows generally doesn't allow you to install to an external hard drive. They're too afraid of piracy:rolleyes:
 
Fair points. Can it run windows off an external HDD or does it have to be the same HDD with different partitions. Come to think of it, can bootcamp do this as well?, run windows off an external HDD?
When you setup a virtulal machine in Parallels, you create a virtual hard drive (onto which you'll install your OS). You can put this virtual hard drive on just about any drive -- internal, external it doesn't matter. Windows thinks this virtual drive is just a regular drive.

For example, I just upgraded from MacBook to a MacBook Pro. To move my Parallels Windows XP virtual machine to my new MBP, all I had to do was install Parallels on my MBP and move these three files over to my MBP.
 

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When you setup a virtulal machine in Parallels, you create a virtual hard drive (onto which you'll install your OS). You can put this virtual hard drive on just about any drive -- internal, external it doesn't matter. Windows thinks this virtual drive is just a regular drive.

For example, I just upgraded from MacBook to a MacBook Pro. To move my Parallels Windows XP virtual machine to my new MBP, all I had to do was install Parallels on my MBP and move these three files over to my MBP.

Good to know.
 
When you setup a virtulal machine in Parallels, you create a virtual hard drive (onto which you'll install your OS). You can put this virtual hard drive on just about any drive -- internal, external it doesn't matter. Windows thinks this virtual drive is just a regular drive.
Except one limitation is some network drives. You can't run a Parallels VM that's on a smbfs network but you can with an nfs network.
 
Also, correct me if I am wrong, but BootCamp is just a public beta assumed to be no longer free when Leopard is released. Meaning that you will need to buy Leopard to continue running BootCamp. I don't know if that is necessarily true but is the rumor, right?

You mean Boot Camp will suddenly fail to boot as soon as Leopard is released? Wow, what else will they think of!? :rolleyes:

Seriously, you're Boot Camp will continue running just fine in 10.4.X. The worst that can happen is that you may no longer be able to download the latest version of Boot Camp without Leopard.
 
They have never stated bootcamp would be charged for.

So a free beta does not necessrily mean a extra cost application.

Free could mean simply it's open to anyone who wants to use it and requires to registration.
 
You mean Boot Camp will suddenly fail to boot as soon as Leopard is released? Wow, what else will they think of!? :rolleyes:

Seriously, you're Boot Camp will continue running just fine in 10.4.X. The worst that can happen is that you may no longer be able to download the latest version of Boot Camp without Leopard.

Also, correct me if I am wrong, but BootCamp is just a public beta assumed to be no longer free when Leopard is released. Meaning that you will need to buy Leopard to continue running BootCamp. I don't know if that is necessarily true but is the rumor, right?

They have never stated bootcamp would be charged for.

So a free beta does not necessrily mean a extra cost application.

Free could mean simply it's open to anyone who wants to use it and requires to registration.

Or, if you want to upgrade when an update comes out you must have Leopard installed... but, who knows. We'll have to wait till Leopard comes out till we can be definitive on any of this.
 
They have never stated bootcamp would be charged for.

So a free beta does not necessrily mean a extra cost application.

Free could mean simply it's open to anyone who wants to use it and requires to registration.

Hi,
As I understand it, Bootcamp (final version) will be incorporated into Leopard. I would imagine that installing Leopard will automatically disable the beta version of Bootcamp.

I would also imagine that Bootcamp beta will continue to run as long as you are running Tiger.

Dave :cool:
 
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