[osxisfun]

Hi.

I have a pc and use it to test out my sites (IE 6 and firefox.) But since i have a powerbook I am wondering if buy the latest version of VPC is worth it to check my web site for those times I am working away from my PC.

I know next year we will be dual booting or running vpc at full speed with intel mac but i was hoping to get some feedback on if its worth for checking sites in a browser. nothing more. no games etc...

thanks

I would be running VPC on a PB alu 1.67 with 128vram and 1.5 gig ram.

[Meijin]

I'd say it depends on how much you value your ability to check on a PC when you need to. I recently completed a project where I was on the client's site and using my Powerbook. When I was in the mode of checking CSS between browsers to make sure everything worked across the board, I was more or less constantly refreshing in all browsers available -- PC & Mac.

If it's a situation you see yourself in and you make your moolah on web design, one can't underestimate the value of VPC for this sort of thing. I know having it for a single day easily paid for it and I definitely had more than one day of constant use.

Plus if you're working remotely or on a client's site, it's nice if you get some oddball format and need to convert it to something you can use.

So I'd say yes, especially if you think you're going to be in the situation of needing to check fairly often in a situation where you can't use someone's pc or aren't able to use your own.

If it's a once-in-a-while thing, I wouldn't worry about it.

[osxisfun]

That's exactly what i would be doing... Using it in a round robin fashion where i write some code on the mac editor then refresh safari, firefox then in VPC ie 6 and firefox.

thank you

ps: what speed is your powerbook?

[leira]

I always use Remote Desktop in this situation. VPC is just too unbarably slow for my tastes

[osxisfun]

Originally Posted by leira

I always use Remote Desktop in this situation. VPC is just too unbarably slow for my tastes

i do too currently. My pc is really loud and frankly I just want something quick (as in access not speed) since i have to crawl under my desk and half the time i was always forgetting the ip address of it and there is some heinous copy paste bug in RD that will hang it often.

[Meijin]

Originally Posted by osxisfun

ps: what speed is your powerbook?

1.67GHz / 2GB RAM /128 MB VRAM.
I was doing all my testing on my last project with 1GB RAM and yeah, VPC with XP was dog slow. VPC with Win 98 or Win2K seems much better. If you can shoehorn 2GB into your PB (and I realize that's as much a question of economics as it is system capability), it'll make the XP experience very liveable, at least for website checking and the occasional dealings with some Access DB.

[osxisfun]

awesome.

maybe i will buy the xp pro and yank it (deactivate it?) and install my old windows 2000 cds..

PS: i was looking thru my boxes last night and turns out i own vpc 4. which unfoortunately will not "upgrade" to the latest version. sucks since the upgrade is 70$ or so.

[Meijin]

Originally Posted by osxisfun

awesome.

maybe i will buy the xp pro and yank it (deactivate it?) and install my old windows 2000 cds..

Keep XP and install 2K on an additional virtual machine.

[osxisfun]

ah yes. have not had my coffee yet.

[:dragonflypro:]

I think I am just daft.

How does Remote Desktop work from a Mac?

T

[madmacgames]

Originally Posted by osxisfun

maybe i will buy the xp pro and yank it (deactivate it?) and install my old windows 2000 cds..

I'm not sure I follow. If you already have win 2k CDs and plan on installing that on virtual PC, then why would you buy XP Pro just to throw it away?

[osxisfun]

because one can only buy VPC in home edition or pro... i went ahead and spent the money for pro just because its better than the home edition for the netwroking stuff etc.

there is a rebate for VPC BTW... 30 bucks back/ kinda nice.

dragonfly: there is a mac version of RDC at microsoft.com/mac it works well too

[madmacgames]

Originally Posted by osxisfun

because one can only buy VPC in home edition or pro... i went ahead and spent the money for pro just because its better than the home edition for the netwroking stuff etc.

Uh actually you can buy VPC in 4 flavors:
w/ XP Pro - $249
w/ XP home - $219
w/ win 2k Pro - $249
standalone - $129

The standalone is for if you already own a copy of windows... There is no need to buy windows with VPC if you already have a copy.

If someone told you that you can only buy VPC with XP Home or XP pro, then you got ripped off... to the tune of about $100

[osxisfun]

hmmm. .thanks for the update. i needed XP anyway though as i would like to restart in that mode "just to make sure' that things are hunky dory in xp mode.

so i guess i do need xp more than i thought.

will prob. do most web viewing in win 2000 though.

thanks though.

[Oisín]

A sort-of-related question:

If you have a site that uses PHP, and you use your PowerBook as PHP server (ie. not having to upload the entire file every time you make a change), will that work from VPC as well?

Originally Posted by Meijin

Keep XP and install 2K on an additional virtual machine.

And completely off-topic:

Meijin, is your name supposed to mean 'US Dollars' or 'boring'? (Or 'charcoal' or 'brocade' for that matter)

[osxisfun]

Originally Posted by Oisín

A sort-of-related question:

If you have a site that uses PHP, and you use your PowerBook as PHP server (ie. not having to upload the entire file every time you make a change), will that work from VPC as well?

I wondered that too. I just got my VPC package delivery I will tell you buy tomorrow.

[madmacgames]

you will not be able to access your Mac OS X apache server through VPC on localhost (127.0.0.1), but if you are on a local network, you can access it through that IP address (in your sharing pref panel you should see something like "View this computer’s website at http://192.168.1.101" or something similar.. whatever your local network address is.

I am connecting my powerbook to the net through a linksys router, in DHCP mode, which I have assigned my powerbook the static IP of 192.168.1.101. Then in the apache httd.conf, I have just set up my test virtual host on IP 192.168.1.101, made an entry in Net Info Manager, so I don't have to use 192.168.1.101 (I use mysite.home instead). And then in VPC, I have added an entry to c:/winnt/system32/drivers/etc/hosts so that mysite.home points to 192.168.1.101.

By default on Mac OS X, apache will serve both localhost and your local network IP, so if you just are going to browse on the IP, you should not have to do much work. I just prefer to have local domains setup as virtual hosts (that way you can fully test everything and fully simulate a production server)

[osxisfun]

macmac is correct. in other words its a pain in the butt.

That was my number one reason for buing this and I don't want to mess with editing all that stuff. I like to keep my web server setup as virgin as possible.

[ashtoash]

If you want to see what your page renders like cross platform just use www.browsercam.com... (you can get a free trial account). They even offer VNC options to let you interact with your site on any platform.

I use it pretty much everyday.

Originally Posted by osxisfun

Hi.

I have a pc and use it to test out my sites (IE 6 and firefox.) But since i have a powerbook I am wondering if buy the latest version of VPC is worth it to check my web site for those times I am working away from my PC.

I know next year we will be dual booting or running vpc at full speed with intel mac but i was hoping to get some feedback on if its worth for checking sites in a browser. nothing more. no games etc...

thanks

I would be running VPC on a PB alu 1.67 with 128vram and 1.5 gig ram.

[madmacgames]

$480 a year??? pff... I'll stick with virtual PC thank you very much, which is easier to use and lets me test sites my local development server.