virtual pc? worth it?

[BelgianHokie]

i have discovered that my new mac cannot handle some things that i would like it to. my work has contracts with an online training company that will only work with ms os's.

due to my living situation for the next 18 months (confined to a military compound for safety reasons, ie afghanistan) i would like to do some of these things to push towards a promotion.

i already have windows 2k server and pro at my disposal. will virtual pc work with them and will it be worth it. basically i need it to surf the net and utilize presentations that are in a java type of environment. also, maybe listen to a few online radio programs that are in a proprietrary format and are not mac accessible.

thanks=

dhc

 

[edesignuk]

For your needs VPC with W2K Pro will probably cut the mustard. But it's no speed demon.

 

[zap2]

perhaps for your need it could be worth it .

 

[iEdd]

There is another thread on this, as I posted in it, if you don't need all the features of Virtual PC, google for Guest PC or iEmulator... They are both good alternatives.

 

[Nermal]

basically i need it to surf the net and utilize presentations that are in a java type of environment.

Java apps "should" work fine in OS X. Try using the debug menu to spoof Internet Explorer.

 

[mad jew]

But aren't they much much slower epepper9? I wouldn't know, I don't have first hand experience, that's just what I've heard.

 

[MacDawg]

VPC should be OK for you, but you should use Win 2000 instead of XP and read this article and this thread to improve your performance.

Woof, Woof - Dawg

 

[iEdd]

But aren't they much much slower epepper9? I wouldn't know, I don't have first hand experience, that's just what I've heard.

Actually I think iEmulator might be the fastest.

Wintel is the slowest.. Don't anyone get that. It's based on "BOCHS", which was a good attempt, but slow as hell.

 

[Vanilla]

Unless I'm missing something here (and I could well be), if you have a Win2k server to hand couldn't you just use the Microsoft Remote Desktop Client to connect to your windows server from your Mac and run all your windows apps from there?

I use this facility to connect to my work PC desktop from home via my iMac & PowerBook with great success.

Vanilla

 

[ReanimationLP]

Hell no it isnt worth the price tag. You might as well for that price find a used computer. >.<

Sorry, but the performance is horrible unless your on a G5. Then its bearable.

 

[jeremy.king]

Unless I'm missing something here (and I could well be), if you have a Win2k server to hand couldn't you just use the Microsoft Remote Desktop Client to connect to your windows server from your Mac and run all your windows apps from there?

I use this facility to connect to my work PC desktop from home via my iMac & PowerBook with great success.

Vanilla

I believe he meant Win2k server, the operating system. As in, he has install discs.

 

[Vanilla]

I believe he meant Win2k server, the operating system. As in, he has install discs.

oops. my bad. Apologies to BelgianHokie.

In which case I'd be tempted to get a refurb ThinkPad instead of flaffing around with VirtualPc.

Maybe the forthcoming MacTel's will be able to improve the performance of such emulations but the current version of VirtualPc is frankly painful to work with.

Vanilla

 

[mklos]

Hell no it isnt worth the price tag. You might as well for that price find a used computer. >.<

Sorry, but the performance is horrible unless your on a G5. Then its bearable.

I beg to differ! Its true thats its not speed demon, but if you have a newer Mac with around 768MB of RAM or more, then it will actually run pretty well for most normal things. Where VPC sucks is when you need to do CPU intensive things. So for example, running something like AVID in VPC would be nearly impossible, even with a 1 GB of RAM dedicated to VPC.

I have VPC 7.0.2 running my my 1.67 GHz PowerBook G4 with 512MB of RAM and Windows 2000 Pro installed and it actually runs pretty well. Somethings are just as fast as something like a 600 or 700 MHz PC running Win 2000 with 512MB of RAM.

So I guess the short answer is, its worth it as long as what you're doing isn't processor intensive work. What you've described should work well in VPC. Just make sure you have a good amount of RAM. I would put a minimum of 320 MB toward Windows 2000. You can set that in the VPC Settings inside of VPC. I wouldn't go with Win XP as its a CPU/RAM hog and will run slow in VPC. Maybe thats what Reanimation_LP was doing. Believe it or not, VPC is actually running just as good as it did on my 1.8 GHz iMac G5. I was very surprised.

 

[iEdd]

My VPC runs reasonably well.... I have XP Pro.. So it doesn't run as well as the people's who have 2000... But that's windows.. Each OS a comprimise of the others..
It is on a Dual 2.0Ghz G5.. It sees the pc as a "686 536Mhz with 256MB RAM". However, that CPU speed changes sometimes.. Depending on the mac side, and how much RAM I allocate. Now that I have 1.5GB in the G5, I will allocate 1GB of RAM and see how it goes.

 

[Malus]

It does not run well on my G5...its a 2ghz processor and 2 gigs of ram.

I use the microsoft client posted above me, its much better...that is, if you have a pc in your possesion as well.

 

[mklos]

It does not run well on my G5...its a 2ghz processor and 2 gigs of ram.

I use the microsoft client posted above me, its much better...that is, if you have a pc in your possesion as well.

Well what are you trying to do with VPC. Like I said, you won't be able to do things like video editing, or even Photoshop work with out noticing some significant slow downs. I don't think VPC was designed, or created for that purpose. Its made for general usage. Using things like MS Office for Windows, email, browsing, run light weight apps that aren't available for Macs yet. Its not made to run games at all, although I was able to get Roller Coaster Tycoon running on it with ok performance. Thank god a Mac version is being released in a couple of months.

The 2 Gigs of RAM is a little useless for VPC as you can only allocate up to 512MB to a VPC emulation OS anyways, so anything over 1GB doesn't make any difference in performance (the other 512MB is for OSX in case you're scratching your head). You're just not going to see blazing performance. So if you buy VPC thinking you're getting a $300 PC in a cardboard box, then you just wasted your money.

When Microsoft releases an x86 OS X version of VPC (if they do), then performance will be incredibly improved as the program won't need to convert any PPC instructions to x86. For that matter, I would just install Windows and on your Mac and make a dual boot Mac if all possible. I'm sure someone will figure out a way to do so, especially since Apple isn't going to stop anyone trying.

 

[Malus]

Well what are you trying to do with VPC. Like I said, you won't be able to do things like video editing, or even Photoshop work with out noticing some significant slow downs. I don't think VPC was designed, or created for that purpose. Its made for general usage. Using things like MS Office for Windows, email, browsing, run light weight apps that aren't available for Macs yet. Its not made to run games at all, although I was able to get Roller Coaster Tycoon running on it with ok performance. Thank god a Mac version is being released in a couple of months.

The 2 Gigs of RAM is a little useless for VPC as you can only allocate up to 512MB to a VPC emulation OS anyways, so anything over 1GB doesn't make any difference in performance (the other 512MB is for OSX in case you're scratching your head). You're just not going to see blazing performance. So if you buy VPC thinking you're getting a $300 PC in a cardboard box, then you just wasted your money.

When Microsoft releases an x86 OS X version of VPC (if they do), then performance will be incredibly improved as the program won't need to convert any PPC instructions to x86. For that matter, I would just install Windows and on your Mac and make a dual boot Mac if all possible. I'm sure someone will figure out a way to do so, especially since Apple isn't going to stop anyone trying.

Eh, just browsing for me seems a bit slow. I guess I'm just used to Mac quality, and Windows just dosn't show it.