Help make choice - Vista or XP on iMac

[JamesX]

yes another Vista or XP post, my apologies but every situation is different. Here is my situation and my specs. I am about to install parallels (but open to installing windows via bootcamp) on my recently purchased iMac so I can use some windows apps, mainly accounting software like Quicken and QB (and maybe MS word).

Here are my choices
Option #1
I have a full version of Vista Home Premium (that i originally installed on my main PC but no longer use since I converted to my Mac) so I can install that (but I only have 1 GB of ram so I would need to upgrade to 2 GB or more as per Parallels recommendation)

Option #2
buy a copy of Windows XP since windows runs in the background anyway and XP's performance is better on Mac from what I read "According to the company, when users switch to Coherence mode, the Windows desktop disappears, leaving Windows applications, such as Outlook and Internet Explorer, running directly on the Mac desktop and from the Mac application dock."

question if I go with Option #1:

Can I legally install vista home premium on my Mac - is this actually true "The end-user license agreement for the cheaper versions of Vista (Home Basic and Home Premium) explicitly forbids the use of those versions on virtual machines (ie Macs pretending to be PCs"

question if I go with Option #2:

if I buy a copy of windows XP - can I just buy a copy of Windows XP Home Edition Upgrade SP2 rather then purchase a full version which cost signifanctly more - will this work or will I need some previous full version of windows when I try to install the upgrade version of XP Home.

 

[Dysfunction]

If you were to install vista using bootcamp on an intel Mac it would not be considered a virtual machine.

 

[JamesX]

If you were to install vista using bootcamp on an intel Mac it would not be considered a virtual machine.

but can't I install parallels after I get vista up and running via Bootcamp if I want to later on? I was under the assumption that this can be done so I can get the VM benefits

 

[cwa107]

but can't I install parallels after I get vista up and running via Bootcamp if I want to later on? I was under the assumption that this can be done so I can get the VM benefits

Parallels can use an existing Boot Camp partition as a VM if need be. With that said, yes, when using a Boot Camp partition, there are some limitations that would normally not be experienced in a bog standard VM. For one thing, you have to put the VM in hibernate mode to terminate a session, which can take a long time to recover from. Also, your hard disk size is static (with a standard VM, the disk can be dynamically resized as you need space).

 

[JamesX]

Tx for the replies,

I am going to upgrade my RAM to 4GB and I am going to install my copy of Vista Home Premium via Parallels

based on this article the EULA should not be an issue
http://www.macworld.com/article/55294/2007/02/vistamac.html

I bought this copy of vista when it originally came out but later re-installed XP because I was having s/w printer problems. Will I have any problems re-installing vista on another computers - does Big Brother (MS) allow this?