The other day I mentioned that I am (finally) back on the Mac. Well, today I had some time to finish up installing my MacBook Pro an one of these installations was installing Bootcamp, Parallels and of course Windows XP.
First off, I am truly amazed at the speed of Parallels and the new coherence feature it has. Actually I went so far that I run Photoshop CS3 (MacOSX), Parallels (MacOSX), Updating Windows over Wireless Lan (Windows), downloading a file in FireFox (Windows) and running ColdFusion and Oracle as a service (Windows) and at the same time writing this message in Firefox (MacOSX).
If I had told this someone two years ago, they would have thought that I am cheating but see for yourself:
I would also like to mention that Apple has done a great job with Bootcamp. It was simply a matter of running the Bootcamp Assistant, following the manual, and installing Windows XP. Once back into MacOS X, installing Parallels and using the Custom Installation for choosing the Bootcamp partition. Simple tasks, for an amazing solution.
I have used VMWare Workstation on Windows many times before but it was never so easy to install and use another OS within a Host system. Did I mention that a simple drag and drop copies files back and forth between MacOS X and Windows XP?
Actually with a setup like this, I don’t think there is anything holding anybody back from getting an Apple system anymore.
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What are the specs on your mackbook? I’m trying to decide what i need to have good performance with both oses. Core or core 2 , amount of ram etc.-ethan
Hi there
You will want to go with the Core 2 Chip, since this one bring a lot more performance. Also you want to have 3 GB of Ram so you can assign Windows 1.2 GB or even more Ram. If you are planing to run Vista you need at least 1.5 GB Ram for it.
Mine is a MacBook Pro 15", 2.33 Ghz, Dual Core 2, 120GB Hard Drive (assigned 32GB to Windows), 3GB Ram. Actually just the normal configuration from the apple Store, just added an additional 1GB of Ram.
I am VERY happy with it. Coming from a Dell Precision M70 Laptop, this machine is just beautiful, fast, light and runs everything I want. A dream come true.
Nice.
Just to clarify–you’re running ColdFusion MX within Parallels, right? Any tips or pitfalls you encountered installing CF into your Parallels image?
Yes, you can run CF 7.0.2 within Parallels without any problems. At the moment I write this email I have Paralells open with Windows XP (Bootcamp version), running some database application and FireFox. At the same time I have another Paralells image open (CentOS Linux) with Oracle 10g running. One image virtual os talks to the other seamlessly.
Up until Flex Builder 2.x was released for MacOS X a lot of people worked with it and Parallels, too. So, yes Paralells can be used for real time work
That’s great. Thanks for the info Nitai.
I have a MacBook Pro as well and am currently running Boot Camp. I want to install Parallels too but am cofused about how to access the installed Windows XP program (in Boot Camp partition) Should I be able to use the XP prpgram installed in Boot Camp or do I have to reinstall XP a 2nd time?
Thanks for your help.
Would you respond via email as well?
Kind regards
- Rik
Hi there,
Actually, Parallels makes this process very easy for you. Just install Parallels and create a new virtual disk. Then chose the "advanced" options and tell Parallels that you want to use your Bootcamp volume. Paralells will then use this and finish up the installation. That’s it. No need for reinstalling Windows or your applications.
As a fact, I will go the opposite route now. BootCamp takes up 32 GB of my HD space, thus I will create a Image with Transporter of the BootCamp volume and then use Windows as a virtual disk. Thus I can remove the BootCamp volume and regain the "lost" space for MacOS X.
Hope this help.