Switching back and from Windows/OSX

Following up on Mugen's thread, I too like Mac quality and Apple customer service. We have PCs at work, but I am leaning to getting a Mac Pro 15". The consensus seems to be that one should not run mostly Windows on a Mac as it is not optimized for it. How big a hassle is it jumping back and forth between Windows OS and OSX? Manageable or does one mix things up? I know some people at work who do that, but they are computer nerds, so their facility might not be typical.

 

You can switch between the two by simply rebooting your Mac. You can also invest in either Parallels or VMWare to run Windows in a virtual machine while still in OS X.

 

See sticky thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/app...oot-camp-parallels-desktop-vmware-fusion.html

 

I did not mean how to do it, but the practical realities of going back and forth. No big deal, too much of a hassle?

 

The boot time could be a hassle. Virtualizing is probably your better bet if you only need basic drivers for the subsystems.

 

i only keep messing up the copy/paste shortcuts

 

The practical reality is that you simply have to reboot to go back and forth......not much of a hassle at all.

 

I am obviously not expressing myself clearly (though altec figured out what I was getting at). I meant how hard is it to master two different operating systems; do people tend to mix things up, or is it no big deal.

 

It definitely does take some getting used to, like all the keyboard shortcuts. In Safari to go to the address bar it's command-L, in Windows it's alt-D. And I still can't find the Mac-equivalent of ctrl-enter when entering a URL in which Windows inserts the www. and .com pre/suffix. If you boot into Windows via Boot Camp, where the alt key is that I use a lot to do Windows shortcuts, that key becomes the Windows key. I haven't looked into any sort of key remapping solutions. Some keys are missing altogether - PrtSc (I use it a lot), delete, end/home keys, some you can use a fn- key combo to get to. If you go back and forth it can take some readjusting, but I wouldn't say it's a big deal.

What is a big deal is if you want to master the inner workings of the OS - I perform many Windows tasks in the command prompt. I know Windows like the back of my hands. I feel like an alien in OS X trying to do some under the hood stuff, a lot of which are not accessible in the GUI, so you either know it or you don't - no experimenting with it in the GUI. Get ready to use Google A LOT LOL.

 

Gotcha! I think that really depends on yourself and how adaptable you are.

I use Windows all day at work, and my Mac home so I'm constantly flipping back and forth. For me it's not an issue because I'm constantly using both. If I was using one more than the other, it may get a little muddy when using the lesser of the two.

 

Booting virtual machines also takes a lot of time , takes around 3min on my MBP 4GB ram core i5 to get windows fully running on OSX

Depends on the person using it , I find it easy to adapt to a new OS , i like to learn new tricks when it comes to computers , but 95% people i notice in the real world don't give a #$%@ , they just want the computer the way they are used to , if they are used to windows ... then windows forever , if they are used to mac then mac forever , if they are used to linux ... then they are geeks and can use windows/mac/linux .

 

Are we talking about XP? That shouldn't take more than 30 secs.

Drop an SSD in and Vista or Win7 will boot in 30 secs or so in a VM.

 

I run Windows 7 in Parallels on my MBP and love it. Parallels integrates Windows directly into Mac OS X which makes it easy to use apps from either. There are no long wait times and if you really want to you can simply suspend the VM. Another plus of the VM vs Bootcamp approach is that with the VM, running a Time Machine backup, backs up the VM too...

A free alternative without too many bells and whistles is VirtualBox btw. In case you had not used it before it has a lot of good features and has pretty respectable performance.

 

nope , i use windows 7 fresh install on bootcamp partition and it takes around 3 min , provided that only office and basic applications installed ,maybe it's because i run from bootcamp

 

I used a program called DoubleCommand to re-map the option key to the control key, so my keyboard would behave more like a traditional Windows one. That software also has many other options for tailoring it to your needs. The latest version, though old, works perfectly fine in Snow Leopard.

 

this program is so helpful , thanks

 

switching back and forth to Windows is neither bad nor frustrating. many overstate Windows struggles on a Mac. truth is, Windows runs just as well on a Mac as it does on any PC.

just be sure to pack an external mouse for optimum Windows performance and you'll be good to go.

 

That's just it - the last thing I want to use with my laptop is an external mouse. Kind of defeats the purpose of a laptop.

IMO the touchpad on the MBP in OSX works better than an external mouse. When used in Windows it is literally the worse touchpad I've used on any laptops, even worse than the very crappy Alps pads Dell loves to use on its Latitude and Vostro lines.

 

Except for the reduced battery life, the inability to switch graphic cards, the wonky trackpad, and being unable to completely turn off the keyboard backlight. Yup, runs just as well.

 

How much is the difference in battery life in terms of hours?

 

roughly half