Macintosh... Yet again... 1

[DaveVikingPE]

Same question, a year or so later...

So Apple's now bundling their new Macs with a program called "Parallels." And guess what it does? It runs XP is what it does.

As a lifetime Mac user (home, school) AND PC user (work), I am now SERIOUSLY interested in upgrading my system at home such that I can utilize parallels.

Programs I want to run at home are: MathCAD (I have given up on Maple simply because of the potential with Parallels), MicroStation (home version), and a variety of other Windows-only engineering software programs.

Anyone with experience re: Parallels, please, your thoughts.

 

[monkeydog]

I came to the "Dark Side" 10 years ago after 10 years of Mac. I am glad I did.

Come to the "Dark Side" embrace it.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Is Parallels the same as Boot Camp or is it a next generation thing?

 

[DaveVikingPE]

My impression is the Parallels is a competitor to Boot Camp - but I could be wrong.

Come over to the Dark Side, eh? Ten years ago the Dark Side SUCKED. Wait a minute, ten years ago was 1997... Yeah, the Dark Side sucked, really, really sucked...

Sometimes I realize that the work I do at home on my Mac system could be done a lot easier at work on my PC workstation... What the heck do I use the computer at home for, anyway? E-mail, Quicken, Safari, iCal... I have the OS 9 version of PowerCADD (the worst CAD program for the cost, BTW) and a lot of other stuff, including M$ office... but mostly I do work at work.

Motivation to come over to the Dark Side: well, I would be the Admin and could install anything I want to, 24-7.

But... if Parallels (or Boot Camp, if it's better, I'm in the exploratory stage right now) can run MathCAD, why, I've got the best of both worlds...

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

After a bit of investigation;

You could also look at "Virtual PC for Mac"

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/virtualpc/virtualpc.aspx?pid=virtualpc

Boot Camp is a "hard" boot type software. You can only access one OS at each boot-up session.

Parallels and Virtual PC are emulators which allow access to multiple OS's at the touch of a button.

 

[IRstuff]

Mathcad is pretty finicky, as you're probably aware. It doesn't like running on many darkside h/w|s/w configurations as it is.

TTFN

 

[monkeydog]

Yeah, get at program for the Mac that emulates the PC.
That way you can get the worst of both worlds.

 

[DaveVikingPE]

Thank you CorBlimeyLimey...

As for you, monkeydog... also advice well taken.

Of course, there was this little message on the Mactopia (M$) page: "Note: Virtual PC does not run on Intel-based Macs."

Argh!

 

[DaveVikingPE]

This post,

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=745213&tstart=0,

gets very interesting regarding AutoCAD...