First of many Mac questions
OK, so the Macbook Pro arrived today and I’ve been spending a good part of the evening downloadng updates, getting some tools and generally getting it setup the way I like. One of the projects I’m going to start on soon is getting Windows to run for those things that I simply need Windows for, like our work VPN. My question is, what do you guys recommend, creating a Windows partition using Bootcamp and then pointing VMWare Fusion to it, or just creating the VM in Fusion and calling it a day on Bootcamp. Which gets better performance, and which is easier?
How do you have it set up?
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I started with Fusion under Tiger (no bootcamp), upgraded to Leopard (no problems) and just upgraded Fusion to version 1.1.1.
I’m running XP SP2 on the Windows side and have had no problems so I see no need to change. Since I haven’t used bootcamp with it I can’t comment on speed.
The only suggestion that I have is to make sure you have plenty of memory. I’ve been extremely happy with the transparency of the XP system and the ease of exchanging files. I often have Photoshop CS3 and a web editor running on the Windows side and several Mac apps open on the Mac side at the same time with no obvious response issues.
I made my switch to Mac last year and have never regretted it. I still teach using Windows apps and I provide a lot of PC support to others so it helps to have Windows still available.
Hope this helps.
Phil D.
The biggest reason for using Bootcamp is for 3D games. If you aren’t going to be running them, then I would just use VMware Fusion with a VMware VM. It offers some 3D acceleration (but I have a Wii and Xbox 360 for games :-). I usually just run Fusion in full screen on it’s own virtual desktop and switch back and forth. If there is only one or two apps, then you can run them under Unity and they show as a regular window alongside the OS X apps.
I second Phil’s recommendation of memory. In my Macbook with 1GB it was usable. With 2GB I can leave Fusion running and not notice it.
Fusion (or really even Parallels!)