Boot Camp = WinXP + Mac OSX on MacIntels

Microsoft must be rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect of selling XP licenses for Macs too. What's the message that Apple are sending out? - seems to be " and now you can buy a computer from us that finally gets the job done properly by running Windows".

John Harland

Microsoft was just rated 20th out of 22 (near worst) in customer satisfaction by Forrester with Apple & Dell on TOP!

I will not allow my Dell on the Internet for all the known reasons.

Apple runs everything but SolidWorks for me, and my productivity is high as a result, and my MS/Wintel partners seem to have continual problems.

Why anyone would want to run a car where you have to double clutch, use a floor starter pedal to engage the starter, run on mechanical brakes, and have a 6 turn lock to lock steering wheel without power steering is beyond me.

Why anyone would want to subject themselves to all the similar things on Windows, given the alternatives is good for an interesting consumer psychological study on inertia of working with the devil you know as opposed to the devil you don't.

Just opinion, but indeed I use both machines every single day of the week.

Bo

I used to be a Mac Zealot too, but solidworks got me onto a PC and have never looked back since - its soooo good to be apart of the crowd rather than a 3% 'outsider' ;-) . I have friend who works in the Apple Design ivory tower (or is that Iveory towers ;-) - (they use PC's too). I still Luuuurve apple design and at one stage considered getting him to give me a powerbbok shell to build a PC into ... but t'was too much hassel. Now the prospect of getting a nice slim ali powerbook with XP on it could be a dream come true.

I gues the key thing is whether the graphics card is fully OpenGL, rather than the 'games' cards apple usually use.

Why fight XP .... it like trying to resist breathing air .... accept and get on with it ;-)

I did accept WinXP, and use it daily. It works fine for SolidWorks.

As long as WinXP runs SolidWorks & MS Office only, it runs fast and virtually never ever crashes.

Got nothing against dedicated machines when they offer a true advantage.

Heavy assembly work and giant file sizes would dictate the heaviest hauler available and that would be a major Wintel box, but I don't do that type of work.

Hence, laptops are all I need. I pick the best tool for MY jobs. I am not a "zealot".

Bo

I will be very interested to see how S/W performs on a Mac. Not only the graphics but the double helix intertwining of S/W and Windows. If it works on a Mac laptop without crashes, my next computaion device is an Apple.

Once upon a time Xerox had DOS running in a window on their 6805 workstations - worked pretty well too, but XP is a different animal, and it looks like it will run 'instead of' rather than 'inside' a Mac window.

bp

Life > I gues the key thing is whether the graphics card is fully OpenGL,

Yeah, but there are at least 2 Virtualization systems coming out in the next few weeks that will let you run several OS's including windows at the same time rather than the multi boot in BootCamp et. al

I want it, I want it, I want it, I want it, I want it, I want it, Ohhh!!! all the geeky goodness and glory of it all :)

My business credit card will hurt in a week or two, something I just cannot resist...Must.....Stop.....Hide.....Card.....Gahhhh....

Ben

Bo wrote:

Thank you for putting that into words...

Think SWX will take up the gauntlet?

Logically it would mean more market share....

Ben Eadie wrote:

No problem

I'm ordering a MacBook.

I will load WinXP SP2 and SolidWorks and post my observations once I get them.

Bo

................... Thanks Bo ........ please hurry up - I'm holding my breath

Supposedly they will ship in 3 days or so, but you can never tell exactly on these things. I'ld be willing to bet it will be a week.

Bo

Bo kirjoitti:

Interesting to see how Radeon x1600 runs SW...I'm wondering is it possible to patch it to FireGL with RivaTuner(?)

regards Markku

Regarding Video Cards: I actually got SolidWorks to work inside of Virtual PC, which has an emulated video, so I am sure it will work, and it is only a question of how well.

Bo

Just in on a first impression from a user of Windows on the iMac from the web:

Bo

FYI

Parallels released their Windows virtualization solution for the Intel Mac today. The product is called Parallels Workstation 2.1 Beta and a free fully functional copy is available for download now.

Unlike Apple's Boot Camp solution which was released yesterday, Parallels solution allows you to run Windows XP (and other Intel-based operating systems) from within Mac OS X. Rebooting or Dual Booting is not required. This allows users to maintain their daily environment while also being able to use any desired Windows applications. It is only available for the Intel Macs and should provide near-native performance.

Parallels Workstation 2.1 Beta for Mac OS X is NOT simply a "dual-boot" solution; rather, it empowers users the ability to use Windows, Linux and any other operating system at the same time as Mac OS X, enabling users to enjoy the comfort of their Mac OS X desktop while still being able to use critical applications from other OSes. Parallels appears to be taking advantage of the Intel Virtualization Technology which was included in the Intel Yonah processors that are now shipping in the Intel Macs.

While in free Beta testing at the moment, the final software package for Linux and Windows is priced from the company at $49.99.

Also

The September lineup for the desktop PowerMac replacement systems is still a mystery but initial machines will probably ship with four, eight and perhaps 16 processor cores. The upcoming Conroe dual core and Kentsfield quad core processors will form the basis of these systems for at least the following year.

Kinda makes you wish that SW worked on multiple cores this would be amazingly fast....

Ben

The virtualization software has more limitations like drivers and video card emulation than the full separate NTFS partition with Win XP Pro that Boot Camp uses.

Thus anyone needing decent performance in a 3D visualization will not likely want to use Parallels method, and pick Boot Camp.

My MacBook should be in here on Tuesday, and I'll put WinXP on it as soon as I can followed by SolidWorks.

Twill be interesting indeed.

Bo

I am waiting to get your report on this Bo. One last tidbit, Rumors are swirling around about the Windows API being present inside the upcoming Leopard (OS X 10.5).That means an app written for Windows will run on the Mac without any other process behind it. Maybe they should call it Liger.

I am just quoting a computer guru friend of mine so this all may not work for us, but one can dream.

Ben