Mac's Running SW - Sort Of

A while back there was some posts/inquires about the the Intel Mac's running
SW in Boot Camp and vitual machines. Some findings for those at all
interested.

Have been running Boot Camp on a 2.0 Core Duo iMac and it is great so far.
SW runs very well and since Apple supplied a proper video driver, the
graphics are very good. GL support.

However I am now running a Mac Pro (Woodcrest processors) 3 gighertz quad
core with 16 gig of ram, ATI X1900XT video runing with Parallels (a virtual
machine) and it is excellent - granted video support is not Open GL and
Direct X yet. It has a current memory limit of 3.5 Gig to the vm (no big
surprise, Vista will certainly change that), but the folks at Parallels are
humping to get it done and they are fast developers so expect these items by
years end, if not sooner (Vista support is already partly done). So far
Parallels gets my nod over Boot Camp and here's why.

It allows Windows to essentially be resolved to a file (it is with Boot camp
too, but Parallels runs inside OS X). I built a windows instance that is
clean (no apps) then cloned the instance out to the server(this is clean
backup for future use). Started the instance and loaded the apps - SW
included, printer drivers, mapped drives, added it to the domain. Cloned
that to the server. Started the instance and went to work. If the virtual
machine ever becomes mucked up in any way just kill it, copy over the server
clone and restart. 2 minutes and I am running again. No pain, no fuss.

I will be shutting down my last PC (physical) on the network in about a
month for good. For my purposes virtual machines make total sense and they
are fast to recover if they blow up. Its no wonder they are one of the
fastest growing segments of the computer/IT world.

I cannot give specific benchmark numbers, but all I can say is SW runs very
fast in a virtual machine. Why shouldn't it, these Apple machines are not
slouches by any stretch of the imaginaton. Again, once the GL video drivers
for the virtual machine come into play - it ought to be a real barn burner!
One last thing, having multiple OS' s (linux too) running at the same time
is allows me to really use all the best tool for the task at hand. Windows
is great at certain things, but a Linux box makes certain other tasks
effortless, and yes I am biased, but in my opinion Apple has always done a
stellar job with their hardware (the Mac Pro is amazing), and OS X isn't
tough to take either.

 

Guy, that is a damn good overview you gave.

I have been using 2006 SWks on a MacBook Pro with Boot Camp only, but
it runs essentially like it does on my Dell M60 (admittedly the M65 or
M90 might be faster, but I haven't tried them).

The one single thing that makes me think I will use ONLY Mac hardware
in the future, is that my problems with Mac hardware have been
virtually zero (except for spilled liquids & replaced keyboards: none
in the last 3 years). Every computer maker has failures, but my
personal experience, is that I have had to use my Dell Complete Care
for serious LCD screen wiring issues that didn't work right on both my
last two laptops. I'm sure Dell has fixed that, but...?

Apple does make very good hardware, because they know they have to, in
order to make the grade as a serious competitor, and I can run any OS I
want, and that is a major plus when you consider the alternative of
toting two laptops and accessories around.

Plus with Apple, you will be using up to date wireless connectivity
options and other such hardware advances, normally well in advance of
the PC makers.

The articles on running VISTA on a MacBook Pro (beating the Sony Vaio)
have appeared as references on http://osnews.com/ as noted here:

http://www.computerworld.com/action...articleId=9003111&taxonomyId=66&intsrc=kc_top

And a recent note on Parallels' virtualization here (but the site has
been stalled because of a lot of traffic today):

http://appletalk.com.au/articles/index.php?article=25505

Bo