Emulation software or 2 machines?

[Hunter49]

I'm investigating switching to Mac, but software is holding me up.

I currently run a PC and have several business programs for which there is no Mac equivalent. Some of these are standard stuff like QB and Quicken. Yes, I know there are Mac versions, but I don't want to buy new versions when these work fine. A couple of them, though, are industry specific and work only on PCs.

I currently have a decent PC laptop with Windows 7 that I could use to run these programs. It occurred to me that I could use the laptop for the programs that I need Windows for and buy a new Mac for my everyday computer usage.

I use Gmail, Google Docs and some other 'cloud' programs and it appears that this is the wave of the future.

The thing that is holding me back is that I hate the idea of having two computers running at once (I use these business programs a lot).

Does anyone have any experience with this sort of setup? Is it a big PITA like I imagine it is? I have years of historical data on some of these programs and the thought of abandoning it and starting fresh is probably more than I could take. OTOH, in reading the threads on VMware, Parallels and the like, I hate to pollute a new Mac with non-native software and then deal with performance and compatibility problems.

Thanks for your comments.

 

[wammo]

VM Ware Fusion3 is what you need.

Its compatible with mac so you may aswell go down the virtual route if you dont want to run 2 machines at the same time.

 

[Sawday]

VM Ware Fusion3 is what you need.

Remember though that you'll need to buy a new copy of Windows whichever emulator you buy.

 

[Corbab]

I assume by "two machines" you mean two separate computers running?

You could use Boot Camp and, if you have enough space, copy your entire laptop drive with all the archival files right to the new computer. You'd have to reboot to switch from OS X to Windows, but that shouldn't be a huge problem if you run one during business hours and the other during the rest of the time.

If you want files between the two, you can use the Shared folder to share info between the two.

 

[harryb2448]

For what it is worth did what you are thinking of during working career - Dell latitude laptop running XP Pro for work, and Mac at home. Also a modern memory stick is the go to transfer information from machine to machine.

 

[chscag]

I'm with harry on this one. Many of us use Windows in our jobs because it's the corporate standard - and government standard. However, at home we get to use what we want - our Mac(s). If you scan through these forums you'll see a good number of folks are running Windows on their Mac, either via a VM or naturally from a Boot Camp partition. You can do the same.

Regards.