technical OS questions from potential switcher

I was a dedicated Macintosh user up until the early 1990s. In fact, I purchased one of the original 128k machines back in 1984.

In the early 1990s I developed carpal tunnel syndrome and some other nerve problems; these problems prevented me from using the keyboard normally and I quickly switched over to the Windows environment in order to be able to take advantage of voice recognition software (what would later become NaturallySpeaking).

As of 2007, I'm honestly thinking about switching back. I'm thinking about running NaturallySpeaking on one of the virtualization platforms (Parallels, Fusion, etc.).

I have a couple of questions, however, if someone would be kind enough to address them -- the first of which isn't necessarily directly related to the use of NaturallySpeaking on the Mac:

1. Is the latest version of the MacOS truly 64-bit?

I have heard rumors for years that, as with Windows, most Mac-based programs still can't take advantage of the underlying 64-bit architecture. Is there something associated with the MacOS that makes the Mac environment different (i.e. advantageous) in this regard?

2. I have heard that running virtualization programs on the Mac can slow down the performance of such third-party Windows applications. Does anyone out there have any direct experience with such virtualization platforms?

Contacting the makers of Parallels and Fusion directly -- in relation to my concerns about virtualization slowing down the potential performance of NaturallySpeaking -- was not really a successful endeavor. The only thing that either one of these manufacturers could tell me was to get a Macintosh and try out the demo versions of each of these virtualization platforms.

But I'm not about to sink thousands of dollars in the switchover to the MacOS when I don't know ahead of time whether or not the potential for "virtualization slow down" is real.

To anyone that might be able to provide me with any insight regarding these issues -- your help is more than appreciated!

Kevin

1. Leopard is 64-bit, Tiger is partially 64-bit.

2. Running Windows in a VM such as VMWare or Parallels is slightly slower than native, but not enough to have a noticeable effect. Win2K and WinXP run fine on my MacBook.

Using BootCamp instead will run Windows at full speed, but requires a restart to switch between them.

Boot Camp

Just out of curiosity, if one were running Boot Camp in association with NaturallySpeaking, how long would it take for the restart process? How long does it take for Tiger and/or Leopard to restart on a fairly new Mac in order to be able to use Boot Camp?

Thanks,

Kevin

Depends on how much stuff you have installed in either environment. I'd say it takes a good 45+ seconds to boot to either OS (Mac or Windows) to the point where it is acceptably usable. Remember, just because you suddenly see the desktop doesn't mean the OS is finished loading and it's usually busy accessing the hard drive for several more seconds after the desktop shows up. But really, it's not that long. Be aware that while in Windows you cannot see your Mac drives, so if you have a document or whatever that you'd like to move to the Mac, you'll have to boot up to the Mac first and then fish through the Windows drive to find it (or create an alias to a folder where you drop stuff) and bring it over to the Mac environment. The ability to see Mac drives in Windows may be added when Leopard is released (just a guess).

Joe Redifer said:

The ability to see Mac drives in Windows may be added when Leopard is released (just a guess).

Click to expand...

No, Windows can't read HPFS formatted drives, it's nothing to do with OSX.