Bootcamp 8.1 for Light-to-Mod Computing

I have a late '13 rMBP 8/256 i5 that I want to use Windows on. For whatever reason, I just prefer the OS over OSX. Not saying OSX is bad (there are things I like), but I find 8.1 (or Windows in general) fits better for what I do 70% of the time. I am a student and all of the software I use is either i) better on 8.1 than OSX or ii) exclusively on Windows. All of the software is generally light computing (think MS Office-ish) with some moderate computing thrown in. For the heavy computing lab-type work we have workstations in our lab.

Therefore, I would like to use Bootcamp to load 8.1. I have used Parallels in Coherence mode, but I feel like everything is kind of sloppy with icons all over the place in the top bar and the non-uniform application icons. Secondly, I much prefer the file management in Windows, and a VM doesn't really help with that. However, I love the hardware on the rMBP and that's where bootcamp comes in to play.

So...my question is this- for those who have used Bootcamp with 8.1, is it a viable option to use almost exclusively on a mac? I know the driver support isn't 100% ideal, but is it good enough?

Thanks for the help!!

 

In a word, no.

In several more words: There are many idiosyncrasies involved in running Windows on a Mac. You mentioned driver support. That's a big one. Trackpad operation is not nearly as fluent as it is in OS X. The keyboard layout is different - the command keys act as Windows keys in Windows, and there's only one control key. Battery life is reduced, and the system will run hotter.

There are many very good Mac alternatives with similar hardware that are better optimized for Windows. Fortunately, you should be able to resell your Mac for a good chunk of what you paid for it, so you'll be out little if any money.

 

Thanks for the reply. Yeah, I kind of figured as much.

The problem is finding a good alternative:

The XPS have noticeable coil whine
The AITV 9 Plus and the Yoga 2 Pro both have serious color (yellow) reproduction issues on the QHD screen

Having seen windows on the high def screen, I think in a 13" form 1080p is good for i) very few things are pixelated and ii) battery life is markedly better than running > 1080p. I am thinking of something in the 13" range and no heavier than the rMBP as I travel both on foot and otherwise a decent amount.

Finding an alternative is difficult because the Apple build quality and reliability are second to none.

 

You should check out the Asus UX303 if you like 3k res, or UX32 for 1080p. They come with discrete GPU (840m) so they even have better specs than the rMBP.

 

I would not go that far on Apple build quality or reliability being second to none. Apple is great quality consumer grade. But any decent business class PC is superior build wise or reliability wise from better makes. I love Apple MacBook Pros for running OSX, a favorite operating system. But at my work, the Apples have more frequent repairs than our HP ProBooks and EliteBooks, our Dell Latitudes and Precisions, and our Lenovo ThinkPads. Not to mention our Panasonic ToughBooks. We love our MacBook Pros, but we buy all the AppleCare they'll sell us. And we don't try to run demanding applications on them now.

 

I have to cosign this. As much as I like my MacBook Pro, I am seriously considering going back to PC/Windows land because of the exact issues stated above. A few of my bread-and-butter programs are PC only (such as CorelDRAW), and I underestimated how clunky it can be to work in a Windows VM inside of OSX. I am not having a ton of performance issues, but wonky shortcuts/key commands and a few other oddities are seriously killing my workflow. I work on a PC workstation at my job, and I constantly find myself getting confused over key commands/shortcuts because of the workarounds I have to apply while using a VM on my Mac.

At the end of the day, owning a Mac just isn't seeming to be worth the trouble these issues are causing. If every program I used was Mac available, then it might be a different story, but given these issues (and the fact that the Windows versions of some programs I use get a slight performance boost), I am thinking just using a straight Windows machine may be the best way to go.

The lack of a dedicated delete key is a real killer when using a Windows VM as well...

 

Glad to see I'm not the only one! I agree- the lack of a dedicated delete key gets way more annoying than I originally thought it would.