Pros and Cons of Windows on the Mac

[stark4]

Can you guys please tell me what are the pros and cons of installing windows on the mac osx?

i have macbook and i'm thinking about installing windows using VirtualBox so that i can run some windows programs on mac but i'm not sure its a good idea or not.

what if i got a virus or spyware while using windows on mac? Are they gonna just infect windows files only or is it gonna destroy my whole hard drive including mac files also? i can afford to lose windows because i won't be saving important files but i CAN'T afford to lose OSX. The only reason i switch to mac was i got tired of Spyware and Viruses.

so if my OSX files will not effect if i got virus/spyware on windows with VirtualBox then i'll install windows on mac. otherwise i'll just stick with OSX.

please let me know

thanks

 

[boast]

a virtual machine acts like a separate computer. Windows would not know that it is running on a VM, therefore not know there is a host computer running on OSX.

It would affect other computers in the network as if it was a separate computer connected to a network.

Even then, there are no hybrid windows+mac viruses that you would need to worry about (AFAIK).

 

[mongrol]

If you're not running gaming then virtualising windows using Virtualbox is the best and cheapest option. OSX will be safe but windows will still need all the anti-virus (avast is free and good) put on just like it was a real PC.

 

[stark4]

If you're not running gaming then virtualising windows using Virtualbox is the best and cheapest option. OSX will be safe but windows will still need all the anti-virus (avast is free and good) put on just like it was a real PC.

yes i'll install anti virus and stuff but lets say if i got infected with a virus/trojan it will destroy windows file system only or my osx files will infected also? do you guys think the hacker will see my whole osx hard drive and steal sensitive files from the osx?

like i said before the reason i switched to mac was i don't want to deal with viruses and hackers. if i install windows and the hack can gain access to my osx files also i'll not gonna install windows on my macbook at all..

thanks for all your help.

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

Virus won't affect the OS X side.

 

[SydneyDev]

Virtualbox is a lot slower than VMware Fusion in my experience.

 

[Stridder44]

Can you guys please tell me what are the pros and cons of installing windows on the mac osx?

i have macbook and i'm thinking about installing windows using VirtualBox so that i can run some windows programs on mac but i'm not sure its a good idea or not.

what if i got a virus or spyware while using windows on mac? Are they gonna just infect windows files only or is it gonna destroy my whole hard drive including mac files also? i can afford to lose windows because i won't be saving important files but i CAN'T afford to lose OSX. The only reason i switch to mac was i got tired of Spyware and Viruses.

so if my OSX files will not effect if i got virus/spyware on windows with VirtualBox then i'll install windows on mac. otherwise i'll just stick with OSX.

please let me know

thanks

CONS: You'll lose some disc space (if that even matters to you). Plus if you plan on playing games VM is a bad idea. If you're only using it for productivity then VM is perfect. That's it. Spyware/Viruses/etc (if you even happen to get one) won't affect any other drive. If a Windows Virus even somehow got on your Mac partition (you'd have to put it there yourself) it wouldn't even know what to do.

PROS: Everything else.

 

[aluminumapple]

also
if you have the new macbook 13" with 9400m nvidia ( if you have 4 gbs of ram although 2 works*not recommended*) when you switch it to windows xp it allows you to have 512 Vram instead of 256 so in gaming performance.. huge upgrade this is basically saying you can play cod 4 max setting max resolution

 

[GSPice]

Fusion is awesome, but I wouldn't use it for gaming...

 

[cathyy]

also
if you have the new macbook 13" with 9400m nvidia ( if you have 4 gbs of ram although 2 works*not recommended*) when you switch it to windows xp it allows you to have 512 Vram instead of 256 so in gaming performance.. huge upgrade this is basically saying you can play cod 4 max setting max resolution

Umm what? The 9400M just isn't powerful enough to play COD4 maxed out. It's not even close. The amount of VRAM it has isn't going to make a difference either.