Running Windows on Mac - Boot Camp vs. Parallels
I bought my MacBookPro 17″ last Christmas, since then I extensively explored as much as I can about this sleek and cool machine, well, my first mac as I have been a PC user for the past 10 years.
There are a number of Windows’ applications I need to stick to, and soon enough, I decided that I need to get a virtual PC running on my MacBook knowing there are solutions out there. Well yes I know there is Boot Camp and yes I did my homework before I approach Parallels, but in my experience, Boot Camp is not such a good fit, especially for someone as “lazy” as myself, having to reboot the machine and switch to another platform is annoying. Plus, if I were to need to use a PC for my major work, I might as well just use the PC, I have two powerful PC already.
Apple’s Boot Camp got the most attention recently as a way to run Windows on the new Intel-powered Macs. But at almost the same time, little-known Virginia-based Parallels, Inc. announced a version of its virtualization software, Parallels Workstation for the Intel Macs.
This software solution for running other PC operating systems is more flexible than Apple’s Boot Camp, and for many users, it may prove to be a better solution.
Boot Camp Pros and Cons
A bit of background: Apple’s Boot Camp, like an earlier hacker-built solution, lets users partition their Intel-Mac’s hard drive in order to install another operating system (in Boot Camp’s case, Windows XP only) and allow the user to choose to boot into either Mac OS X or the other operating system.
Only one operating system runs at a time, but it gets full use of all the computer’s hardware resources.
Now Parallels, in my case, is a much more attractive solution. First of all, I don’t need to run Windows on my mac in full capacity; secondly, I do want to stick to mac interface for everything (that’s the reason I have a mac, if I need to use Windows so much, I might as well just use my “actual” quite well-equiped PC which I got 1 year ago).
Boot Camp vs. Parallels Workstation
Boot Camp only supports Windows XP at present; Parallels Workstation can be used with a wide range of PC operating systems, both Windows and non-Windows.
Boot Camp requires rebooting your computer to switch between operating systems, and only one operating system can be running at a time. If you’re running Windows and you need to get a phone number from your Mac’s Address Book, you’re out of luck.
Parallels Workstation allows you to run other PC operating systems in windows from within the Mac OS; this lets you run programs on your Mac and in the PC operating system at the same time.
And if you want to run any PC operating system other than Windows XP, Parallels Workstation makes it easy. It may prove possible to hack Boot Camp to support other operating systems, but you’re on your own at that!
An advantage of booting to Windows, as Boot Camp requires, is that with full control over the hardware, you’ve got full performance. While the virtualized operating systems in Parallels Workstation are fast, Boot Camp’s Windows XP installation is faster. And the RAM requirements of running either Mac OS X or Windows XP on their own are lower than trying to run both operating systems at the same time.
While neither Windows XP via Boot Camp nor any of the PC operating systems via Parallels Workstation fully support all the hardware on the Intel Macs at this time, Boot Camp offers better video, sound, and USB support. If you want to play Windows 3D games or print to a USB printer (at least for now), Boot Camp is the way to go.
It’s great that (Intel) Mac owners now have a variety of options to run Windows and other PC operating systems. There may be more to come; there are rumours that VMware may offer support for its software on the Intel Macs. Other rumours suggest that Apple may include virtualization support along with Boot Camp support in the upcoming OS X 10.5 “Leopard” release.
IMPORTANT NOTE
It is very important to know that whether via Boot Camp or any virtualization software, running Windows on a Mac makes you just as vulnerable to all the nasty stuff as running Windows on a generic PC. On this note, I do have Anti-virus protection program running on this virtual workstation.
Installation & Performance
Parallels Workstation requires that you manually install the guest operating system(s) from scratch, but the installation is not much different and is quite fast and easy.
As for the performance, XP runs quite nicely using Parallels Workstation on my MacBook Pro, mind you that I do have 512 RAM for XP to run though. In fact, I always enjoy working on around 8-10 tasks on my mac simoteneously, and there is no lag, to my taste, which is wonderful.
P.s. My MacBook Pro is –
2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 4MB on-chip shared L2 cache running 1:1 with processor speed; 2GB (two SO-DIMMs) of PC2-5300 (667MHz) DDR2 memory; 800MHz frontside bus; 160GB 5400-rpm Serial ATA hard drive
Reference: Running Windows on Mac
