Only using Windows on a Mac

Just wanted to know if anyone has a Mac Book/Mac Book Pro and only use it for Windows ?

If so, what's the performance like ?

Thanks

 

Performance is normal, but battery life and heat sucks bad.

 

....and it's sacrilege.

 

Running windows on a Mac is like duct taping a propellor to an F-15.

 

Works fine with Vista X64 and 4gb of ram

Problem is... Wifi drivers are bad (N does not work)

Battery lasts about 2 hours


Everything else works perfectly...

IMPRESS YOUR FRIENDS!

 

Not sure if it's quite that bad, but this made me laugh.

I won't run Windows on my Mac, either.

 

Well, its about equivalent to a PC with similar specs, with a little less battery life and a little more heat. If you really are just running Windows with no interest in running Mac OS X, unless you really want the MacBook/MacBook Pro/MacBook Air for its hardware and design, I'd go for a PC.

 

I agree, Sam. Somehow, while reading the OP's post, I got in my head, the idea that he already owned the machine.

I think a better deal can be had for a Windows only laptop, which makes sense if you have no plans to use OSX, and especially if you dislike (what?? how can that be?? LOL) OSX.

 

I agree with pretty much everyone. There have been a lot of people that have brought up the OP question...

Most everyone will say don't spend the money on a mac just to run windows. You can get a 15" Inspiron (yuck) or XPS (decent) for a bit less. Though, if I went with a non-Apple, I would pick up a Latitude.

buying a MBP just for looks... is silly to say the least.

 

I run WinXP via Parallels on a Macbook Pro and love it. There are two of us in our small office that selected this option and everyone else is using a Thinkpad or desktop running Windows.

I spend most of my time running WinXP because I develop desktop software for Windows. So even though I spend the majority of my day running Windows, I've got some (what I think) are excellent reasons for using this setup.

1. I wanted to get up to speed on OS X and not give up my commitment to Windows.

2. I did not want to have two separate laptops - one for OS X and one for Windows.

3. I recently changed laptops (older Macbook Pro for a new one) and it was really nice to simply copy my WinXP virtual hard drive from one computer to another and not have to re-install all my Windows apps. All I had to do was backup one (45 gig) file and copy it to my new Macbook Pro. Everything worked, apps, printers, data. No problem and no re-activation of Windows. (Still don't understand that one.)

4. I can literally run OS X and Windows at the same time and change back and forth almost instantly. So now I do all my surfing, emailing, photo editing, and video editing on OS X. I wish I could do more, but right now that's not possible because I'm so locked into Windows.

5. I'm learning Ruby on Rails (which is pre-installed with Leopard) so my web development will eventually be done on OS X, yet I can do it in Windows if I choose too because of the cross platform capabilities of Ruby on Rails.

6. Parallels allows me to transfer (share) files between OS X and Windows, so I'm learning a lot about what works and what doesn't. Let's not forget the educational aspects of learning about both of these operating systems.

7. The Apple hardware is superior (in my opinion) to what you can find on the PC side of things, in fact, that's why I first bought a Macbook Pro. There wasn't a PC laptop that could match the form factor and excellent LCD. I'm still not sure if there is. The 15.4" LCD and 1440 X 900 resolution is the sweet spot in my opinion. The only PC laptop that has this size and resolution is the Dell XPS 1550, but I've heard of issues with heat, etc.

8. Finally, from an ego point of view, there is still the "Hey, you've got an Apple" factor. Many of my colleagues can't believe that I'm using an Apple since they know how tied I am to the Windows OS.

Did I mention the keyboard, backlit LED, fit and finish, spaces, iLife 08, Time Machine, and excellent online support forum?

I'm not regretting my decision one bit!

 

Since I have gotten my MBP, I have spent a more significant amount of time in XP than in OSX to game... it has been a pleasure to run compared to my Toshiba with Vista. Still no problems to report on my end so far... and its nice as a switcher to have OSX to play around with

 

windows with adapter, mac with battery.

 

I appreciate everyone's feedback ! As with anything, there are pro's and con's. While I still haven't fully decided, it's something I would consider.

I acknowledge that MBR's are more expensive than their equivalent PC counterparts, but if the reliability and performance are there, then I wouldn't mind spending the extra $$$$. Plus, as someone has brought up, it does seem 'cooler' if you have a Mac than a PC

Another question though ......... do people prefer the Black MBR or the classic White MBR ?

 

I bought the White. Have no preference.

 

White... I would say black but the matte black is ugly. If it were glossy, then hell yeah!

 

The two finger clicking does not work on the Windows side.

If you could adjust the brightness levels battery life would be better in Windows but that is not possible to do on the Windows side as you can only select the power plan program you wish to use.

You can disable Bluetooth in the device manager to extend your battery life slightly.

The fact that Mac's are less prone to viruses may make them more reliable in that sense but in terms of hardware i doubt that a Mac is anymore reliable than a good decent PC. In my opinion there are nicer looking 13.3 notebooks out there that have better specs.


I have just bought a Mac again i have no problem using Mac OSX or Windows. The SZ and the M1330 appeal to me more hardware and looks wise/weight but i didn't want to spend that much money on a computer as i don't do anything that demanding on it these days. It is nice though to be able to use both operating systems.

 

That's really your choice . The black MacBook looks more professional, yes, but at the same time I prefer white keys on the keyboard. I got the white MacBook, but I didn't have a choice...I won this notebook .

 

Two finger for right click works fine for me in XP ?? might wanna reinstall your boot camp drivers

 

I'm running Leopard on a Macbook Pro and have my touchpad configured to accept taps (left click) and tap with two fingers (right-click) and this works in both OS X and Windows XP (via Parallels).

 

The black tends to show fingerprints on the outside much more than the white and the touchpad tends to show wear much more than the white.

I'd still opt for the black just for the more professional appearance.

 

To get the two finger clicking to work with Bootcamp you will need to place two fingers on the trackpad and then hit the button below the trackpad. You do lose some of the trackpads functionality under Bootcamp. Parallels and VMWare i believe will give you full functionality.

Also if for some reason you want to use Windows on battery power to get better battery life you can adjust the brightness levels in MacOSX first and then boot into Windows and the Windows side should have the same brightness levels as the MacOSX side. I tested this with full brightness under power saver in Vista the battery life was about 2 hours 20 minutes. I never run my battery right down but that was the Vista battery meter was indicating. With brightness turned right down through MacOSX in Vista the battery meter now indicated 4 hours plus. Still battery life is still better in MacOSX as i got 6 hours out of my battery yesterday using the same type of settings.

You could also disable other things that you are not using to slightly increase your battery life if you wanted to. If you plan on using Vista running Vista under classic mode might help as well as you will turn of Aero.