Parallels

jjmusicman29 wrote:
So this is the thing that would justify my purchase for a Mac.
I hear I can emulate Windows XP on a Mac PC.

Question: Does this mean I can do absolutely ANYTHING on a PC as on a Mac?
Example: Videora iPod converter. Does not work on Mac. Works on XP/Vista. If I download it, I can install it on the Parallels Windows XP emulator, and convert my files with it, and then open the files in iTunes on Mac OSX?

Or play PC games or anything else, etc., as on a Windows PC, but emulate it on a Mac?

For the most part yes. VMWare Fusion is also a good one and if I'm not mistaken about the same price.

You can "technically" do almost anything provided you are within the limits of the "emulator."

For instance, Parallels I know only supports up to a certain version of direct X so lets say for example it only supported up to direct x 8, and you wanted to play a game that uses direct x 9, well that might not be possible.

Remember these are emulators. They can do a lot but they are in no way a perfect substitute for the real thing. Performance is hindered a noticable bit but they do run rather well for the most part. Best bet would be to dual boot with Bootcamp.

As far as opening files in either operating system. Certain file extensions will be recognized by either OS as "That's mine!" and try to open. Example, you have an *.exe on your OSX desktop and you doulbleclick it, it'll prompt you to open Parallels to run it. There's also Coherance mode which is nice.

I run parallels for my programming environment (visual studio) and I bootcamp for my windows only video games (until the mac ones work better).

Good Afternoon,

For details regarding specific compatibility with applications through Parallels, you may want to contact their support department directly as the Apple Forums do not directly provide support for 3rd party products.

I do not see any reason why a standard Windows program wouldn't work under Parallels though, but please check that with the vendor prior to making your decision.

As far as gaming, Parallels is not a gaming platform, to play Windows Games on your iMac, you will want to run the (Beta) Application from Apple called BootCamp, it will allow you to install Windows XP on a specific partition and run all of your Windows Programs and Games natively.

Hope this helps,

David

No guarantees that "absolutely anything" will work. In my experience there's no guarantee even if you have a true-blue PC.

You have two choices, and can actually do both of them (versus one or the other). You can run Bootcamp and boot your Mac as a Windows machine when you need to. That's the best for games. And/or you can run Parallels and run a copy of Windows in a box. This is best for usability but not for 3-D action games. You can easily share files from Windows to Mac OS using Parallels. I have no idea if "Videora iPod Converter" will work but I'd suspect there's a good chance it will in one or both of these modes.

VMWare has an emulator too but I haven't researched it.

BootCamp is a Free Beta application from Apple that will be included in the next version of Mac OS X (Leopard). Beyond that, there are no assurances Apple will continue to update BootCamp for Tiger (10.4) but it makes sense that they will...

David

When running BootCamp, your Apple Hardware behaves exactly as a PC, the PC partition on your hard drive does not even realize you are running an iMac instead of a Traditional PC. The install operates normally and functions normally, the files are stored in the same places as you'd expect, and everything operates as you normally see on your traditional Generic PC.

This is due to the fact that Apple equipment, as of the Intel change-over, are simply higher grade PC components than you normally see in PC's, however, they are simply PC's under the hood.

You can expect the same requirements for Vista on the Mac as you do on a Generic PC. Those requirements, per Dell Computer include 2GB of RAM for an Optimal Experience.

David

FWIW, I can tell you that I have been running Photoshop Elements 6 in Vista in Fusion on a C2D imac with 2.5 G of ram and both it and Vista have been just totally fine. No problems at all, and performance, even in the virtualized environment is better than my older XP computer.

the Apple Forums do not directly provide support for 3rd party products

Heck, they don't even directly provide support for Apple products! It's only the goodwill of us users.

This is due to the fact that Apple equipment, as of the Intel change-over, are simply higher grade PC components than you normally see in PC's, however, they are simply PC's under the hood.

Higher grade PC components? Hardly. Most of the components are standard PC components - nothing "higher" about them. Indeed some components - like the graphics card - are distinctly at the budget end of the PC component market!

There seems to be some confusion here... Parallels and Fusion are not emulators. They are products that allow you to run virtual machines inside Mac OS X.

In an emulator (like VirtualPC), Windows (Intel) code is interpreted so that it can be executed on a PowerPC processor. This introduces a significant delay and loss in performance as everything is processed through this emulator.

Parallels and Fusion are products that allow Windows (or other OSs) to run natively on the Intel Mac's processor. There is no interpretation of the code. You can find a lot of good information on this process by reading through the articles at www.parallels.com/en/rc/whitepapers/

With Parallels or Fusion, Windows and Mac OS are both running at the same time and it is easy to move between them.

In contrast, Bootcamp forces you to boot either into Windows or Mac OS. After booting in one, that OS has complete control and access to every aspect of the Mac.

I use Parallels and find that it executes as fast as any Windows box I have ever used. The ease of moving between Windows and Mac apps is amazing.

With some limits, yes...

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/otherproducts/otherproducts.aspx?pid=windowsmedia

That link will have more details for you.

David