[m021478]

If I have absolutely no intention of running Windows on my Mac to play memory/graphics intensive games, is there any really need to run Windows from a Boot Camp partition, or will Virtualization (running Parallels or VMware Fusion while booted from my Mac OS) work just fine for my needs...

I am using a MacPro with 2x3GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon Processors with 16GB of DDR2 RAM...

Aside from the slight (barely noticeable) dip in performance of the virtual Windows OS, are there any other advantages that I might want to consider?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated... Thanks!

[mduell]

"... will virtualization ... work just fine for my needs[?]"

It would help if you mentioned what your needs are...

[ghporter]

There are a lot of things to consider. Do you need USB devices to work under Windows? That can take some doing in either Parallels or Fusion. Not all of the system hardware is available do the virtualized OS, at least not the way you might expect it to be, so this can be a problem. On the other hand, if you use Boot Camp, the WHOLE computer is running Windows natively, as in "it's really BOOTED into Windows." That give you native support for the whole thing, drives, USB, WiFi, everything.

So if you tell us what your needs are (very strong hint here!), we can help you decide.

[Maflynn]

I faced the exact same dilemma since upgrading my MBP's hard drive. I now have the space for bootcamp and I was debating the virtualization vs. bootcamp issue. I came to the decision that since I don't play games and all of my hardware (printers/scanners/etc) work within vmware, I opted to keep using Fusion. The biggest reason for me to choose Fusion over Boot Camp was that I didn't need to boot into windows. I can run both OSX and windows at the same time. I've found that works best for my needs, as usual YMMV.

-Michael

[Chuckit]

You could also create a Boot Camp partition and run a VM using that. Best of both worlds.

[Maflynn]

Originally Posted by Chuckit 

You could also create a Boot Camp partition and run a VM using that. Best of both worlds.

True but if I never go into bootcamp, it seems like a waste of space that OSX will never be able to access/use.

[ghporter]

Hard drives, even laptop drives, are relatively inexpensive nowadays. I'd upgrade to a bigger drive if I was worried about how much space the computer "might" need. In fact, I'm saving up for a bigger drive for my MBP as we speak (though not very fast; I have lots of room on it still).

[ibook_steve]

Originally Posted by Maflynn 

True but if I never go into bootcamp, it seems like a waste of space that OSX will never be able to access/use.

NTFS/3G to fully use (read/write) the Windows partition from the Mac side.

MacDrive (http://www.mediafour.com) to access the Mac partition when booted into Windows.

Steve

[besson3c]

If you'd like to save a little dough, check out Virtualbox before you purchase VMWare or Parallels.