Few Questions before buying.

Hello, I was just curious because I am purchasing a MBP soon, and have a few questions before I do that.

#1, Parallels or VMWare Fusion? which one works better/faster? I've been reading a lot on here and seen people talking about having parallels. But I've read better stuff about VMWare, so if anything sticks out between the two, that would be great! Thanks!

#2, Apparently June will be another update of MBP's, up to 2.8 processors. Worth it to wait? Or is there a possibility of a keybaord layout change, or upgraded gphx card in the lowest 15" model? Thanks again!

O ya, and
#3, Glossy or anti-glare screen. How "glarey" is the Glossy screen really? And is it really worth the color and picture for it to have some annoying glare with it?

I'm using VMWare for Windows XP. It works fine, but I'm just using it for specific programs for school (no gaming or whatever!).

My MBP has the glossy screen and is ain't that "glarey". I know some people prefer matte, but I prefer glossy screens. I guess it's a matter of personal preferences. Go to an Apple Store to compare both.

ogacon said:

Hello, I was just curious because I am purchasing a MBP soon, and have a few questions before I do that.

#1, Parallels or VMWare Fusion? which one works better/faster? I've been reading a lot on here and seen people talking about having parallels. But I've read better stuff about VMWare, so if anything sticks out between the two, that would be great! Thanks!

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They're about even in terms of features and performance. Some prefer one over the other. I own Parallels at the moment and have been evaluating Fusion. I see no difference in performance and I can't get my games to run on VMWare despite DirectX 9.0 support. I would recommend just downloading demos of both and seeing which one you like better.

#2, Apparently June will be another update of MBP's, up to 2.8 processors. Worth it to wait? Or is there a possibility of a keybaord layout change, or upgraded gphx card in the lowest 15" model? Thanks again!

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Apple is notorious for being tight lipped about new products. They go so far as to sue rumor sites that hit too close to the mark and do internal mole hunts to weed out those who leak information. With that said, you can not believe anything you read on rumor sites. Buy the machine that suits your needs when you need it. It will continue to suit your needs long after an updated model is released. If you're always waiting for the 'next big thing' in technology, you'll be waiting forever.

O ya, and
#3, Glossy or anti-glare screen. How "glarey" is the Glossy screen really? And is it really worth the color and picture for it to have some annoying glare with it?

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This is strictly a matter of personal option. Glossy screens are reflective, period. It's not generally noticeable indoors, but can be very distracting outdoors. If you can deal with the reflective tendencies, the benefit is sharper looking graphics and text, as well as the appearance of deeper blacks and better contrast. This is just my opinion. You should really go see one for yourself and decide which you like better. My first MBP was matte, this one is glossy and I prefer the glossy by far.

Alright, VMWare fusion DOESN'T Work with games? but Parallels does? Thats good you told me that. As I will be getting that to run maybe one game that is windows only currently, other than that I'll be playing SC and other blizz games on Leapord.

ogacon said:

Alright, VMWare fusion DOESN'T Work with games? but Parallels does? Thats good you told me that. As I will be getting that to run maybe one game that is windows only currently, other than that I'll be playing SC and other blizz games on Leapord.

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No, that's not what I meant. Both have limited support for games. On paper, Parallels only supports DX8 games, while Fusion supports DX9 games. Support is flakey at best on both programs. While I am able to run games on Parallels, I've had no luck running them on Fusion. Others have done so just fine.

If you really need perfect compatibility for games, Boot Camp will do that just fine.

Alright cool. Then I only need to install Windows once for bootcamp and vmware/parallels both correct? As it will partition a part of my HD for windows, and then parallels/vmware can just use that?

ogacon said:

Alright cool. Then I only need to install Windows once for bootcamp and vmware/parallels both correct? As it will partition a part of my HD for windows, and then parallels/vmware can just use that?

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There are a number of different ways to do it. Both Parallels and VMWare can read an existing Boot Camp partition, but in doing so, you lose some of the flexibility that a virtual drive would normally afford. In particular, you can't do a quick suspend (i.e. close the window and it goes away, right away, and when you open Windows back up, it comes back right to where it was instantly). Also, you can't dynamically resize the hard drive, which is a nice feature to help conserve space.

Here's what I do - I run a separate virtual hard drive for both Parallels and VMWare, each running a copy of Windows XP. Then I run a 30GB Vista partition on Boot Camp, mostly for playing games. With a 200GB hard drive, that still leaves me with some 80GB free for OS X. Although I will eventually kill off the VMWare VM since I find it to be about equal with Parallels, which I already own.

Alright sweet thanks again dude! I will just buy one or the other of parallels or VMWare. When I install Boot Camp I need to choose how much space to allocate to windows? And when I install Parallels it just auto grows/shrinks depending on if I add/delete files? Wow... I have a lot of questions. And then if I want parallels running seperate from the Boot Camp partition, I will need to install the Windows OS twice?

ogacon said:

Alright sweet thanks again dude! I will just buy one or the other of parallels or VMWare.

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Again, both companies have evaluation versions. Try each and see which one best suits your needs.

When I install Boot Camp I need to choose how much space to allocate to windows?

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Understand that all Boot Camp does is prep your machine to have more than one OS installed. There is no emulation, your computer has native installs of both OSes. So, all you're doing is defining a second partition. This divides the hard drive into two sections - one for Windows and one for OS X. You can not easily change the allocation once it's finished.

And when I install Parallels it just auto grows/shrinks depending on if I add/delete files? Wow... I have a lot of questions.

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Yes, if you use a virtual hard disk, your entire Windows drive is contained within a dynamically expanding file.

And then if I want parallels running seperate from the Boot Camp partition, I will need to install the Windows OS twice?

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Right - once on the boot camp partition, once on the virtual hard disk.

cwa107 said:

Right - once on the boot camp partition, once on the virtual hard disk.

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Take 2x the space for Windows XP then? (Ill have two separate folders with the os in it?)

ogacon said:

Take 2x the space for Windows XP then? (Ill have two separate folders with the os in it?)

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No - your hard disk will be partitioned into one section for the Mac and one section for Windows. On your Mac partition, you'll have a hard disk file for running Windows under Parallels.

Alright, so I partition 15GB of my 250GB HD for Boot Camp.

Part of that 15 will be space taken up for the OS itself.

For my Mac partition, The only space taken up will be from parallels install files, and not the OS files?
edit: and the space i use for the files for windows of course, which I can easily change as you have told me earlier.

I am sorry if I am missing a really easy point here... and I truly thank you for being so kind! Seems Mac users are much more friendly than windows users... must be because they have less to be ****** (angry... star's out an alternate word to pee... very sensitive, my bad) about

ogacon said:

Alright, so I partition 15GB of my 250GB HD for Boot Camp.

Part of that 15 will be space taken up for the OS itself.

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Right, 15GB is allocated to Windows, part of which is used by the the OS install (sort of like having a 15GB hard drive).

For my Mac partition, The only space taken up will be from parallels install files, and not the OS files?
edit: and the space i use for the files for windows of course, which I can easily change as you have told me earlier.

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Sort of. Parallels runs as a program hosted by Mac OS. So it is installed on your OS X partition. So, there is a certain amount of space taken up by the program itself. In addition, when you create a virtual machine using Parallels, it creates a hard disk file (in your home directory) which Parallels "pretends" is a physical hard disk when you run Windows within it. I believe that file starts out as 5GB, but when and if you need more space on your VM, Parallels will dynamically resize it for you.

I am sorry if I am missing a really easy point here... and I truly thank you for being so kind! Seems Mac users are much more friendly than windows users... must be because they have less to be ****** about

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No, it's just abstract for you since you've likely never run a computer with multiple operating systems. This is also possible on a PC, but most people just run Windows and never think anything of it.

Part of the reason for the confusion is Apple's branding of Boot Camp. Boot Camp really isn't a program that allows you to run Windows. Now that Macs use Intel processors, they really are not all that much different than PCs from a hardware perspective. All Boot Camp really does is prepare your hard drive to have Windows installed on it in a dual-boot configuration.

Parallels on the other hand is a completely different beast. Windows literally runs on top of Parallels, which provides a software-based "virtual machine". With Parallels, you can run Windows at the same time as OS X.

Alright, so installing Parallels (or Fusion) separate from Boot Camp partition will increase speed of use, and only take up like 1-2 GB's of extra space if any? Pretty good trade-off IMO.

ogacon said:

Alright, so installing Parallels (or Fusion) separate from Boot Camp partition will increase speed of use, and only take up like 1-2 GB's of extra space if any? Pretty good trade-off IMO.

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I don't know about increasing speed, but certainly accessibility. If you choose not to use Parallels or Fusion, there will be no performance difference in Boot Camp. It's just that your only avenue for running Windows will be to reboot your computer and boot up Windows.

Parallels and Fusion use the absolute minimum amount of space to run Windows.

I hope I've also made it clear that you don't have to use both Boot Camp and Parallels/Fusion. You can use one or the other if you so choose.

Yes I know, I just want windows for a game or 2, and for office XP that I will be using most likely. Thanks a lot!