[markw10]

I am a 100% pc user. Well my son is in college now and exclusively using Mac so he just switched. Well now I caught the bug and want to switch also. I am looking into a laptop but one concern I have is cost so I'm thinking of selling my windows laptop to help with the cost of the macbook. I'm undecided between the Macbook and Macbook Pro. From what I have read the GMA 950 processor will run Windows Vista with glass but barely so I'm concerned I'll need the processing power of the Macbook Pro.
As well, I'm undecided between which to go with. I hear a lot about Bootcamp. The only downside I see is having to reboot the computer to go between os's where it seems with Parallels you can run both at the same time in separate windows but is parallels just as compatible with bootcamp? I've heard bootcamp should run Vista but will Parallels run it?
One concern, at least that I've heard for Bootcamp, is that of course you have two partitions but that you never want to access one from the other when it comes to data. What I mean is someone told me if the windows partition has a lot of data files such as mp3's, jpg's, office documents, etc. never use them from the Mac side or vice versa or you could damage them. I have a lot of data and with two partitions hard drive space will be at a premium so I would hate to have to double my data to have it separately on each partition.
I know I will use Windows a lot and have so many programs for it. With time I will use more and more mac but still it may be more than 50% windows so it's important that Windows run just as well on a mac as a pure windows machine for compatiblity, speed, etc.. Is it like this? If not I may just have to keep the windows machine and get a cheaper mac.

[Chuckit]

You can't write to the Windows partition from the Mac side at all, so I wouldn't worry about damaging it.

It really depends on what you want to do. If you're into gaming, definitely Boot Camp. If you want to use IE and other fairly mild programs, no reason not to use Parallels for the convenience.

[markw10]

Since you can't write to the windows side how is the best way to store data that would be used from both OS 2 and WinXP. DO you create a 3rd data partition or can the data be stored in the MAC OS2 partition? By doing that would I then be able to write to it from Windows? I would do a lot of work with office documents that will require modifying documents.

[ghporter]

Options:

Third partition (using third-party software) that's formatted in FAT32

Format the Windows partition in FAT32 (not the best idea, but workable)

Get an external drive and format IT in FAT32

Note the common element: FAT32 is both readable AND WRITABLE by OS X, while NO Mac filesystem is natively readable, let alone writeable, by Windows. So whatever you do, you're going to have to deal with FAT32. The good part is that much of the "FAT32 limitations" you may have hear about are actually limitations in how Windows uses it rather than the filesystem itself. You can have huge FAT32 partitions. The only real hard limitation is that files themselves can't be too huge - I think 2GB is the limit.

[Hi I'm Ben]

Like others have said, if you're not going to run games, or any other 3d accelerated programs get Parallels. I also think that once you start using your mac that 50% windows thing will ultimately die down. You'll probably find yourself using windows far less than you thought.

As a windows and mac user I thought for sure when I got my MacBook I would install Parallels on it and use it every day. In reality I can't remember the last time I even opened Parallels because there are Mac Equivilants to all the programs on I use on here. Of course when you first buy a mac it won't seem that way, I have been using them a long time so I know which applications work for the mac side like the PC, that part comes in time.

For laptop usage i would NEVER (although this is my personal preference) install bootcamp. Laptop drives are small enough, but to waste what little space you have by partitioning the drive into two parts seems awfully wasteful and pointless to me. At least with Parallels you can have it Mac a dynamic growing disk image so as your Windows "hard drive" gets bigger the size of your parallels drive does.

[Macola]

Originally Posted by Hi I'm Ben

For laptop usage i would NEVER (although this is my personal preference) install bootcamp. Laptop drives are small enough, but to waste what little space you have by partitioning the drive into two parts seems awfully wasteful and pointless to me. At least with Parallels you can have it Mac a dynamic growing disk image so as your Windows "hard drive" gets bigger the size of your parallels drive does.

I have both installed on my MacBook, with a 120 GB hard drive. Parallels is fine for quick and lightweight stuff, but booting natively is an absolute necessity for me when doing any serious work (stuff that needs accelerated graphics and access to both cores).

Why would a laptop be any different from a desktop?