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Hello everyone! This is my first post. Thanks in advance for your help. First off, I just want to let you know that after decades with Windows, I have made the switch to Mac. I just bought a Macbook Pro with 4GB of memory.
Now here's the deal... I'm a gamer. (Not so much a computer gamer as a pen and paper gamer.) I play GURPS. It's sort of like Dungeons and Dragons. To support these gaming activities I rely on several Windows only applications. One of these applications uses memory intensive autocad (for building maps). When I'm actively running a game, I like to have several applications open at the same time. I.e. Word/Excel on Mac and several instances of a character builder program. In Windows, I Alt-tab'ed constantly.
Finally, I do occasionally play games that require DirectX or OpenGL.
Now that I have switched to Mac I'd like to install parallels or fusion and use bootcamp. Though must report that Parallels is not bootcamp friendly, a letter on their website says it is.
Ideally, I'd like to have Windows XP on a bootcamp partition and use that SAME partition for Parallels/Fusion when "virtualized". In addition, I want to keep all my files in one place so I would like them to share the same "Documents" folder. Finally, I've read a lot about Parallels being a resource hog. I don't mind if it takes up a lot of memory as I'll reboot if I want to do serious gaming. I'm worried that I won't be able to run multiple Windows and Mac applications at the same time and "apple-tab" between them quickly. Thoughts?
Does anyone know if this combination is possible with Fusion and/or Parallels? Can you guru's tell me which solution is better for me based on the needs I described above (i.e. Fusion or Parallels)? Note that I have a server that I can use for keeping all my files in the same place, so if I absolutely cannot combine bootcamp and shared folders, I can manage without. The only problem with that is that accessibility may be shaky when I"m not at home. (I don't trust my Internet provider.)
Thanks for the help!!!
Now here's the deal... I'm a gamer. (Not so much a computer gamer as a pen and paper gamer.) I play GURPS. It's sort of like Dungeons and Dragons. To support these gaming activities I rely on several Windows only applications. One of these applications uses memory intensive autocad (for building maps). When I'm actively running a game, I like to have several applications open at the same time. I.e. Word/Excel on Mac and several instances of a character builder program. In Windows, I Alt-tab'ed constantly.
Finally, I do occasionally play games that require DirectX or OpenGL.
Now that I have switched to Mac I'd like to install parallels or fusion and use bootcamp. Though must report that Parallels is not bootcamp friendly, a letter on their website says it is.
Ideally, I'd like to have Windows XP on a bootcamp partition and use that SAME partition for Parallels/Fusion when "virtualized". In addition, I want to keep all my files in one place so I would like them to share the same "Documents" folder. Finally, I've read a lot about Parallels being a resource hog. I don't mind if it takes up a lot of memory as I'll reboot if I want to do serious gaming. I'm worried that I won't be able to run multiple Windows and Mac applications at the same time and "apple-tab" between them quickly. Thoughts?
Does anyone know if this combination is possible with Fusion and/or Parallels? Can you guru's tell me which solution is better for me based on the needs I described above (i.e. Fusion or Parallels)? Note that I have a server that I can use for keeping all my files in the same place, so if I absolutely cannot combine bootcamp and shared folders, I can manage without. The only problem with that is that accessibility may be shaky when I"m not at home. (I don't trust my Internet provider.)
Thanks for the help!!!