[Le Flaneur]

I currently have a PowerBook G4/1.67 Ghz (Hi-res nov 2007), but I've ordered a MacBook Pro 2.4 Ghz, so I'll finally be able to run some Windows apps if needed. But I'm totally new to this game. I'm thinking of running Quicken for Windows and possibly some various networking utilities (to configure my Netgear Powerline adapters, for example). Here are my questions:

1) Would I be better off with Crossover 7 or a full virtualization environment such as VMWare Fusion? Is Crossover less resource-hungry (in terms of memory, CPU) and faster to launch?

2) If I went with VMWare, what is the best way to install Windows? I happen to have an unopened copy of VirtualPC 7 with WindowsXP Professional SP2. Would I need to install VPC on my PowerBook, then migrate the install to the MBP, and have VMWare import the virtual machine? Then do I upgrade to XP SP3?

[wubrew]

Originally Posted by Le Flaneur 

I currently have a PowerBook G4/1.67 Ghz (Hi-res nov 2007), but I've ordered a MacBook Pro 2.4 Ghz, so I'll finally be able to run some Windows apps if needed. But I'm totally new to this game. I'm thinking of running Quicken for Windows and possibly some various networking utilities (to configure my Netgear Powerline adapters, for example). Here are my questions:

1) Would I be better off with Crossover 7 or a full virtualization environment such as VMWare Fusion? Is Crossover less resource-hungry (in terms of memory, CPU) and faster to launch?

2) If I went with VMWare, what is the best way to install Windows? I happen to have an unopened copy of VirtualPC 7 with WindowsXP Professional SP2. Would I need to install VPC on my PowerBook, then migrate the install to the MBP, and have VMWare import the virtual machine? Then do I upgrade to XP SP3?

Having gone through trial and error and presently have Vista and Linux (Ubuntu Persistence) together with OS X, IMHO, as a newbie you should try virtualization first. Personally I prefer VMWare over Paralell because of memory hogging characteristic of the latter. But the real deal is to have double or triple bootability. Bootcamp will help you get started. But the drivers are all you really need once you know how things are done. Google is your best friend in this case. So much better to run from real installed os. If you have mac drive installed in you window than transferring stuff is as easy as drag and drop as in VMware or Paralell. As for Virtual PC if you want to make Bill happy go for it.

[Le Flaneur]

Originally Posted by wubrew 

But the real deal is to have double or triple bootability. Bootcamp will help you get started.

Perhaps, but it's hugely inconvenient, precisely because you have to reboot, but also because you have to partition your internal hard disk (don't you?). For my purposes, a virtualization environment would be much better.

[64stang06]

Another for VMWare.

[wubrew]

Originally Posted by Le Flaneur 

Perhaps, but it's hugely inconvenient, precisely because you have to reboot, but also because you have to partition your internal hard disk (don't you?). For my purposes, a virtualization environment would be much better.

VMWare it is! Fresh install is your best bet. At its best VPC is still very Buggy in any G4 mac. Especially in a PB. Make sure your MBP ram is max out to 4 and allocate at least 1gb to VM. Tranferrng a virtual machine b/t computer or different platform is not a good idea IMO. Virtualization still has it drawbacks. Real OS is much stable and rebooting of windows, especially Vista does not take long in a mac and is almost as at stable as OSX ! The main point is you do have choices owning an Intel mac. Don't forget to try out Linux using VM.