[Thunderbird]

OK, as a Mac user for the last 15 years, I've always had to put up with my Windows loving buddies brag about how much more software is available for Windows vs. Mac. I've always said that there is nothing that I want to run on Windows that isn't available in some form for the Mac. Other than the occasional web site that didn't work, I couldn't think of any applications that I really wanted to run on Windows.

But, now I have a brand new MacBook pro, and I thought I should fully utilize it. So, I've got Boot Camp, and I bought a copy of Windows XP. It installed great, and low and behold I've got Windows on my Mac. So now what?

I feel like the PC Guy on the Apple commercials. I'm staring at a blank desktop, and I can play with what? Calculator? Clock?

Apple includes so many cool things out of the box, I thought there would be something useful in Windows without having to spend a fortune. What should I install? Office? Don't need it, Mac version is fine. Quicken? Nope, got it on the Mac. Video editing software? Nope, iMovie seems much better than anything on the Windows side.

So, what should I get for my XP installation that will make me feel good about wasting 20 GB on my Mac? What are people running that doesn't have an equivalent on the Mac side?

[gradient]

Games......that's about it. heh.

[mduell]

Trillian - best IM client, ever
Steam - great games, play them anywhere with an internet connection
Firefox with a complete set of keyboard shortcuts
AutoGK - great app for MPEG4 transcoding... accepts just about any file, does all the math/cropping/etc
I think Money is better than Quicken; also the Windows version of Quicken is better than the OSX version according to some rabid Mac users I know.

[ghporter]

I have found few things that Windows programs do "better" than Mac programs. So far I haven't found a way to right-click on a bookmark in Firefox to get the context menu that lets me open that bookmark in a new tab or new window... I like how Office for Mac works (particularly Word) much better than the way it works under Windows.

I'm too busy to play games other than a few card games like the ones that come with Windows, so I can't help you there.

[gradient]

The huge black hole in mac software in my opinion is sports gaming. Windows has all the great sports titles - my favs being EA NHL and NFL.

[Macola]

Yup, games would be about it. There's really no reason to have Windows on your Mac unless you have a specific purpose for it (games or other apps that aren't available for the Mac).

[cgc]

If you want software for your Windows installation I'd recommend looking at freeware (GNU) releases like Gimp, OpenOffice, GAIM, etc. Although those are all available for Mac...

You like to play games

[hadocon]

Why did you bother getting Windows if you have no use for it? How is this "fully utilizing" your Mac? Sounds like a waste of time and $ to me.

[peterauch21]

Games is pretty much the only reason why I put bootcamp on my mac.. That and I dont have the desire to buy another copy of office since I already have a copy for windows. Neo office doesn't cut it for me.. I hardly use it but it errors out on me when I do which is unfortunate. Maybe when office 2007 comes out for the mac I'll buy that and get rid of my 2003 windows copy.

[Apfhex]

Since putting WinXP on my Mac Pro, I've used it for:
1. Games (especially Half Life... and soon Supreme Commander)
2. Updating the firmware on my Sony Ericsson phone
3. There is no 3.

I mean, I've used other software — like Trillian — which has equal or better Mac counterparts (Adium), just so I can have the basics available to me while I'm in Windows. But for the most part, Windows does not have any exclusive apps that are more worthwhile than Mac equivalents.

[Maharaja]

World of warcraft & Ventrilo

[cgc]

Originally Posted by Maharaja 

World of warcraft & Ventrilo

Those are both available in OS X.

[cgc]

Originally Posted by peterauch21 

Games is pretty much the only reason why I put bootcamp on my mac.. That and I dont have the desire to buy another copy of office since I already have a copy for windows. Neo office doesn't cut it for me.. I hardly use it but it errors out on me when I do which is unfortunate. Maybe when office 2007 comes out for the mac I'll buy that and get rid of my 2003 windows copy.

Go get OpenOffice 2.1...it's free.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by cgc 

Go get OpenOffice 2.1...it's free.

And get NeoOffice for OS X... this one is good because it's a port of OpenOffice to OS X and (theoretically) works the same on both platforms, AND they have a universal/Intel binary for it too (which OpenOffice does not have).

Free is good, but performance is better-and both of these have both.

[Maharaja]

Originally Posted by cgc 

Those are both available in OS X.

When i raid i used bootcamp/xp as my guild's venty server is using GSM codec and they wont change it to GSM thus i'm stuck with XP for raiding... I'm usually playing on OS X when i dont need venty.

[demograph68]

Originally Posted by Apfhex 

1. Games (especially Half Life

Oh god yes. I just beat HL2 - Episode 1 a few days ago and it was awesome. I really love the story and the voice acting and everything else. Give me Episode 2 already!

[bluekatt]

wait so you bought and installed windows with out asking your self what am i going to do with it ?
isnt that question you should ask your self beforehand ?
if you dont plan to play games or run software with out a mac equivalent y ou might aswel kick windows xpoff the hd and sell it or return it

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by bluekatt 

wait so you bought and installed windows with out asking your self what am i going to do with it ?
isnt that question you should ask your self beforehand ?
if you dont plan to play games or run software with out a mac equivalent y ou might aswel kick windows xpoff the hd and sell it or return it

The point has been made days ago by hadocon. Not everyone knows that the only thing that's more usable on Windows than on a Mac is the broad range of games.

No more posts in this thread BY ANYONE that say the same thing as this one and hadocon's. The mod has spoken.

[Thunderbird]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

The point has been made days ago by hadocon. Not everyone knows that the only thing that's more usable on Windows than on a Mac is the broad range of games.

No more posts in this thread BY ANYONE that say the same thing as this one and hadocon's. The mod has spoken.

Thanks Mod. I should mention that the main reason I bought Windows in the first place is because I wanted to run MS Flight Simulator 2004. So far, that's the only thing I've installed. From the comments here, it looks like games are the most common thing that people are using on bootcamp.

[mduell]

Originally Posted by Apfhex 

I mean, I've used other software — like Trillian — which has equal or better Mac counterparts (Adium),

Is there a way to make Adium more information-dense? The screenshots on the site show ~8 lines of text in an area that should fit 25+.
I'd either be constantly scrolling or have ridiculously tall windows.

[Apfhex]

Originally Posted by mduell 

Is there a way to make Adium more information-dense? The screenshots on the site show ~8 lines of text in an area that should fit 25+.
I'd either be constantly scrolling or have ridiculously tall windows.

What do you mean, the contact list or the message window? The contact list can be customized quite a lot and you can make it very compact. The message window has different themes, some are more compact than others. The minimal_mod theme that comes with the 1.0 betas is really good.

[Cadaver]

I use Windows on my Macs (MacBook Pro and a MacPro) for three reasons -

1) A couple of applications I use for work when I take call from home (Philips iSite Enterprise, PowerScribe and the Juniper VPN client). I use Boot Camp for these, since Parallels doesn't support 24-bit color at 30" resolution.

2) To verify that PowerPoint presentations I make display properly in Windows when necessary. Even Office 2004's compatibility checker misses some things. I mostly use Keynote, anyway.

3) Occasional game of HL2, HL2 Ep. 1 and Star Wars Clone Trooper.

Other than that, that's really about it.

[benz]

well, actually i am thinking of loading a professional medical imaging workstation software to macpro with also her ( mac pro) max. 3T storage, so i can on the one hand use the workstation software which is window XP based ( no mac version), and on the other hand also an archive servers of the workspace network of my department, but may i ask, do u think any degrade of the performance and also stability of using XP related software via boot camp ?
many thanks

[ghporter]

Boot Camp ONLY provides the mechanism for you to boot XP. XP runs the software on your hardware. That means that, if the software is stable on ANY XP machine, it'll be plenty stable on your Mac Pro.

[Bollo]

Being new to this bootcamp lark I just want to confirm a few things (may sound stupid) :

1)msn messenger will wok on the windows partitionj and the mac one?

2)itunes will work on both (but the songs it can play will depend on which partition they are stored)?

3)Internet browsing will work on both as will network play of such things as dawn of war?

Thanks.

[ghporter]

Bollo,

Two different versions of MSN Messenger will work-the Windows version on the Windows partition and the Mac version on the Mac partition.

iTunes WILL work on both-but you'll need to install the Windows version on your Windows partition, and of course where the songs are stored will be important, since Windows cannot read the Mac file system (it won't even see the other partition).

Browsing will work, and as long as you properly configure your network any network gaming will work too.

Remember, Boot Camp makes your Mac boot Windows NATIVELY, so ANYTHING that runs on Windows will run on it.

[Bollo]

Thanks, better get myself a new laptop then.
Also, is the bootcamp version coming out with the new OSX an update of the current beta or just the same thing built in?

[msuper69]

Everyone seems to have forgot all the great stuff that Windows is sooo much better at running than the Mac OS ------ virus, malware, spyware et. al.

[Hi I'm Ben]

Originally Posted by mduell 

Trillian - best IM client, ever

That's quite an overstatement. Trillian is bloat crap and not worth paying any money for. I'd rather use Adium on OS X or GAIM on PC. I'd go a step further and say if you really want something customizable on the PC side try out Miranda. Trillian is a waste of money.

[mduell]

Originally Posted by Hi I'm Ben 

That's quite an overstatement. Trillian is bloat crap and not worth paying any money for. I'd rather use Adium on OS X or GAIM on PC. I'd go a step further and say if you really want something customizable on the PC side try out Miranda. Trillian is a waste of money.

It's free (I'm running 3.1) and using 9MB memory on my machine with multiple protocols in use. Add in the Microscopic skin and nothing comes close to the usability and efficiency.

[Hulk]

I've been a Mac user since '95 and have always always had MS capability on my Mac (originally MS- DOS, now Windows XP with Virtual PC) all for one reason only - Captool. Captool is a financial analysis program that will do complex internal rate of return calculations on an investment portfolio that no other program I can find will do. You non-gamers can check it out at Captools/net Portfolio Software . I soon will be upgrading my G-4 to a Mac Pro and am looking forward to Boot Camp continuing this experience.

[utw-Mephisto]

The only reason I installed Windows

1. Prove of concept
2. Online Poker Clients

That pretty much it ..

[brokecollegestudentF04]

I have windows installed on my mini

Reasons stated below
1. Gaming

otherwise windows is a bloated piece of poohey

[Apfhex]

Originally Posted by Hi I'm Ben 

That's quite an overstatement. Trillian is bloat crap and not worth paying any money for. I'd rather use Adium on OS X or GAIM on PC. I'd go a step further and say if you really want something customizable on the PC side try out Miranda. Trillian is a waste of money.

Overstatement yes. But I use Trillian (free edition) and it's OK. It works, doesn't put up a fuss. Terribly clunky interface, but what do you expect from a Windows app.

Incidentally, the first multi-IM app I tried when I installed Windows was GAIM, but it doesn't work with MSN accounts—crashes while logging in. My friends have had the same problem with it. I tried Mirana too because I saw some nice themes for it, but couldn't figure out how to install them (couldn't find any clear instructions). Seemed to require some manual hacking of the app resources, or something messy like that. Yuck.

[Uncle Skeleton]

There's always video. There's no way to watch DRM'd WMV files without Windows. And if you have an Intel Mac, there's no other way to watch Indeo codecs. Then there are the rare codecs we never even hear about, like FRAPS or something, which are Win-only. And VirutalDub and similar tools can be the only way to salvage damaged AVIs, depending on the damage.

[yugyug]

(the last time I checked) there are a number of important 3D and CAD programs that don't have a Mac version - most notable is probably Rhino.

[myers_j]

The biggest reason to keep Windows around is to have a decent portfolio manager, Fund Manager.

[PaperNotes]

Originally Posted by myers_j 

The biggest reason to keep Windows around is to have a decent portfolio manager, Fund Manager.

Games

[olePigeon]

I have Windows on my MacBook just so I can play Counter-Strike and Neverwinter Nights (for which there is no Universal version.)

[gpeden]

For me, something different Being a very active electric powered RC heli and airplane hobbyiest/fanatic, I've always had to suffer the indignity of using my wife's PC to run specialty:
- calculator programs for comparing setups with battery voltage, motor constants and prop diameter/pitch and outputting expected performance data like stall speed, maximum speed, rpm, amps, etc.
- programs for programming different parameters int motor speed controls
- and most exciting of all, RC flight sims! The one I use required an updated video card on my wife's PC and likely I should have upgraded the power supply too. It took a few days to clue in that I needed to install NVIDIA drivers manually in the PB (and it's one pulled off of Apple's site) plus an audio driver, I've been delighted with a taste of things to come! The horsepower demanding sim program needs to be reinstalled, I think, because it crashes when selecting a new airplane, but man, the panoramic photo-based backgrounds and airplane flight are the best I've ever seen. Amazing!!!

The last item was the primary motivation to take the plunge and get my new PB Pro, I think and now I'm glad I did

For the sake of a cleaner install of Bootcamp I just might use the Leopard upgrade disk I just received sooner than planned and be content with Photoshop 7, etc. going non-op. All for that sim, and of course...........

World peace, er, I mean games

[TheoCryst]

Wow, old thread...

Anyway, I originally installed Windows for a couple of engineering programs, particularly Freescale's CodeWarrior and Orcad PSpice 9. Once I got those installed, I used the rest of my 25 gigs for games, particularly Half-Life 1 and 2.

[h2o2yn]

XP gives you something that OSX cannot, namely a platform for MS Access. You can connect to any SQL Server DB in the known universe, with a blank .adp (Accsss Project) a username and password. Please advise if you know of an alternative on OSX.