boot camp vs parallels

first and foremost, i'd like to thank all the people that have aided in my decision to get a mac. it's in the mail as i type. now on to my question. what is the difference between boot camp and parallels?

 

You run parallels while OS X is running so you have both OS X and Windows running at the same time which uses a lot of RAM obviously.. With boot camp, you choose which OS to run when you first boot the computer.

 

Parallels with Windows doesn't run as smooth as BootCamp. BootCamp = free (for now) and Parallels = $$.

 

wow, on first thought i figured the paralles would be smoother than the bootcamp. my understanding is that bootcamp won't always be free but i'm still happy to have it available. thanks as always!

 

Bootcamp should always be free. It will be included in Leopard.

Bootcamp allows you to use your video card in windows. In Parallels, there is no 3d rendering. So no games, no autocad, etc. However, Paralllels is VERY fast if you have enough ram in your machine. I have 2 gigs and can run a linux and xp machine under parallels at the same time and it's still blazing fast.

 

Depends what you mean by smooth. Parallels integrates Windows and Windows programs smoothly into OS X. For regular business stuff (Office, Visio etc) it runs perfectly well (about 95% as fast as BootCamp for things it supports). Its current video driver does not support 3d graphics though, and more graphics intensive activities will tax your cpu (less so in BootCamp).

The real advantage to Parallels is you don't have to choose an OS at boot time, ou can freely use applications from both. And of course Windows is captured in a VM so its many security issues can't impact anything you don't put in the VM or explicitly share with the VM. It can also support many host OS's and the VM's can be burnt to DVD or disk and backed up with normal Mac backup software.

BootCamps advantage is performance and gives you the ability to do things like play games and use more graphics intensive applications. More directly connecting to peripherals other than the video card is smoother too.

The Beta of Bootcamp is supposed to expire after the final version is released (but I do not know if that is true or what expiry date they may have built in). Once the final version is released, Tiger users would have the option of purchasing it or buying Leopard (which would include BootCamp).

Since I'm not a gamer and my video needs are modist I much prefer Parallels, but there are definitely things you can do in Bootcamp that you can't in Parallels.

 

I will say that the mouse and keyboard problems in parallels completely turned me off of it. I know that the company is trying to fix this so hopefully they get it worked out soon.

Personally I like Boot camp, but that is just me. Depending on how much Boot Camp costs when leopard comes out I might just buy Boot camp alone and hold off on leopard for a while. However, the features in leopard look really nice and having a true 64-bit OS will be a definite plus in my book.

 

If you install boot camp, partion and install windows and then uninstall bootcamp. You could still use both partitions, windows and OSX. I don't see how they can charge you down the road if you already have it now. Unlike parallels, you won't need boot camp again until you decide to return your hard drive to one partition or need an updated version.

What keyoard and mouse issues? They work just fine on parallels, boot camp is where you need drivers to use the keyboard and mouse. Boot camp is where the mousepad starts getting lost and keyboad function keys don't work. On parallels, you could even get your dashboard to run on top of windows (not really a good idea). Boot camp is superior when it comes to gaming and using your laptop at full speed on windows, but parallels is much easier and more convenient. For the casual pop ins that you need windows for a quicky, something that's not osx compatible, I recommend parallels. If you want to game or just prefer windows, then I would recommend boot camp.

 

easy and simple answer...do both

That's what I do.

 

I double that. I take back all that I said

 

Actually running both is not all that bad.

With the latest update of Parallels, the keyboard and mouse issues are fixed. However, Parallels does not work with Macdrive which is a problem for me.

I have my XP partition at 10GB and I have a folder on my Mac partition that most of my windows programs are installed into. If I boot natively via boot camp Macdrive works just fine, but parallels and Macdrive do not mix. Hopefully the company that makes parallels will fix this in the next release b/c I know they are listening to their customers and trying to make parallels work flawlessly.

I don't use XP all that often and frankly you better be plugged in when you are running XP, b/c the power saving features are all jacked up. The only thing that works to get some more juice out my MBP when in Windows is RMClock (but my battery life is still only around 2.5 hours max).

 

Why use MAcdrive when you can use Parallels Shared folders? don't get it.

 

I will have to look into that. I don't really know how the shared folder works, but can it also be used if you natively boot XP via Boot Camp? My understanding is that the Parallels shared folder works like Macdrive, but it works with parallels. That means that it most likely will not work with Boot Camp which is a problem.

It is not that big of a deal, b/c the only big programs that I would install and need Macdrive to run are games and for that I would always run via Boot Camp and not Parallels.