Paul Walsh contacted me asking which method of running Windows Vista works best on the Mac. Much depends on what you want to do. If you’ve bought a Mac to run Vista and Microsoft specific applications then Boot Camp makes sense. Boot Camp provides native support for Windows operating systems but it doesn’t provide easy file sharing between Mac and Windows applications. That means you have to reboot to get back to the Mac OS.
If you want to run Windows inside the Mac environment as a virtual machine then the best current choices are VMWare Fusion and Parallels Desktop v 3.0. You’d do this if you want to take advantage of the Mac’s emphasis on multi-media applications but still need access to Windows applications – which means 90-95% of the business community.
Neither VMWare nor Parallels is an ideal solution unless you have LOTS of RAM on the Mac – preferably 2GB. This is because virtual machines hog memory and have a habit of grinding to a halt, especially if you’re already running memory hungry applications on the Mac. I’ve run both and find that Vista loads quicker under Parallels than VMWare. But that may be a perceptual difference.
Both Parallels and VMWare provide seamless file sharing between Windows and Mac though I find Parallels to be a tad smoother. The biggest pain is that neither system seems to replicate the Mac keyboard commands. This only really matters when you’re doing stuff like cut ‘n’ paste where you use CMD-C/V in Mac and CTRL-C/V in Windows.
VMWare has some bizarre requirements. For example if you want Bluetooth support (and who doesn’t) then you’ll have to load Boot Camp drivers. A bit self defeating. It’s also in beta so you can be sure there are glitches. Check the VMWare forums for the latest status.
The latest Parallels upgrade has been a nightmare – which is why I’m writing this on Windows LiveWriter running on Vista under VMWare. When I upgraded from Version 2 to 3, Parallels failed to accept my legitimate license key. OK – glitches happen. But Parallels support is abysmal. I’m still waiting for an answer from tech support, two weeks after the problem emerged.
The good news is that you can trial these services free of charge to work out which is best for you. Boot Camp is free and it’s said will be included in the next version of the Mac OS. Parallels costs $79.99 ($50 upgrade) while VMWare is being sold at a pre-release price of $39.99 (post release: $79.99).
The bad news is that you will need to install your choice of Windows OS and applications under each virtual machine.
Why Bother?
As I was preparing to write this Sam Sethi questioned why you’d want to run Vista on a Mac. Good question. I have run XP on Parallels and found it to be more stable but as a tech junkie I’ve just got to have the latest and greatest. Regardless of its detractors, Vista IS an improvement on XP though I fully understand anyone who is reticent about installing until we see a Service Pack release.
Having said that, Microsoft Office 2007 is horrible. It’s taken more than two weeks of playing around with it to get the hang of the ribbon style task bars and even now I get confused. That means business cost. And I still detest ‘Track Changes’ in documents. A Wiki approach is far cleaner. But I digress.
Final Words
You pays your money and takes your choice. For the business user wanting the best of both Mac and Windows, there isn’t much to choose between Parallels and VMWare although tech heads will no doubt pick up on a bunch of stuff. If on the other hand you’ve bought a Mac as a high spec Windows box then Boot Camp is your choice.
