Software for Apple mac mini to allow switching between mac and microsoft windows?

bgscotty

Hello!

I'd be grateful for any advice.

My friend, who is a student web designer/ developer, has just purchased an Apple mac mini.

He understands that it is necessary to buy a software package to allow him to switch between the Mac and Windows instead of switching between the functions. He thinks this software is called Fusion.

Does anyone know whether this is the case that he will have to get the software?

Also, can anyone suggest where he can get the best deal on this software?

Many thanks for your help in advance.

Scotty

isofa

If it's a new Mac with Leopard installed, you don't need to buy anything except a copy of Windows XP Pro (or Vista Business etc), and you can set it up to dual boot, however it can only dual boot, so can only be in either Mac OS X or Windows at any one time, which can be quite inflexible.

If you want to run Windows and/or Windows apps under Mac OS (i.e. on the Mac OS X desktop), then you need one of these two packages:

Parallels Desktop for Mac

or

VMWare Fusion for Mac

Both are fantastic, but you will still need a legal copy of Windows (virtually any version at all are supported with these two packages) to install under their environment.

Most Mac retailers offer student pricing, try Jigsaw for example.

Hope that helps!

bob_man_uk

wasnt bootcamp a solution that apple were working with?

IIRC it requires you to have an intel version of a mac... if you havent already you need to check your mac isnt a PPC version.

also if your considering running emulation on a mac (or on any PC) be aware you wont be getting the same speeds as if you were running it directly on the mac.

isofa

bob_man_uk wrote: »

wasnt bootcamp a solution that apple were working with? IIRC it requires you to have an intel version of a mac... if you havent already you need to check your mac isnt a PPC version. also if your considering running emulation on a mac (or on any PC) be aware you wont be getting the same speeds as if you were running it directly on the mac.

BootCamp was the old style dual boot under Tiger, was available for around 2 years, and well used and tested - the additional download of this for Tiger users and from Dec 2007 onwards is now unavailable. As it is native and a new feature built into Mac OS X Leopard as a standard feature.

All dual boots need an Intel Mac obviously, but the OP, hence my comment on a new Mac above...

Your last point is incorrect. This isn't emulation, this is virutalisation which is a very different beast. You will get virtually as fast speeds in virtualisation compared with booting into the native OS - hence why it is such a great product. It access the processor direct. There has been much coverage and excellent reviews of Parallels and VMWare in both the PC and Mac press.
In fact with the Coherence feature of Parallels, it removes the Windows OS bloat so the Windows app runs like a native Mac app.

bob_man_uk

i wont confuse the issue of the OP by going on a long winded post re: the issues ive had with "virtualization" best i can say is, use it by al means, technologically yes it is feasable but beware you may end up with more isues than having a Native OS.

isofa

bob_man_uk wrote: »

i wont confuse the issue of the OP by going on a long winded post re: the issues ive had with "virtualization" best i can say is, use it by al means, technologically yes it is feasable but beware you may end up with more isues than having a Native OS.

You will not have any issues running this type of virtualisation, that is a complete and utter misnoner.

I have an office of users running Windows XP software via Parallels under both Mac OS X Tiger and Leopard on a variety of Intel based Macs with absolutely no problem at all. They use it for Access databases, Outlook and a few other PC only packages, whilst running very heavy design packages like CS3 alongside.

There are absolutely no issues with virutalisation in this case. It's not just technically feasible, it's being used by millions of users, Parallels is up to version 3, and it is a stable and mature technology.

Virtualisation is everywhere today, it's being rolled out in data-centres, for large corporates to reduce their machine room power consumption, it is a terrific technology in many, many forms.

So please don't put users off tried, tested and excellent technologies - which match exactly the requirements of the original poster - we are here to help, not hinder.

bob_man_uk

fine i concede to your point that you "oviously" know more than me regarding the issue of virtualization even though i look after several virtual sevrers and pc's that have virtual versions of windows on them... you know, virtualization may be close to perfect but something can and inevitably will go wrong. DO NOT DENY that it is bullet proof, Nothing in IT is.

I wasnt trying to hinder, Im just pointing out that as with everything there may be problems that may be beyond control of preventing...

I give up i seriously do.

want to argue more PM me... enough junk in this thread already.

isofa

What a strange piece of behaviour from a new member who's only posted 8 times... I'm certainly not arguing, but it seems you are.

I was helping the OP. You posted some advice which was misleading, and you also mentioned emulation - which isn't what the OP was suggesting (it's not even possible anymore under Mac OS X, the last emulation software for the Mac was Virtual PC, finished years ago). Giving my advice, from a well trodden path on this subject, I've been dealing with Macs and PCs for the past 20 years. No one said any software is perfect. But the Windows virutalisation offered by the two packages mentioned in my earlier posts is a mature and stable technology, and it's been well covered in previous posts.. It runs very well under Mac OS X, it's stable, and there few problems, there is also excellent support offered by both companies. Having rolled this out to 50 odd users in the past 12 months, I feel I can comment on the performance of the system.

I work with some very large corporates running massive virtual server centres of Windows and other products, along with small companies with under 100 users on Macs running virtualisation on the desktop for Windows products. However Windows server virtualisation is very different to what the OP was asking about.

Amen

bob_man_uk

actually from someone well known on other hardware sites... 8 posts because i just started... or do we treat all new people as if they have no understanding.... check where all my posts are, in the tech section... athankyou

and it takes two to argue, otherwise it would be pointless and rather stupid, areguments are usually a clash of 2 different opinions... which I think is the case here.

as for the OP's question, fine, I havent toyed with Leopard yet... still on tiger so excuse my ignorance... i was merely throwing anther idea intot he ether, if its not in use anymore or found to have a major flaw, say so like you did instead of throwing it out and scorning the poster for even suggesting something. Bear in mind there has been no post from the OP saying WHAT mac mini he has... it could after all have tiger on it... does that support it natively now?

you know what... excuse me for trying to help!

converse

isofa wrote: »

If it's a new Mac with Leopard installed, you don't need to buy anything except a copy of Windows XP Pro (or Vista Business etc), and you can set it up to dual boot, however it can only dual boot, so can only be in either Mac OS X or Windows at any one time, which can be quite inflexible.

If you want to run Windows and/or Windows apps under Mac OS (i.e. on the Mac OS X desktop), then you need one of these two packages:

Parallels Desktop for Mac
or

VMWare Fusion for Mac

Both are fantastic, but you will still need a legal copy of Windows (virtually any version at all are supported with these two packages) to install under their environment.

Most Mac retailers offer student pricing, try Jigsaw for example.

Hope that helps!

isofa has got it spot on, fusion or parallels desktop are exactly what your friend will need. You may also be ablee to get student pricing direct from the manufacturers too, from their websites....

As for virtualisation being flaky, it's pretty solid, I've used parallels desktop and it's good, removes the need for me to carry two laptops about. As an aside to the other arguments, I'm also a heavy user of MS Virtual PC running everything from Windows 2000 to Vista in sessions for development tests. This is free from Microsoft but is Windows only, and you can't run Mac OS-X on Windows.

If you want a cheaper alternative, boot directly into Windows on an Intel Mac.

markchadwick

It seems your friend has one of 4 options:

1. Dual boot with both windows and OS X (a bit inflexible as you can only use on OS at a time).

2. Virtualisation using either Parallels Desktop for Mac or VMWare Fusion.

3. Emulation using Crossover Office/Darwine

4. Find alternative software that is OS X native

If it was me, I would opt to try the above in reverse numerical order - but it largely depends on what software your friend wishes to run.

If you visit here they did a bench-test with options 1-3 and based on their criteria, Crossover Office came out on top. If your friend can use this, it may be a better option as it should use less resources than virtualisation and he wont need to buy a copy of Windows (although Crossover Office for Mac is about $60). If options 3 or 4 can't be used, then it's option 2 all the way. His next decision is which virtualisation option to go with. There are reviews online for and against Fusion and Parallels, but I think your friend could try both using the trial versions and decide then.