Windows XP on MBA

[dshlapak]

Hello.

My bride's job involves building and using Access databases, and so she's professionally tied to the Wonderful World of Windows. At home she's a Mac user, though. I want to get her a new laptop, and I know she's drooling--in a very cute and lady-like way, of course--over the Air. Anyone care to comment on their experiences or expectations regarding running Windows/access on an MBA? Anyone doing it on the new model yet?

Thanks in advance of any advice.

Cheers.

--- das

 

[keantan]

Hello.

My bride's job involves building and using Access databases, and so she's professionally tied to the Wonderful World of Windows. At home she's a Mac user, though. I want to get her a new laptop, and I know she's drooling--in a very cute and lady-like way, of course--over the Air. Anyone care to comment on their experiences or expectations regarding running Windows/access on an MBA? Anyone doing it on the new model yet?

Thanks in advance of any advice.

Cheers.

--- das

Running XP in bootcamp shouldn't be a problem, XP runs fine using 2GB of RAM. I can't say about virtualisation software however since I don't use them. I wouldn't recommend running vista though. It's a resource hog.

 

[DaveOZ]

Been running XP under VM Fusion on my Air 1.0 for 6 months without issue. I have used CAD and some specialist applications but not Access.

 

[keantan]

With reference to my previous post, I would recommend purchasing the Superdrive as well if your thinking of running bootcamp XP. This is just so that if anything does go wrong you have a working disk drive there and then and you don't have worry about having another computer to borrow the disc drive from.

 

[ksmith80209]

I run XP on Fusion 2.0 on the rev. b MBA with no issues. In fact, the window VM I copied from my MBP runs faster on the MBA due to the SSD.

 

[sriggles]

Fusion ROCKS! You can't wrong with the product and it works great on the Air.

 

[foodcoma]

Don't mean to hijack this thread, but which windows virtualization software would you recommend for the MBA 2? Looks like Fusion works quite well. What about parallels?

 

[MM07]

I use Fusion 2.0 on my MacBook. It's great and I've had no issues. I have never tried parallels.

 

[keantan]

Don't mean to hijack this thread, but which windows virtualization software would you recommend for the MBA 2? Looks like Fusion works quite well. What about parallels?

I have tried both albeit not on the MBA, depends on what you want to do really, if you intend to use a higher percentage of system resources I prefer parallels if you just want to use a basic program and stuff like that Fusion is just fine.

 

[tedhogan]

I've been a Parallels user since it was beta. I switched to VMWare a few months ago. I won't go back. VMWare is more stable and the performance is excellent on my MBP. Parallels lost me as a customer when I saw how horrible their support had become after reading their forums. I figured that if I ever did have a problem, they wouldn't help me. So, I made the switch and am very happy with it.

 

[chachat]

Just a quick question relating to Windows XP. Can one purchase XP at a retail store or is only available online? I have not seen it listed at the usual chains such as BestBuy, Staples, etc??? Just looking for the Sp2 OEM version??? As I am relatively naive to the Windows world, what advantages does the pro version offer? I am planning on running some imaging application as well as some DNA analysis software?

Many thanks in advance...