Windows on Mac

[MotionMan]

I just got three "new" Macs to replace all but one of my family's PCs. Two of the Macs have the Intel chip (laptops) and I will have to be able to run Windows on them.

Last night, a friend of mine (a Mac guy) said there are a few different ways to implement Windows on a Mac:

1. Boot Camp: Boot entirely into Windows (no Mac OS running);
2a. Parallels (or something similar): Boot in MacOS and run Windows "in" Mac as full screen.
2b. Parallels (or something similar): Boot in MacOS and run Windows "in" Mac as a window.
3. windows of Windows in Mac: In MacOS, open certain Windows windows on top of the Mac OS (So you can have windows of Windows and windows of MacOS open and visible at the same time.

I had heard of 1 and 2, but never heard of 3. How does that work?

Do any of these options require a separate hard drive partition for Windows?

Also, he said that, on my Mac laptop, I can have the MacOS running on my laptop screen and Windows on an external screen. Is that true? Is that implementation 2a/b or 3?

Sorry if these are simple questions. The last time I owned a Mac I think it ran OS 7.

MotionMan

 

[Nothinman]

3. windows of Windows in Mac: In MacOS, open certain Windows windows on top of the Mac OS (So you can have windows of Windows and windows of MacOS open and visible at the same time.

I can't remember what Parallels calls that but in VMware I think that's Fusion. The apps still run in a VM but they look like semi-normal windows to you in the host OS.

Do any of these options require a separate hard drive partition for Windows?

BootCamp obviously will since you're installing Windows on the bare hardware. The other options all run Windows in a VM so you just need a VM disk file.

 

[magnux]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
I can't remember what Parallels calls that but in VMware I think that's Fusion. The apps still run in a VM but they look like semi-normal windows to you in the host OS.

VMWare *is* Fusion, the method of seamlessly integrating Windows windows (hah) into OS X (via VMWare Fusion) is called "Unity".

 

[VinylxScratches]

There is also CrossOver. I use it to run Microsoft Office 2007 in Leopard.

 

[rdp6]

I think this is called Coherence mode in Parallels. When I ran a windows vm frequently I put the OS X dock on the side and the windows taskbar on the bottom and worked in Coherence on occasion. Mostly I would use windows in full-screen mode and flip to OS X using Spaces.

 

[Kmax82]

Yea, there are trials for both solutions, and there is also VirtualBox, which is free, depending on how much work you actually do in Windows.

I personally like VMWare Fusion the most, but I haven't tried VirtualBox. Also, you can use a BootCamp partition and boot that in VMWare or Parallels, but I find that is MUCH slower.

 

[DanK414]

I use VMWare Fusion on mind. Works perfectly as full screen or windowed. Only thing is it's buggy when I run some games on it.

 

[TheStu]

VMWare Fusion all the way. The free/discounted upgrades from one version to the next are nice.

 

[rogerX]

I have to agree on VMWare Fusion over other VM softwares.