Macbook Air -Tribooting?

IN SHORT

What is my best option for tri booting ubuntu/Win7/OSX on a macbook air?


Hi guys,

I have never owned a mac before but am considering purchasing a macbook air to replace my old netbook as work has told me that they are able to give me $2k to spend on a new laptop (rather conveniently is pretty much a fully maxed out 13" air) so I am wondering about tri booting as on my old netbook I had ubuntu and win7 installed.

so as far as I know my options are:

running bootcamp to install windows and (I'm assuming it works) ubuntu alongside my OSX.

OR

Installing vmware (Parallels is horrible in my experience, I don't care what people tell me it never works properly) and installing virtual machines for win7 and ubuntu. In this case I am curious as to wether anyone knows if the hardware will be able to handle all three OS if I where to run seamlessly or wether I would need ot run isolated windows when using.
The problem with this is that I am likely to spend a lot of time using Win7 as I am a developer using .NET and therefore need VS to work (as far as I am aware it is not available on mac...)

So which is better? and is there anything I need to know before taking this step?

Also, on a side note not entirely related to this discussion: would anyone happen to know if it is worth upgrading from the 1.7ghz i5 to the 1.8ghz i7 or should I just save the money?

Thanks
H3k

I wouldn't do three natively installed OSes on a Mac Book Air, where disk space will likely be at a premium. Besides, Ubuntu runs great in a VM - and since few people game on Linux, there's really no need to install it natively.

Also, I agree with you that Parallels sucks for stability AND Linux support. VMWare and VirtualBox shine in those respects. In fact, if you're not doing anything 3D-intensive, I'd run all three in VMWare (as I do now) and I'd be willing to bet you'll be more than pleased.

Unfortunately, with only 4GB of RAM, you'll have to settle for running one guest VM at a time if you intend to run Windows 7 (which likes a minimum of 2GB to run comfortably).

As to your query about the i5 vs. the i7 - from what I understand, both are dual-core parts in the MBA. I'd tend to lean toward the lower end to save a few bucks. I doubt you'd see a huge benefit going with the i7.

thanks for the reply, I'm thinking that my disk space wont really be a problem, I am likely to get the 256gb model and I only really have about 20gb of project files and about 10gb of databases that I need to store on there so everything else is just for 'stuff'

I'm starting to wonder if it would be a good idea to install win7 using bootcamp, seeing as I will be using that while developing and want 100% hardware dedicated to that, and then installing ununtu with VMWare because normally when I am using ubuntu I am just doing quick/small tasks that are just easier on linux...

Thanks again

Highly recommend using virtual machines (via VM Ware, Parallels or VirtualBox) whenever possible and partitioning only when necessary to use full graphics hardware (e.g., for gaming).

For non-video-intensive applications, the VMs work great. I've put several on my MBA ... and it only has 2 GB of RAM too. Only for gaming, CAD or video editing kinds of applications would I recommend Boot Camp to be honest.

Just one man's opinion.

Cheers

A VM is not good for cameras

Another reason running a virtual machine is inconvenient is when USB cameras don't seem to work on the virtual client. That's so far my only problem, so I have to dual boot instead.

Have you installed the guest tools for the VM? that usually fixes any USB functionality issues

Cheers

SammySlim said:

Have you installed the guest tools for the VM? that usually fixes any USB functionality issues

Cheers

Click to expand...

Yes, I have. I also tried the latest "extensions". In Linux, there is a "vboxusers" and that allows me to use the host's devices. I couldn't find that group in the Mac, so I'm assuming it works differently.

I can get USB storage devices working, but no cameras...the video only shows a black screen!

Has anybody get cameras working in Virtualbox with an Ubuntu guest/client?

Carlos

To my surprise, Ubuntu's video devices works perfectly with Parallels Desktop 6. I'm so happy I kept searching for answers and found a solution. I had to pay for the software (educational discount...so it wasn't that bad)

Glad you were able to solve your problem with the camera - and welcome to the forums!

Cheers

SammySlim said:

Have you installed the guest tools for the VM? that usually fixes any USB functionality issues

Cheers

Click to expand...

What are VMware Tools?

gam40000 said:

What are VMware Tools?

Click to expand...

Most virtualization products have a guest machine software package that adds certain functionality to make the guest OS function better. VMWare Tools is that package for VMWare Fusion.

2011 MBA 1.7Ghz and 128GB SSD here. I have a Windows 7 32-Bit VM and an openSUSE 11.4 32-Bit VM on this system. They both run well on 2GB of RAM and 128MB of video memory. I can run Mac OS +1 guest at a time, but running both guest OSs just creates "beachballs" as one would expect. Both installations are small and take up a total of about 20GB of real disk space: ~16GB Win7 for everything in the current MS Office suite + Project and Visio, and ~4GB of SUSE that I just use to code, script and compile things. With 10GB of photos and about 10GB of video/music on the Mac, I still have about 30GB free on this laptop. I'm running VMWare, but honestly it doesn't do any better or worse than VirtualBox does on my other Macs. I may reinstall the SUSE VM in 64-Bit form for compatibility with some items at work, but other than that I'm pretty happy.