Virtualization or Bootcamp?

[robanga]

I have both Mac and Windows machines at home, but the latter are mainly for kids games and recording on media center.

...Still in the office I need to run Windows Vista on a Dell notebook for these main reasons;

1. Outlook 2007
2. An Outlook 2007 GTD Plug-in that I really like and I am driving its use across the company
3. Internet Explorer for access to the Corporate Sharepoint and our Kronos timekeeping system
4. Another Outlook plug-in for Salesforce.com
5. VPN Access to the company from the road, partcularily to the shared network drives etc.
6. A Citrix Client to access our MRP System (But we are moving to Oracle within six months anyway)

I take my personal MacBook Pro to work daily and use it for a lot of MS Office tasks etc.

After a particularly bad day with Vista, Office 2007 and Outlook including 3-4 lockups and a couple of restarts, I got to thinking...ya know? I'd like to spend at least 90% of my day in OS X.

So I think I will buy a new MacBook when they are refreshed next and try either bootcamp or (preferably) something like Parallels. Given the basic info that I have supplied I'm wondering if you good readers would have some thoughts on which would be best. I'd love to not have to go back and fourth via bootcamp.

Entourage will work for connecting to my exchange server i know and give me email when i do not need the Outlook stuff and some calendering
MS Office work ...no problem
How about Outlook in virtualization? Internet Explorer for SharePoints and the other items?

As a funny aside, for many days I have had trouble on Vista with Office 2007 and this particular sales report sent to me in the old .xlt format of Excel. For the life of me Office 2007 will not open it and it definitely should, it is the strangest thing. So I forward the file over to my Mac and Office 2008 opens it perfectly. Go Figure.

Thanks for reading

 

[ayeying]

I'd personally say if you don't have any 3d intensive programs or extremely hungry cpu programs, go virtualization. Its easier.

 

[dimme]

I'd personally say if you don't have any 3d intensive programs or extremely hungry cpu programs, go virtualization. Its easier.

It is easier but the performance in boot camp is far better.

 

[JNB]

It is easier but the performance in boot camp is far better.

Define "far better." I run XP in Boot Camp and under Fusion, as well as Win2K3 Server under Fusion. For the routine tasks noted by the OP, there is no perceptible difference in how an app or the OS performs. If executing any given tasks require the use of X MB of RAM for Y processor cycles, it takes just as long either way, any overhead is negligible.

In my various virtualizations, A also am running MS-SQL, Oracle 9, and Oracle 11 db's for apps that are used to support thousands of users simultaneously, without a lick of hesitation or lag. I should also note that this is allocating a single core and 1GB of RAM. I could give both cores and another gig of memory, but I seriously doubt there'd be a noticeable difference.

So while your statement may be true for a given app or use, you cannot by any stretch of the imagination make that statement into a factual generalization or valid comparison from a usage standpoint.

For the OP, every one of the uses you itemized will run just hunky dory virtualized. I choose to have it both ways, well, because I can. All I'm giving up is the 60GB of drive space I allocated for Windows in Boot Camp (of a 320 GB HDD). 99% of the time though, I just launch Fusion and run XP under that.

 

[ayeying]

It is easier but the performance in boot camp is far better.

I wouldn't say its "far" better but obvioulsy running native vs running virtual, the native would have its advantages.

However, for OP, it seems that visualization is the best option.

 

[mandohack]

VMWare Fusion

I used bootcamp to install Windows on my iMac. I can boot into Windows natively when the extra performance need is evident, like when using Flight Simulator. Otherwise, I boot into OSX and use VMWare Fusion to run the Windows apps in "Unity" mode, meaning the Windows apps run right along side the Mac stuff.

http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/

 

[robanga]

All: Great responses thanks. I do believe I will give both options a try.