Question about switch and support

I'm thinking of getting a macbook pro for college. I'm thinking of majoring in computer science or mis. I asked a college proffessor that teaches computer science. He says that they do java and c+. I was wondering how well a mac does this and also about using windows for this. I know that the new macs has boot camp and parrallel/vm fusion. I was wondering how boot camp and parrallel/vm fusion does with programming also, if i had to use them for it.

P.S. The college proffessor said that the programming side of cs does c+ and java. The bussiness side does java and cobel.

Thanks for the help.

jdm said:

I'm thinking of getting a macbook pro for college. I'm thinking of majoring in computer science or mis. I asked a college proffessor that teaches computer science. He says that they do java and c+. I was wondering how well a mac does this and also about using windows for this. I know that the new macs has boot camp and parrallel/vm fusion. I was wondering how boot camp and parrallel/vm fusion does with programming also, if i had to use them for it.

P.S. The college proffessor said that the programming side of cs does c+ and java. The bussiness side does java and cobel.

Thanks for the help.

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It should be fine. There are C+ compilers for Mac OS X, and Java is platform independent. If your courses are Windows specific, you can run Windows in a variety of different ways and it will run just as it would on a similarly configured PC (because, in fact, there is very little difference in terms of hardware).

See this thread for some more detail about developing on a Mac.

Thanks for the help. I was just wondering since I was talking to a kid in the ap computer science class at my school. He also was thinking of get a mbp, but he changed his mind because he says that windows would not compile it right since it was an emulator. I was just wondering what you thought about that. Thanks for the help.

jdm said:

Thanks for the help. I was just wondering since I was talking to a kid in the ap computer science class at my school. He also was thinking of get a mbp, but he changed his mind because he says that windows would not compile it right since it was an emulator. I was just wondering what you thought about that. Thanks for the help.

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That assertion is incorrect. There is no need for emulation because the hardware platform is identical. When you run Windows under Boot Camp, it is no different than running Windows on any other PC. Even under a virtualized environment like Parallels or Fusion, there is no emulation.

Windows should compile it just fine, even running under Parallels and Fusion - it's the same OS and all that.

Thanks for the help and advice. I know that my question are kinda the same, but I want to cover all the bases before I put up that kinda of money. Have you come in to any problems that might lead me away form the mac. The main things that I would do is music, email, web, videos (watching), programming, networking. Those are just some of the things that come to mind. Thanks for the help.

jdm said:

Thanks for the help and advice. I know that my question are kinda the same, but I want to cover all the bases before I put up that kinda of money. Have you come in to any problems that might lead me away form the mac. The main things that I would do is music, email, web, videos (watching), programming, networking. Those are just some of the things that come to mind. Thanks for the help.

Click to expand...

Since Apple switched to the Intel x86 platform, the underlying hardware is identical to what you would find in a similarly high-end Windows-based laptop. The main difference is EFI, which is the next generation of BIOS. Boot Camp essentially mitigates that difference, so that you can run Windows natively.

Mac OS X will do all of the basics that you listed - and if something comes up that you absolutely have to do in Windows, you can always run Windows. If anything, a Mac is the best of both worlds since it can run any major OS you want.

Thanks for the help. I think that answers all of my questions. Being able to run windows and other os on the mac is why i'm looking at it. I like the mac, but I know that I will need windows for something or another. Thanks again for the help.

How difficult is it to set up and install windows XP on a Imac? A lot of my wives games are Windows only, and so I need to run that on the new Imac I got her.

I read somewhere you could buy the XP developers edition for around $130 or so and install that with Boot Camp.

oleviking said:

How difficult is it to set up and install windows XP on a Imac? A lot of my wives games are Windows only, and so I need to run that on the new Imac I got her.

I read somewhere you could buy the XP developers edition for around $130 or so and install that with Boot Camp.

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It's pretty easy actually, much easier than installing it on a PC since you don't have to fuss with drivers.

It goes pretty much something like this:

1. Backup your system (always good to do this before making a major modification to your hard disk).
2. Restart your computer and do not open any programs for now.
3. Start up the Boot Camp Assistant from Applications => Utilities
4. Specify how much space you want to devote to Windows
5. The Boot Camp Assistant partitions your disk and prompts you to insert your Windows disc
6. Insert the disc and reboot, installation begins.
7. Answer prompts during installation (most of this is pretty self-explanatory).
8. After the installation completes, pop your Leopard (or System Disc 1) into the optical drive. After a few seconds you'll be prompted to install the Apple drivers for Windows. Acknowledge the prompt and answer all questions affirmatively (regardless of context).
9. Now your Mac will start in Windows whenever it boots. You can change the Startup Disk in the Control Panel (or System Preferences in Mac OS X). Or you can specify which OS you want to start in by pressing and holding the Option key during startup.

I see that the XP Home Edition is available for $175 vs the XP Pro for $289 - is the Home Edition good enough?

You don't want anything to do with XP Home. It has a horrible IP Networking stack, with limited support for large networks. Go with XP Pro.

Also, the vast majority of what you say you'll be doing with this, you'll end up doing in the Mac. Forget Bootcamp, and get VMWare's Fusion. Here's why:

In Fusion, you can set up a Virtual Machine to run XP, using the settings you want. I've had great success with this config: Windows XP Pro, set to use a max of 40 GB hard drive (have it grow, don't allocate it all at once), 512 MB RAM, and 1 processor. Allow file sharing between the VMHost and the VMGuest. Over all, you end up with some major benefits:

One, you can write code in either system at the same time. I find that the compilers included with OS-X are better than those that most colleges use on XP/Vista. Thus, your troubleshooting will be easier.

Two, you can drag and drop files between OS-X and XP's desktops, without the pain of rebooting on a frequent basis. This is a major productivity boost by itself.

Three, if you use Time Machine, you'll always have a back up of your XP session. Time Machine will not back up an XP Partition. So, if you have a drive failure, you won't lose either XP or Mac data.

Four, if the system crash actually happens, you'll be able to bring the VMWare Fusion-based XP image up on any VMWare system of equivalent specs, regardless of base OS, and run it.

Finally, pay no attention to Windows users telling you it wont work the same on Mac. First , they are right: It works better. My XP Pro VM in Fusion outperforms the 3.0 GHz Hyper Threaded laptop that it replaced, using half the RAM.

jdm said:

P.S. The college proffessor said that the programming side of cs does c+ and java. The bussiness side does java and cobel.

Click to expand...

I'm still stuck on the idea that the business side is learning COBOL.

oleviking said:

I see that the XP Home Edition is available for $175 vs the XP Pro for $289 - is the Home Edition good enough?

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I would also recommend the Pro version for use in an academic setting (you may need to join it to a domain). Make sure whatever version you get is a full version (not an upgrade) and that it has SP2 integrated. You may use an OEM version "for system builders", but it must not be branded (like an HP or Dell system restore disc).

A cursory glance at NewEgg reveals this disc, which should work (for $139):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116400

I've been running VMWare Fusion on my Mac and it works perfectly. I have a VM with Windows XP Pro SP2 on it and within that run the entire Visual Studio environment, compiling and building my applications. This includes the built in web servers and SQL server that Visual Studio starts up to test and debug your web applications. I ran some back of the envelope tests between my dedicated Windows XP machine and my little MacBook and got surprisingly good results.

You will not have any problems.

PS - You meant C++, right?