Windows for Mac - which version?

[Veej]

Well it's come to the stage where the 'honeymoon period' has worn off with my Mac and I need to start doing some serious work (i.e. word processing) and will need to install a copy of Windows. It's not something I wanted to do but office:mac has left me no other option!

Will both 32 and 64 bit versions of Windows work with Boot Camp?
I wanted XP, but so far I've found Vista to be cheaper:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/123052

Any recommendations as to where I can get XP (home/pro) from or get a copy of Vista for less?

Thanks!

 

[skaheadpunk]

Amazon seems cheap to me, at least in the UK.

 

[Lifeisabeach]

You want to install Windows to use a word processor? Wow.

 

[Thyamine]

Depending what features you need, you can always try something like OpenOffice or NeoOffice as well.

Otherwise I'd suggest you also do something like VMWare so that you can use your Office suite without having to boot into BootCamp. Plus you can run in Unity mode so you don't have the full desktop screen taking up space. And if you can find XP, I'd go with that.

 

[Veej]

Thanks for the replies, I'd prefer XP but Vista's actually cheaper in a lot of shops! Amazon's not bad, at around £60 for XP so I might just have to go with that...

And yeah, MS Word is actually one of the big reasons I need Windows - I've tried NeoOffice, iWork and office:mac2008.. they're all far off Word 07 for PC! It's not the only reason but I need Windows to run Windows-formatted CDs too that won't work with Mac OS X.

As for VMWare, I'll look into it - I've got a MBP and I'm not sure if using VMWare/Parallels will slow it down quite a lot? And what about heat-issues? As it must use a lot of processor power, I'd have thought the MBP would be running hotter too?

 

[PerryLynch]

I routinely run VMWare Fusion to handle multiple instances of Word '07, Visio '07, and some security tools. The more RAM you have, the better off you'll be, but I've had no issue at all with running 64-bit XP, complete with antivirus and 4or5 memory-hogging appications on 1 processor and 512 MB of RAM with little to no performance issues.

And yes, the best part is being able to drag my results to my Mac desktop without a second thought - so very easy to remain productive!

Good luck, and go for XP unless you really are a glutton for punishment.

Perry

 

[Dysfunction]

I've never heard of a windows formatted CD.

 

[kzam]

what's wrong with office mac 2008. I thought it was supposed to be like office 2008 for microsoft?

 

[Thyamine]

2008 is certainly different than 2007. I have both, and if you are used to one vs the other, then you might not want to switch. Plus 2007 is.. what.. the 7th version for Windows, whereas the Mac version is only the 2nd? It's going to be a bit more entrenched, and in theory, more polished.

 

[Dysfunction]

As far as I know there have been mac versions for well over a decade. It isn't only the second version available.

 

[Fatboydim]

Personally I think you'd be better off persisting with office / mac. Unless you're running exe files there should be no compatibility problems and whilst I think Office/ Mac is not as good as office /PC in many respects - it's just a question of getting used to it.

However you know what you need. Parallels and Vmware work absolutely fine and in my opinion is a more practical solution than using bootcamp.

But we all know you only want Windows for the solitaire.;D

 

[shahvikram123]

You should really consider trying out Office 2008. It's not that bad compared to Office '07 for windows. If you've used Office '07 for Windows then you should have no problem using Office '08 on a Mac.

Plus as somebody has mentioned before Microsoft has been making Office software for Mac's for a very long time. To date MS has released 10 versions of Office for the Mac. In fact MS released a version of Office on a Mac before it was ever released on Windows.

 

[Veej]

It's not really a question of office 2008 - I've got it and I'm properly fed up of it! Many things suck with it, a few recent cases:
1. I'm an economics student. I used to be able to whip up sketch graphs (i.e. no numbers behind it, just drawing so can't use Excel) in 2 minutes using Word 2007. In Word 2008, I can't position lines properly. i.e. If you try and move a line you have drawn it jumps like a centimeter, there's no way of fine tuning it on Word 08.

2. I was creating a survey for one of my projects, so I just got a survey I'd made previously with Word 2007 (PC)... open it up in Word 08 and poof, there's no squares (yeah, it's complicated, gotta see it to understand!)


Oh and Fatboydim, you're right... it's all just for the solitaire

So, basically the consensus is not to use Bootcamp? I've also read that Parallels runs slightly hotter than VMWare Fusion so I'll stick to Fusion rather than Parallels. Can you actually use the laptop on your lap while running Fusion or is it too hot? (I've got Lobotomo fan control, so can set the fans to around 4000RPM while using Fusion)

Cheers!

 

[Lifeisabeach]

It's not really a question of office 2008 - I've got it and I'm properly fed up of it! Many things suck with it, a few recent cases:
1. I'm an economics student. I used to be able to whip up sketch graphs (i.e. no numbers behind it, just drawing so can't use Excel) in 2 minutes using Word 2007. In Word 2008, I can't position lines properly. i.e. If you try and move a line you have drawn it jumps like a centimeter, there's no way of fine tuning it on Word 08.

2. I was creating a survey for one of my projects, so I just got a survey I'd made previously with Word 2007 (PC)... open it up in Word 08 and poof, there's no squares (yeah, it's complicated, gotta see it to understand!)


Oh and Fatboydim, you're right... it's all just for the solitaire

So, basically the consensus is not to use Bootcamp? I've also read that Parallels runs slightly hotter than VMWare Fusion so I'll stick to Fusion rather than Parallels. Can you actually use the laptop on your lap while running Fusion or is it too hot? (I've got Lobotomo fan control, so can set the fans to around 4000RPM while using Fusion)

Cheers!

Another potentially even more practical solution is to try Crossover. Some versions of Office work better than others. Office 2007 reportedly works near-flawlessly (except for Access). Office 97 and Office 2000 are gold-rated by Codeweavers themselves, which means they guarantee and support flawless use of those two. Until you try it, you won't know how well it may work for you.

 

[Veej]

THat's the thing, I need to be able to use Access too! I've tried using a CrossOver trial, it was ok with the gold-rated programs and the ones guaranteed to work but I don't think it's as good a solution for me as having a Windows install in some way or the other.
Thanks though.

 

[Hit]

I find MS Office 2008 for mac just as good as MS Office 2007 for windows you just need to learn where everything u used to use is in the application

 

[Veej]

Thanks again, but there is nothing to 'learn' in Office 2008. Trust me, I've learnt as much as possible, it simply can't do some of the things I want it to do!

I bought a copy of XP Pro today and will try the VMF trial to see performance with that. If that doesn't go too well will try Parallels and pick the best otherwise just use good ole' bootcamp!§

 

[Lifeisabeach]

Thanks again, but there is nothing to 'learn' in Office 2008. Trust me, I've learnt as much as possible, it simply can't do some of the things I want it to do!

I bought a copy of XP Pro today and will try the VMF trial to see performance with that. If that doesn't go too well will try Parallels and pick the best otherwise just use good ole' bootcamp!§

Unfortunately it does seem like you are one of the relatively rare individuals who actually needs and uses some of the more advanced features of MS Office that simply didn't make it to the Mac version or don't translate over well. It'd be nice if Office had complete feature parity between platforms and total compatibility, but they never have AFAIK. Fusion should work out pretty good for you so long you allot enough RAM to it.

 

[Veej]

Heh, yeah, lucky me!

You talk about allotting enough RAM... I've got 2GB of RAM, would splitting it half and half (Mac/Windows) be enough - what would you recommend?
Thanks a lot for all the help, much appreciated

 

[Veej]

Sorry for the double post - I just realised that I'd ordered the x64 version of XP. I've done a lot of searching and some say that x64 support is available on Macs early 2008 and newer (bought mine in April ) - however, is this x64 just for Vista or does it support 64 bit XP versions too?