iMac as primary XP/Vista Machine, minimal OSX

I have a MacBook pro that is my bread & butter machine. I also run parallels on it for a couple of applications that I need and will not run under OSX.

My desktop machine is a Dell Wintel box about five years old, and it's gettin' kind of slow. Instead of replacing it with another Wintel box, I'm thinking of buying an iMac instead, running bootcamp, and keeping it in XP (or Vista) most of the time.

Other than the cost penalty, which can be mostly offset by buying a discontiued Core Duo (vs. Core 2 Duo) iMac for about $800 plus some RAM, does anybody see any disadvantages to this strategy??

Absolutely None, when ever I run Xp it seems to work just as well as on a PC.

If you can afford it then why not, I can't see any problems myself with doing it obviously for me it would be a cost issue and you could probably pick up a cheap PC instead but it's up to yourself really.

Running Windows on a Mac (either under BootCamp or Parallels) is intended for those who need the occasional Windows program or two. It is foolish, in my opinion, to buy a Mac for the sole purpose of running Windows on it full-time. BootCamp is still beta software and not all of the hardware in a Mac is supported under Windows. What little support is available from Apple for BootCamp will be gone eventually (read the BootCamp release notes and you will see what I mean). Hardware similarites aside, the simple fact is that Windows was neither desiged for nor intended to be run on a Mac. Just because you can run Windows under BootCamp, doesn't mean it is the best or smartest option out there.

If you need Windows as your main OS, then the smartest thing to do is get the best tool for the job... a Windows-based PC.

I would have to disagree. Windows WAS made to run on the intel MAC hardware. Only the logic board is something that can't be found in a windows PC and if it doesn't require any special drivers to run on it under boot camp you won't see any issues. Heck even the logic board on an intel IMAC is technically PC hardware as far as the chipset goes which is all that matters.

I agree with devilboy. Dont buy a mac to only run windows on it. Its not a good idea considering its beta software and the support is minimal. I have an imac and run windows on it for games. It runs well, but some stuff is still quirky. Like the time is always messed up when i switch between OSX and XP. I would just run windows on a windows box. my 2 cents

Just build yourself a small formfactor media centre PC instead and get a 20in display for it - it'll be cheaper and you'll not have to worry about bootcamp. Sure, it'll not look as sexy as an iMac, but then not a lot does. It boils down to what you want most - a sexy looking PC or a fully-functional one that you can upgrade easily in the future.

Personally, when I switched I thought I'd use Macosx / Windows as a 50/50 split, but I only ever boot into Windows on my iMac when I want to play the odd game (and the iMac doesn't do that too well in my opinion, but I got the base model).

For all of you to know, BootCamp is available as a beta version now and IT WILL be part of the coming OS X Leopard next year, so yes it is here as a beta and will be part of the operating system for good.

I switched to iMac 1 month ago. I made the right step after using PCs for the last decade.

Life is short, use a Mac

lmasri said:

For all of you to know, BootCamp is available as a beta version now and IT WILL be part of the coming OS X Leopard next year, so yes it is here as a beta and will be part of the operating system for good.

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While it is likely that some sort of dual-booting capability will be included in Leopard, it cannot be said that it will definitely be included. The OS had not been released yet and Apple does have the ability to make the decision to drop it if they so desire.

theonegod said:

I would have to disagree. Windows WAS made to run on the intel MAC hardware. Only the logic board is something that can't be found in a windows PC and if it doesn't require any special drivers to run on it under boot camp you won't see any issues. Heck even the logic board on an intel IMAC is technically PC hardware as far as the chipset goes which is all that matters.

Click to expand...

No, windows was made a long time before Apple switched to Intel.

Apple machines are very nice, but if you intend to spend 99% of your time in Windows, it is probably better to get a PC that was built for Windows and has it installed, for the following reasons.

- Whoever you bought it from will support Windows and any issues arising. Apple support will not solve Windows issues (and why should they?)
- Driver updates and security issues may not be fully addressed or supported going forward.
- The small issue of Vista. Anyone spending 99% of their time in a MS environment will want to upgrade to Vista in the future. There is no guarantee or even a suggestion that current Macs will run Vista.
- If you have a notebook, the right mouse click can be troublesome.

Zoolook said:

No, windows was made a long time before Apple switched to Intel.

Apple machines are very nice, but if you intend to spend 99% of your time in Windows, it is probably better to get a PC that was built for Windows and has it installed, for the following reasons.

- Whoever you bought it from will support Windows and any issues arising. Apple support will not solve Windows issues (and why should they?)
- Driver updates and security issues may not be fully addressed or supported going forward.
- The small issue of Vista. Anyone spending 99% of their time in a MS environment will want to upgrade to Vista in the future. There is no guarantee or even a suggestion that current Macs will run Vista.
- If you have a notebook, the right mouse click can be troublesome.

Click to expand...

Technically, it is possible to run Vista on the current version of bootcamp, but I agree with all of your points.