A few questions about winebottler, wine, and boot camp.

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Hi,

I have a few quick questions about a software called winebottler and wine and some questions about boot camp. I am taking a class that requires my laptop (mac book air) to use windows. Iv read that boot camp is now allowing viruses into macs (I already installed boot camp on my home mac, but have yet to really use it). Iv also read that there’s a possibility that wine itself is a virus too. Here’s my questions,- Is boot camp allowing viruses to compromise my computer? Is wine/winebottler safe for my mac and will it too allow viruses into my mac? Is wine itself a virus? Should I be using winebottler at all or just use boot camp? Last, which website is most trusted for installing winebottler?

I would really like someone who’s had personal experiences with wine and boot camp to answer this question. Thanks so much.


Alex
 
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Iv read that boot camp is now allowing viruses into macs (I already installed boot camp on my home mac, but have yet to really use it).

Depends on how you mean. How i think you mean, a virus on the OS X side then no, but what you have read is correct as in the way that bootcamp, that runs Windows will still and has always been prone to viruses/malware/spyware as if you owned a Windows PC. if your running Windows under BC you still need to be vigilant against contracting a virus/malware/spyware. **It still is Windows**

Iv also read that there’s a possibility that wine itself is a virus too.

I would be interested to read this source as this is far from the truth. WINE is a safe.

Should I be using winebottler at all or just use boot camp?

Personally i would be using BootCamp OR a VM like VMFusion/VirtualBox/Parallels. Using a VM saves you logging in and out of OS X everytime you want to run Windows. People in this foum play with both, but majority like the VM because of freedom they have changing between OS X and Windows.

Last, which website is most trusted for installing winebottler?

Download WineBottler for Mac - Bottle Windows apps as a Mac application bundle. MacUpdate.com
I get a 403 when trying to access the Developers site, so i trust Mac Update.

WINEhq
 

Raz0rEdge

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If a malware affects your Windows installation through Boot camp, that damage is contained within just Windows, the same is true for a VM installation of Windows. Neither of these would cause the malware to cross over to into OS X.

Wine is 100% safe since it is more of a translation layer than a generic way of running Windows.

If you need to be able to run Windows, Wine and Winebottler aren't probably what you want to look at unless you have to run one or two Windows applications that are supported by Wine. If you need to have a installation of Windows available (just for the class), my recommendation is to either purchase Parallels or VMWare Fusion or use the freely available VirtualBox and create a virtual machine into which you install Windows..
 

vansmith

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Depending on the types of applications you need, you may have to go with Boot Camp. Although virtual machines are considerably more convenient, they don't have direct access to the hardware and as such, you'll experience a performance hit. This is most noticeable with applications that depend heavily on the graphics chip in your Mac.
 
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Thanks for the advice everyone! I guess I'll go with boot camp or VM/para. I figured only windows would be infected by virii, but I wanted to be extra careful. Another quick question, how do I transfer files from windows to mac (or the other way around) via boot camp/ VM fusion? I haven't done that on my desktop either. Thnx It's probably really simple, I'm just not seeing a clear answer pop up on google.
 

Raz0rEdge

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If you go the VM route, all of the software provide a means of sharing directories from OS X into the guest OS. If you go the Boot Camp route, unless you buy some special software to let you access the OS X HFS filesystem, you will not be able to share files back and forth..
 

vansmith

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Each virtualization products has sharing capabilities so that's not a problem but they are configured differently so it's hard to answer that one without knowing which solution you're going to use.

EDIT: Too slow!
 

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