Best way to run Windows on OS X 10.4?

Hello, I have just joined this forum as a couple of days ago, I bought my first Mac.

It is an eMac with:
1GHz PowerPC G4 processor.
680MB RAM.

Overall I am very pleased with this system and have ported over from Windows (I still own a windows laptop).

Anyway, to my question. With my eMac only running OS X 10.4, what would be the best way to run windows inside of OS X with my current specs?

If you don't think it would be worth it, I will stick to using RDP.

You'd have to use an emulator, since the chipset isn't supported by any modern version of Windows. Personally, I'd just RDP when needed.

Dysfunction said:

You'd have to use an emulator, since the chipset isn't supported by any modern version of Windows. Personally, I'd just RDP when needed.

Click to expand...

Would a program such as VMWare be slow on my mac?

I don't think vmWare will run on your Mac. You have a completely different processor. You'd need an emulator, not a virtual machine application.

Yep, vmWare Fusion requires an Intel based Mac.

All emulators include VirtualPC will not be worth running on your Mac and would be slower than three wet weeks. As a suggestion look around for a cheap Windows laptop which will probably cost much less than VirtualPC.

See them advertised new, including Samsung from $499 so a second hand machine will be much cheaper.

Securaflow said:

With my eMac only running OS X 10.4, what would be the best way to run windows inside of OS X with my current specs?

If you don't think it would be worth it, I will stick to using RDP.

Click to expand...

Parallels & VmWare Fusion are two of the best "modern" Windows emulators for the Mac. Unfortunately...both programs require a Mac with an Intel cpu...and an eMac does not have an Intel cpu.

There are older Windows emulator programs for the Mac called SoftWindows, SoftPC, VirtualPC, RealPC, etc. These were buggy & had really poor performance (even running the Windows card game Solitaire was slow)...and many of them don't even run Windows XP.

So with an eMac...you really don't have much in the way of truly viable (good performance & modern) options to run Windows.

HTH,

- Nick

Dysfunction said:

I don't think vmWare will run on your Mac. You have a completely different processor. You'd need an emulator, not a virtual machine application.

Yep, vmWare Fusion requires an Intel based Mac.

Click to expand...

What would you recommend?

You really only have one choice, iEmulator. The only other option would have been Microsoft's own Virtual PC, but development has ceased and it is no longer available.

It's going to be slower than molasses in January and don't expect anything newer than XP to actually be able to run on it.

As Dysfunction mentioned, you'd be better off setting up a cheap PC and remoting into it from your Mac.

Our consensus recommendation is: DON'T DO IT. Waste of time and effort. Trust us on this one - most of us tried when we had older Macs and really, just avoid it. Get a used Intel-based Mac or used Windows PC. We are serious about this recommendation.

Cheers