I have an early 2008 iMac with OS 10.5.8. For business purposes I need to run windows applications. I am wondering if I can update theiMac OS to run Paralles or vm Fusionware to run windows7 Pro ? I could just purchase a new iMac, but this is for a start-up business, so I'm hoping I can use my older iMac at first to save $. Thank you
iMac, Mac OS X (10.5.8)
Sure but on that system I'd use Boot Camp Assistant and install windows to it's own partition. You may be able to install XP if that will work for you.
First off 10.5 is obsolete OS X operating system version. You need to upgrade to something more recent.
Second if you update OS X to 10.7/10.8 to run commercial virtual machine software like Fusion or Parallels, all your present OS X PPC based software of 10.5 is no longer going to work and likey a lot of your older Intel software too, also your machine is going to run slow because it's a older machine and the newer OS X verisons of 10.7/10.8 are bloated pigs on older hardware.
My advice is to get a 10.6.3 white retail disk from Apple, then make a Carbon Copy Clone of your present 10.5.8 to a blank external drive and disconnet, then apply the 10.6.3 and update to 10.6.8.
10.6 will run your older PPC based and Intel software (Rosetta) and you can use the free VirtualBox to run Windows 7 in that, and/or use Apple's BootCamp which will require a free area at the bottom of the boot drive with no data.
It's the best option for your situation as you don't want to be spending more money on new software or having to buy a new machine. That machine is rather dated, it's at it's end of life stage so it's no sense to spend more money when it's going to die in few years anyway.
The only cost I see is the price of Windows 7 disk (and a external drive), the commercial virtual machine software will require 10.7 or later and keep costing money over and over again.
Apple is providing updates for Snow Leopard (10.6) so it's not a issue there to have to be on 10.7 or 10.8 and have older software and a slow machine as a result.
If you run into problems with the 10.6 upgrade, you can c boot off the disk and wipe everything and reinstall from scratch, then transfer files from the 10.5 clone you made earlier.
Most commonly used backup methods
Windows in BootCamp or Virtual Machine?
How to erase and install Snow Leopard 10.6
https://discussions.apple.com/community/notebooks/macbook_pro?view=documents
Shootist007 wrote:
You may be able to install XP if that will work for you.
Only Win 7 is supported by BootCamp in 10.6, (perhaps Win 8 too I don't know yet.)
Anyway if the OP has XP based programs Win 7 Pro+ will run them fine or use a virtualized XP download to do it.
Apple burns their OS bridges and Microsoft goes back and makes sure no one is left behind.
I'm having a lot more respect for Redmond than Apple lately.
The OP is running 10.5.8. If he is still running Leopard then he may still have the older version of BCA that will allow him to install XP.
No that is not correct. Windows 7 runs Most XP programs but not all. That is why MS made available XP Mode that included the MS VM and a Full Version of XP Pro for FREE. So people that upgraded to Win 7 but had older programs could still run them on in the XP mode VM.
ds,
Kind of harsh telling the OP's iMac is dated and and at the end of its life. It's not even 5 years old, yet!
I ran my last Mac, a PowerMac G4 for nearly 10 years. It still runs great, but got tired of fighting with no updates for Adobe Flash, couldn't handle any 1080p HD video, struggled with some 720p video content and was having problems and issues with YouTube and Vimeo. Plus, not being able to watch Netflix at all on this Mac and my PowerMac struggling with Hulu. Not to mention Internet browser issues, slow video rendering times when using my version of Final Cut Express finally put me over the edge to purchasing a newer iMac.
I would strongly recomend increasing the amount of RAM memory in your iMac if you haven't already done so.
Your model iMac can take a max. RAM of 6 GBs. Install the complete 6 GBs of RAM. You'll need it!
Purchase correct and reliable Mac RAM from online Mac RAM seller OWC (macsales.com).
Good Luck!
ds store wrote:
Shootist007 wrote:
You may be able to install XP if that will work for you.
Only Win 7 is supported by BootCamp in 10.6, (perhaps Win 8 too I don't know yet.)
Is this a recent change to Snow Leopard? I have Bootcamp running Windows XP in my Snow Leopard Mac Mini (and, for that matter, in my Lion MacBook Pro, as well, although Bootcamp was created before I upgraded it to Lion; but it still functions with Windows XP).
ds store wrote:
Apple burns their OS bridges and Microsoft goes back and makes sure no one is left behind.
I'm having a lot more respect for Redmond than Apple lately.
Exactly what do you mean by this statement?
Possible to run Windows on a 2008 iMac?
