Hi All,

My brother-in-law is looking for a new laptop, so naturally I am steering him towards the MacBook!

He's cool with that, but he has to run the Simply Accounting application on his laptop.  My questions is:

-does he have to run it under Boot Camp
-or would it run Ok with Parallels Desktop for Mac? (since it is text based and not very graphical)

Anyone have any experience running in this type of configuration?
Any recommendations on configuration of the MacBook to accommodate this request?

Thanks in advance,

Erik

No problem either way, but it is a lot more convenient to switch OSX/Windows than to reboot. Don't worry about text/graphics with an Intel Mac running either way, Windows runs NATIVE, not emulated, so there are no big speed issues unless you're playing high-end 3D graphics. Running Windows in Boot Camp is a better experience than running it on a winbox, thats why PC Week rated the Mac Mini as a great mahine.

Dan

Ooops, missed the part about recommendations! Yeah, a couple. New Mac portables all come with 2GB of RAM, except the 1GB entry-level MacBook at $1149. 2GB is enough for OS X and XP, but I recommend 3-4GB if you're going to run Vista - it's a memory hog. I recommend XP, if possible, and I would recommend Parallels over Fusion in this case. Codeweaver's Crossover show Simply Accounting as "untested", so don't even go there. Parallels comes with Kaspersky's AV software - replace that with AVAST Home or something else - Kaspersky is free until your "subscription" runs out, AVAST is, well, free, and just as effective.

Happy Mac/Window'ing

Dan

Quote from: Erikt on July 29, 2008, 01:12:51 PM
-does he have to run it under Boot Camp
-or would it run Ok with Parallels Desktop for Mac? (since it is text based and not very graphical)

Boot Camp gives maximum capability. However unless the windows app talks to USB ports directly, does some other funky stuff, or you need the last 10% of performance, running under Parallels or VMware will be fine.

But you don't have to decide up front. I can't talk for Parallels (although I would assume it's the same), but with VMware Fusion, you can first do a standard Boot Camp install using Apple's Boot Camp Assistant that comes with OS X 10.5/Leopard; and then run the desired Windows App. That should give you the best possible performance and compatibility. Then you can run VMware Fusion and tell it to use the Boot Camp partition. No need to re-install Windows. And, at any time, you can revert to booting off the Boot Camp partition.

I did this. For the apps I run (mainly MS Outlook, IE 6/7, a few Windows-only Java apps), there was no significant difference between booting into Boot Camp, or running VMware using the Boot Camp partition. So eventually, I ended up deleting my Boot Camp partition, and using Boot Camp with a virtual Windows disk file as my sole means of running Windows and Windows apps.

...b

I can verify Parallels can also do this neat trick - i.e. "take over" a Boot Camp installation. You may continue to switch back and forth, and Fusion also allows this flipping. However - don't try all three on the same machine -
screeeeeeeeetch!!!
Happy Mac/Window'ing,

Dan