Windows parallel and Office on Mac

Dear members

My wife gave a nice gift: a new Macpro but now I don’t know whether it is worth installing Windows and Office on it. I believe that the idea of switching to a MAC is to change OS. One of the reasons for me to want MAC is that is less prone to Virus attack. I fear that installing Windows would expose my new MAC? It will freeze like a PC? Do you recommend installing Office and Windows?
In case that I want to install it ( I may need to connect my MAC to the net in my office) Does Windows parallel consumes lots of resources in the Mac pro?
My Mac pro is 4 G RAM, 500 G hard disk

Your help is very much appreciated

DrO

Well if you do have Windows installed on it, viruses/spyware will ONLY affect Windows, not OS X (Mac Operating System). There is always Microsoft Office 2008 for OS X in case you don't want to have to install Windows. There is also the free alternative that is completely compatible with Microsoft Office called OpenOffice.

Your MacPro would do just fine running Parallels. There is also another way of running Windows inside OS X called VMWare Fusion. I have never used Parallels, but I do own and love VMWare Fusion.

I've got one suggestion for you if you are installing Windows on your new Mac. Running Parrallels or VMWare Fusion on your mac is only if you want to run Windows and Mac OS X side-by-side. Macs come with Boot Camp Assistant which allows you to switch between Mac OS X and Windows by restarting. It all depends on whether you want to run Windows side-by-side with Mac OS X (and if you want to spend an extra 100 bucks for Parallels or VMWare Fusion).

JavaBoy said:

It all depends on whether you want to run Windows side-by-side with Mac OS X (and if you want to spend an extra 100 bucks for Parallels or VMWare Fusion).

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You don't need to spend the money on Fusion or Parallels - running Windows in VirtualBox for only Office should more than suffice. It would probably be cheaper and easier to just get Office for OS X or, if it will suffice, simply get OpenOffice as todd51 suggested.

Van is on target with his suggestion about VirtualBox. VB has really come of age with the latest version from Sun. Still not as frilly as Fusion or Parallels but it's getting there. The important thing about VB is that it's free like in $0.

Regards.

i use parallels because i had to have access to IE for work; use ms office, and really haven't found an acceptable os x replacement to ms onenote. i have a blackberry and have been trying some trial software to run that on the os x side. i do run everything side by side, because that's the way i prefer to work. (i put the window apps on the mac dock). openoffice (free) is a great substitute for ms office. however, i don't trade office files, so i don't know what the impact is there.

VirtualBox is good, and NeoOffice vs. OpenOffice

I use VirtualBox for multiple VMs, but not OpenOffice. I use NeoOffice for my word processing, etc., because (like OpenOffice) it is free of charge, and it has more native Mac features than OpenOffice.

I'm using Crossover to run Microsoft Office because I simply cannot live without Microsoft OneNote. I tried every other kind of notetaker for Mac and none of them did it for me, but I'm using the trial of Crossover right now and it runs OneNote, Excel, and Powerpoint beautifully (installed them faster than on my old Dell too!). I'm currently having a problem with Word, but the support person from Crossover said that normally it runs fine. I'm not too worried since I have Pages to write papers in anyway. Crossover is only 40 bucks or so, and you don't have to buy a Windows OS!

So I bought a used macbook and love it but want to install windows xp as well. Silly question, but regardless of vm, parallels, bootcamp..do I use the pc version of xp to install the software?

ricekake said:

So I bought a used macbook and love it but want to install windows xp as well. Silly question, but regardless of vm, parallels, bootcamp..do I use the pc version of xp to install the software?

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You will need to purchase either Windows XP, Vista (or eventually 7). There is only one type, and that is the one used to install Windows on a PC (in other words, there is no "Mac" specific version).

You use the version of Office for the operating system you are using. So, if you are trying to use Office in a Windows VM or through Boot Camp, you need the Windows version of Office.

Great site and great info...thanx guys(gals)!!