[aquaclear]

I am going to try and see if I can justify a powerbook for work. The only problem I have is that we use a software package called SAS which is a statistical software. The institution in which I work does not have the license for OS X if it even exist. I was thinking of Virtual PC to accomplish all of this. What has been the results of VPC? I use any Windows software? Are there any compatibiblity issues? Speed? Any help would be appreciated since justifying it will be an uphill battle.

Thanks

[justinf77]

If the program is not too system-heavy, then VPC would be OK for it. It wouldnt run very fast, but performance would be acceptable especially if you maxed out the RAM in the PowerBook. It runs Windows on it, any version, so I do not think compatibility would be as much of a problem as speed.

[iohead]

Originally posted by aquaclear:
I am going to try and see if I can justify a powerbook for work. The only problem I have is that we use a software package called SAS which is a statistical software. The institution in which I work does not have the license for OS X if it even exist. I was thinking of Virtual PC to accomplish all of this. What has been the results of VPC? I use any Windows software? Are there any compatibiblity issues? Speed? Any help would be appreciated since justifying it will be an uphill battle.

Thanks

VPC should be fine.

You may want to look at the following:

http://www.kernelthread.com/mac/vpc/

-A

[83caddy16v]

Two years ago, my G3/400 Pismo with a gig of RAM & VPC5 just wasn't cutting it. I went to an Apple store locally and they let me install my copy of Virtual PC and the software I wanted to see if the performance was acceptable. It wasn't. I ended up getting a Compaq laptop for freelancing and work projects that required Windows only stuff.

See if your local Apple store will do the same. Last year, I ended up getting a dual-gig mirror drive tower and have contemplated upgrading to VPC6 just to see how it runs.

Good luck, there are some affordable laptops under $1500, and I have seen some using 2.4ghz Pentiums, so they are pretty speedy and have some nice options. I think Dell has some for under $1000.

How much is VPC if you don't own it, plus the cost of a Powerbook if you don't own one? The Powerbook cost alone puts it out of the running if you are just talking $$. The convience of VPC is great, but if you need something to beat on everyday, go for an inexpensive PC laptop.

The problems I had was with working large PowerPoint docs, with copying and pasting images; trying to doing some digital video work and using Macromedia Director.

[xyber233]

I'm just hoping RealPC comes out soon and has better performance than VPC.

[C.J. Moof]

I'm as much of a macophile as they come, but I also believe in using the right tool for the job. If you do any significant amount of daily work in SAS, the right tool for the job is a real PC. VPC works, but the speed penalty is pretty severe.

The best of all worlds situation to dream of- have them get you a powerbook for most of your work, and an XP Pro box for SAS. You can then use Remote Desktop to control the XP machine with virtually NO speed penalty.

Seems like an even steeper uphill battle there, but it's a thought.

[ft2bme]

I used a 500MHz TiBook at a Windows-only high-tech company for about a year. I tried VPC, but it was just too slow to me even for things like Outlook. Because our IT department supported a Citrix server, I used Citrix clients that worked on Mac (at first in Classic mode, then I used the native OS X Java version when it came out) and was very happy, and impressed quite a few of my co-workers.

MS now has its own similar thing too, Remote Desktop it's called? Someone here will know.

For email, I used the Classic-mode Outlook client. I could have used anything else using IMAP, but we scheduled meetings with Outlook so I needed to use it.

[aquaclear]

That sucks...

This was my chance to get a powerbook but it looks like it may not happen. Yeah SAS is a pretty big part of my work. I was hoping SAS had a OS X port but for some reason they don't. They have Unix so seems to me it would have been easy especially for an organization like SAS.

Anyway, any suggestions for a windoze laptop? Money is not too much of an issue as long as I can justify it. I am thinking of one of the Centrino laptops.

Thanks.

[geekwagon]

The best PC laptop IMHO you are likely to find is the IBM Thinkpad T40. Pretty spendy, though, if you want it configured nicely.

Dells are plasticy and heavy. We fought really hard to get Thinkpads in our last go around, but we still ended up with crappy old P3 Dells. ;(