Wait until Leopard to use Parallels and Bootcamp?

[JSANDK]

OK, please be gentle, since I am a newbie to Mac, having recently purchased a MBP 2.2/2/160. (Although I will proudly say I owned an original Mac 2 and a Duo a LONG time ago, and had to move to PC because of business needs. It feels great to be back home).

I've already purchased Parallels so I can use some Excel software that won't run on the Mac version of Excel (go figure). I am thinking of using Bootcamp + Parallels, using Bootcamp more for games and occasional speed needs. I am wondering if I should wait until Leopard to install everything? Would I have to reformat, reinstall, etc., or can I install now without much hassle when Leopard finally gets here?

Also, any thoughts on whether Leopard's version of Bootcamp might make Parallels obsolete?

 

[l33r0y]

Boot Camp and Parallels are mutually exclusive. Boot Camp gives the best performance and hardware compatability at the cost of convenience - whereas virtualisation is convenience over performance and compatability.

If you don't want the hassle, hold off for Boot Camp until Leopard as the drivers are sure to be revised (although it is not clear if this will affect the partition itself - I doubt it).

For the time being, stick with virtualisation for your Excel needs, I'm sure it will be fine.

By the way, have you tried VMWare Fusion? Others rate it over Parallels...

 

[TBi]

Leopard will upgrade the tiger install without touching the bootcamp partition. If leopard's bootcamp comes out with updated drivers for XP then you can just reboot into XP and install them.

Also Bootcamp and parallels are drastically different ways of running windows. They both have different uses. Actually bootcamp is not what actually lets you run windows. Parallels is virtualisation, bootcamp is just a set of drivers and a GUI to resize your mac partition.

Parallels = virtualized windows running on OSX
Other (incorrectly called bootcamp*) = running windows as the main OS with full access to all hard ware, just like a standard PC.

*As i've said earlier, bootcamp is a set of drivers and a gui to resize your drive. Mac's don't actually need bootcamp to run windows on them. The firmware in each mac is what allows you to run windows.