Windows functionality on Mac and your opinion

[Kia]

Hi all,

I'm about to buy a new laptop and torn between a PC or Mac. I'm essentially a .Net programmer amongst other reasons why having a windows based PC is essential to me. Nothing else can compensate if my windows applications can't run correctly. Visual Studio 6, 2005, MS Office, Photoshop CS and my most beloved games. Ok, the games not somuch, but the rest MUST run correctly or I have wasted years in my career.

I really need everyone's honest opinion on the stability of windows on macs and how correctly the applications run. Will I encounter sudden surprise issues where I have to spend days fixing and tweeking instead of working?

Do dual monitors work under windows?

Is there a software developer out there using this combination? What do you think?


Thanks, Kia

 

[iBookG4user]

Well if you use bootcamp, then your Mac is essentially a Windows computer, so it'll act exactly as one when you're using windows. You could also try using Parallels or VM Ware, and it'll basically be a windows computer inside a virtual machine. You shouldn't expect any more sudden surprises than you would on a regular windows based PC while using windows on a Mac.

 

[72930]

With BootCamp, the same software will work as on a regular PC with the exact same specs, but you have to restart every time to switch OS.

With Parallels (or VMWare's Fusion), I would get the free NeoOffice so you don't need Office in Parallels, then consider buying the next MS Office when it comes out (later this year). Photoshop will need a LOT of RAM to work comfortably in Parallels.

 

[Vorbis]

Yeah I have no issues using Windows with my Mac, but really, whats the point of getting a mac when you need to work with Windows apps most of the time?
Just buy a dell or something...its cheaper and you can still play all yer games.

 

[sushi]

Visual Studio 6, 2005, MS Office, Photoshop CS and my most beloved games.

MS Office 2003 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint & Access) works perfect in both Parallels and with Boot Camp.

Additionally, Visual Basic .Net seems to works fine in both. Note, I have not tested it extensively since I use my Sharp MM20 most of the time when I am doing .Net tasks.

Don't know about the others. As for games, if they are graphics intensive you need to check the specs of the game and compare to the Mac hardware.

Hope this helps.

 

[Kia]

...whats the point of getting a mac when you need to work with Windows apps most of the time?
Just buy a dell or something...its cheaper and you can still play all yer games.

That's a good question. I was tempted, but the problem is that they just don't make PCs anywhere near the quality of Macs. Especially Dell. Mac laptops are thin, reliable, great quality and would give me the opportunity to use a Mac. I'm not too happy about the price thou

Anyway I've heard some good news here.. But where are the negative experiences? Who's had major issues while doing this?

 

[sotl]

That's a good question. I was tempted, but the problem is that they just don't make PCs anywhere near the quality of Macs. Especially Dell. Mac laptops are thin, reliable, great quality and would give me the opportunity to use a Mac. I'm not too happy about the price thou

Anyway I've heard some good news here.. But where are the negative experiences? Who's had major issues while doing this?

I've only ran into issues with drivers and Vista 64-bit. XP and Vista 32-bit work flawlessly with no issues. I run various apps and games and everything has worked fine. Reliability wise windows runs just as good as on any other computer. I bought my MacBook Pro about 2 months ago. It's my first mac and I haven't looked back once.

I've been running my XP partition everyday since then inside of parallels desktop/vmware or bootcamp and I have had no issues. Recently I jumped over to Vista and now boot into it directly for the aero gui. Again, no problems. It's excelled at everything I've thrown at it except for some of the newer games, but then again you can't expect too much from an ATI X1600.

BE WARNED: Others in your field may openly mock you for using a Mac
I'm an IT professional and my boss refers to me as a "Mac guy". Other IT people have expressed their apologies for my decision.

 

[rlk62098]

Mini - a very good Windows machine

In putting my two-cents in here, I have two mac minis (G4 1.42 and Duo Core 1.66), and they have been two of the most trouble-free, reliable, and solid machines I've owned. And I've had a bit of everything from the old Commodore 64 to Mac SE/30 to Mac Quadra to Gateway to IBM ThinkPad to the first iMac and a G3 B/W machine.

I can point to the Intel mini as being an excellent dual-purpose machine (i.e. running Windows with Boot Camp). Anyone reading other prominent forums, like MacWindows for example, can see that many have experienced various issues (keyboards, USB, etc...) running Windows on the MacBook Pro, the MacBook, and even the iMacs. The Intel Mac Mini has had none of these problems, and it has been literally the best Windows PC I've ever had.

Soon, I will be retiring my ThinkPad, and the choice is obvious. A MacBook with Boot Camp offers the best of both worlds.