"But this hardware help comes to a halt when you start playing with rich, 3D graphics." What on earth do they expect? Boot camp works in a completely different way to virtualisation applications which have never been able to render graphics that well. And lets be honest: 1: Who uses there laptop as there primiary gaming machine? and 2: Why on earth would you opt to run a game inside a vm anyway? Thanks for the artical.
On 14/12/2008, David Poehlman <[email protected]> wrote: > This article appeared in thursday's Washington post and since we talk about > the mac/windows thing a good deal, I thought some might be interested in > seeing it. Sorry for the lateness, I just got my Icon back yesterday and > also, if you've already seen it, please forgive. > > Thursday, December 11, 2008; Page D03 > > When Apple announced in 2005 that it would switch to Intel processors in > its Macs, it never mentioned one of the biggest improvements this shift > would bring. Intel's chips have been faster and more efficient -- but > they've also allowed Macs to run Windows as well as, or better than, any PC. > This Story Intel Inside Macs Opens the Door to Windows 2008 Holiday Tech > Guide Transcript: Personal Tech: Advice for Holiday Gift Giving > The usual way to do this is with the Boot Camp software Apple includes > with the latest version of Mac OS X , which will carve off a partition from > your hard drive, help you install a copy of Windows XP or Vista , and > then let you choose which operating system to run each time your Mac boots > up. > But with the right "virtualization" software, you don't have to choose: > Windows can be just another window on the Mac desktop. > Mac users now have three options for this job, all recently updated: > VMware 's Fusion 2.0 ( http:/ / vmware.com/ products/ fusion ) and > Parallels' Parallels Desktop 4 ( http:/ / parallels.com/ desktop ), both > $79.99, and Sun Microsystems ' free-for-personal-use VirtualBox 2.0 ( > http:/ / virtualbox.org ). > All of these programs require a Mac with an Intel processor, the faster > the better. They also all recommend or require a gigabyte of memory, but > you'll be a lot happier with the results if you have 2 GB or more. > All three involve the same basic setup. After installing the virtualization > program, you create a "virtual machine" -- a special file that, from the > inside, looks like a PC's hard drive -- and install Windows itself. (Or you > can install Linux or another operating system, but that can be trickier.) > Once you boot up that copy of Windows, they prompt you to install a helper > program that makes Windows feel more at home inside a Mac and allows you to > move data between Mac OS X and Windows. > All three programs ran copies of Windows XP and Vista on a pair of MacBook > laptops (one dating to this summer, one the newer model introduced this > fall) at an impressive speed; windows and menus snapped open and > non-graphics-intensive programs launched about as briskly as you'd expect on > any random PC. > Instead, most of their differences surfaced at the first and last steps of > that setup routine. Compared to the free VirtualBox, Fusion and Parallels > provide more ways to put a copy of Windows on a Mac and make it far easier > to swap files between the two operating systems. > Both Fusion and Parallels not only let you install a fresh copy of Windows, > but can run -- without rebooting -- a copy of Windows installed earlier via > Boot Camp. They can also run virtual machines created with other > virtualization programs, although this can require an intimidating degree of > fiddling with file-import settings. > In addition, Fusion and Parallels can migrate a copy of Windows from a > "real" PC. Fusion allowed me to move over a Windows XP installation on an > external hard drive, while Parallels required a slower transfer over a local > network. Both migrations yielded virtual-machine files that required extra > processing on arrival, but this added step took at least an hour longer in > Parallels. > Fusion and Parallels each made almost all of a Mac's components usable > inside Windows; for example, a MacBook's iSight webcam worked correctly in > the Skype Internet -calling program. But this hardware help comes to a halt > when you start playing with rich, 3D graphics. Neither program can run > nearly as many games as Boot Camp, and neither could display Windows Vista's > transparent Aero interface. > These two virtualization programs also let you drag and drop files from Mac > folders to Windows directories and move CDs or USB flash drives from Mac to > Windows environments with a click of a toolbar icon. > Parallels, however, goes further in melding these two worlds -- maybe too > far. It normally runs in a "Coherence" mode that overlaps Mac and Windows > parts on top of each other, leaving the Windows taskbar floating on top of > Mac OS X's Dock, with the Windows Start menu floating off to one side. The > results looked, well, incoherent. Parallels also maps your Mac home folders > to the equivalent Windows user directories so that you see the same set of > files in each place, which was also confusing at first. > VirtualBox does much less than either Fusion or Parellels. This jargon-rich > application essentially requires you to pay in time or expertise instead of > money as you work around issues such as its failure to enable audio and USB > support by default and its painfully wonky behavior with flash drives and > CDs. Some of VirtualBox's problems can only be fixed by an improved release: > It doesn't let you drag and drop files from Mac to PC, its shared-folders > option is horribly awkward to set up, and it couldn't play a high-definition > QuickTime video without stuttering. > But VirtualBox did use less memory than the others, and it is, of course, > free. It could suffice if you only need to run one or two Windows > programs -- a likely scenario for many Windows-to-Mac switchers. > The most likely scenario, however, may be this: A Windows user buys a Mac > and doesn't plan to run any more Windows programs, but can sleep better at > night knowing this option exists, just in case things ever change. > > -- > Jonnie Appleseed > With His > Hands-On Technolog(eye)s > Reducing Technologies disabilities > one byte at a time > > > -- Kind regards, BEN. email: [email protected] msn: [email protected] web: http://www.bmr.me.uk (under construction)
