chuckjones
Registered
I'm a windows developer by trade (consultant). However, I hate windows, always have.
Last year I purchased a Mini, and then a MacBook, and lately upgraded to a MacBook Pro with 4GB of RAM. I've tried all of the options for running Windows on a Mac and decided to share some with you.
I bought a Mini for a project, on a whim really when the Bootcamp beta was out there. I used it solely for windows. Installed my MSDN copy of XP Pro on it, and it was really pretty quick! The hard drive was slow, but that was to be expected. Otherwise it was really mean. Put more RAM in it, and did the project I had for it. Unplugged it, and put it on the shelf.
The bug hit. I purchased the Macbook with Parallels (which I had little expectations for ... 3.0 was just out) and got Bootcamp running, intending to only use it for Office, Visio and Visual Studio. To my suprise, Parallels wasn't bad! Maybe 30% slower (I've read). Started to use Parallels for my Bootcamp partition.
Quickly I realized that I wasn't loading Bootcamp at all. I was using NeoOffice for my Office apps, and then I used OmniGraffle for my Visio work.
I was only using the PC for the Visual Studio.
Upgrades... I boosted the RAM to 2GB, and now my VM's were running nicely with 1.25GB of RAM attributed to them. I switched over from the internal drive to an external Firewire drive.
And then - life was altered for me. It was faster, and then I was able to organize my drive by client. Like I said, I'm an MSDN subscriber, so I run multiple OS's for testing and development. I have one firewire drive with current projects (about 8 windows XP machines), and one with archives, and one with backups of the current drive.
Yes, virtualization exists on the PC, but either I was oblivious to it, or wasn't inspired to explore this venue, but the Mac got me going full bore with it.
I upgraded to Leopard. Bootcamp is gone by this point, and VMWare Fusion enters the fray because of it's leopard support. This is a couple months ago I guess. I convert a lot of my current VM's to Fusion, and it's great. Less features, but I feel - faster than parallels.
The process of suspending a VM and restarting one is great with either product, just great to switch between computers.
Upgrades.
I purchase a Macbook Pro. It's much nicer, but not a monumental difference in speed from the MB. However, I put in 4GB of RAM. WOOOOHHHAAAA. Now I can run 3 computers on my MBP.
For anyone wondering why I need to separate things like this, keeping windows entirely separate...? You'll need to work with .NET 1.1, 2.0 and 3.0 to understand that though they're supposed to coexist - they don't. It is easier to have things split up by framework, or project. Disk space is cheap.
Now here is the other kicker. Firewire 400 -> Firewire 800. Lacie Rugged 5400RPM drive. Drastically more responsive than 400, and the cable is tougher to dislodge accidentally.
Now that Parallels has updated to their latest build, I find it to be equal with Fusion in terms of reliability. Both are sweet. If you got enough RAM and a nice external running with them, you won't use Bootcamp.
I hope this helps someone "choose" the right solution for them when migrating to Mac. I only use the PC for development, and at this point wish I was developing for the iPhone instead of the Smartphone
Here's a question for you other VM freaks out there. I'm thinking of upgrading the drive to a G-Tech 7200RPM RAID0, Firewire 800 drive. Is this overkill? Will this be any faster than my current 5400 Lacie Rugged? I realize it's faster, but will I see that boost when running Fusion?
Thanks!
Last year I purchased a Mini, and then a MacBook, and lately upgraded to a MacBook Pro with 4GB of RAM. I've tried all of the options for running Windows on a Mac and decided to share some with you.
I bought a Mini for a project, on a whim really when the Bootcamp beta was out there. I used it solely for windows. Installed my MSDN copy of XP Pro on it, and it was really pretty quick! The hard drive was slow, but that was to be expected. Otherwise it was really mean. Put more RAM in it, and did the project I had for it. Unplugged it, and put it on the shelf.
The bug hit. I purchased the Macbook with Parallels (which I had little expectations for ... 3.0 was just out) and got Bootcamp running, intending to only use it for Office, Visio and Visual Studio. To my suprise, Parallels wasn't bad! Maybe 30% slower (I've read). Started to use Parallels for my Bootcamp partition.
Quickly I realized that I wasn't loading Bootcamp at all. I was using NeoOffice for my Office apps, and then I used OmniGraffle for my Visio work.
I was only using the PC for the Visual Studio.
Upgrades... I boosted the RAM to 2GB, and now my VM's were running nicely with 1.25GB of RAM attributed to them. I switched over from the internal drive to an external Firewire drive.
And then - life was altered for me. It was faster, and then I was able to organize my drive by client. Like I said, I'm an MSDN subscriber, so I run multiple OS's for testing and development. I have one firewire drive with current projects (about 8 windows XP machines), and one with archives, and one with backups of the current drive.
Yes, virtualization exists on the PC, but either I was oblivious to it, or wasn't inspired to explore this venue, but the Mac got me going full bore with it.
I upgraded to Leopard. Bootcamp is gone by this point, and VMWare Fusion enters the fray because of it's leopard support. This is a couple months ago I guess. I convert a lot of my current VM's to Fusion, and it's great. Less features, but I feel - faster than parallels.
The process of suspending a VM and restarting one is great with either product, just great to switch between computers.
Upgrades.
I purchase a Macbook Pro. It's much nicer, but not a monumental difference in speed from the MB. However, I put in 4GB of RAM. WOOOOHHHAAAA. Now I can run 3 computers on my MBP.
For anyone wondering why I need to separate things like this, keeping windows entirely separate...? You'll need to work with .NET 1.1, 2.0 and 3.0 to understand that though they're supposed to coexist - they don't. It is easier to have things split up by framework, or project. Disk space is cheap.
Now here is the other kicker. Firewire 400 -> Firewire 800. Lacie Rugged 5400RPM drive. Drastically more responsive than 400, and the cable is tougher to dislodge accidentally.
Now that Parallels has updated to their latest build, I find it to be equal with Fusion in terms of reliability. Both are sweet. If you got enough RAM and a nice external running with them, you won't use Bootcamp.
I hope this helps someone "choose" the right solution for them when migrating to Mac. I only use the PC for development, and at this point wish I was developing for the iPhone instead of the Smartphone
Here's a question for you other VM freaks out there. I'm thinking of upgrading the drive to a G-Tech 7200RPM RAID0, Firewire 800 drive. Is this overkill? Will this be any faster than my current 5400 Lacie Rugged? I realize it's faster, but will I see that boost when running Fusion?
Thanks!