New Mac users forum: Can MAC's option of running both Windows and OS X?

I'm an Apple faithful back to the Apple ][e, Mac 128K, and PPC 6100/60. I currently run Mac OS X 10.5.7 (Leopard) on my little black MacBook (2.2GHz Core2Duo, 4GB RAM). Should I run into a situation where I need to run Windows, I have Parallels Desktop and can easily run both at the same time. It's a pretty painless and flawless option, and I have the ability to use any and all of my peripherals, along with any and all of the available hardware options and interfaces. They've done a great job of making the Windows VM fully functional with the hardware installed on your Mac, and it's a really easy install and config. The docs are clear and concise, explaining every option fully so your setup is a well-informed configuration.

Let's not forget that PC World Magazine stated that the fastest Windows Vista machine was a MacBook Pro in 2007! Just do a Google search for "fastest windows vista machine" and pick up your jaw! I didn't see if they did their tests while they were running Vista via Boot Camp (OS X's option for choosing the boot OS) or Parallels Desktop, VM Fusion, Virtual Box, or whatever other options there are. I've tested my MacBook using GeekBench running on Windows XP on a Parallels Desktop virtual machine and found it ranked equal to, if not higher than machines that were spec'd out higher than my set of specs.

And simultaneous operation of both OS X and Windows is completely realized. The two operating systems are fully integrated in Parallels Desktop, allowing for sharing directories, files, and media between the two environments. Both OS can be online, downloading, editing documents, whatever you need. I haven't found much of anything that can't be done through this approach. It's completely like having two separate machines running at the same time without hinderance. They can interact with each-other just like two machines on the network, completely able to see eachother, share files, and interact like any other two networked machines.

On the other hand, you really don't need your Mac and the Virtual Machine to interface on the network. The two machines share files just like users sharing files on the same machine, which is really what's happening. The Virtual Machine behaves just like another user on your Mac, able to access any files or folders that you set up for it to through the Shared Folders setup. This is probably the quickest way to have the best of both worlds without buying two computers and having them networked. Besides, you get the added benefit of getting to use your Macintosh no matter what OS is required! What a perk! You get to use a Mac no matter what you need to do.

I prefer Parallels to the option of Boot Camp because Boot Camp requires a reboot, eating valuable time and slowing productivity. Parallels is nice because you don't even have to shut down the VM when you leave it, just choose the Suspend option and it pauses the VM right where it is, saving everything just like hibernation. Then when you need to open your VM next time, your startup time is greatly diminished, as it simply recovers from the stopping point and resumes operation. I use this approach religiously, only performing a restart when absolutely necessary. I'd have to say I probably haven't restarted my WinXP VM yet this year except when a software update required it or if Windows simply needed it, which it does often enough.

I don't know, however, if there is a difference in speed between Parallels and Boot Camp. I would guess that Boot Camp might be a bit faster, since it has the availability of all of your Mac's resources and isn't running on top of the Mac OS. On the other hand, I'd have to state that going this route and running Parallels hasn't left me feeling sluggish or incapable in the least, and my opinion is supported by the benchmarking scores I've submitted and compared to plain ol' PCs on XP.

Hi there and thanks for the article it was quite good..

I have a question - do you think my machine would have any issues running paralells (both OS X 10.4 and WinXP or 7 ) at the same time?

I have 2 laptop and i would like to simply sell the PC and keep the MAC and purchase paralells.

My spec
2.16GH Intel Core 2 Duo chip
2GB RAM
MacBook

Any thoughts on the two products and why one would be better than the other?

I saw this thread in the forum and thought I'd chime in to add some missing information here.

I noticed several people have commented that they don't know of any differences between running windows natively through Boot Camp and running it virtualized through Parallels or VMWare Fusion.

I can list a couple things that still work only by booting to Windows through Boot Camp.

* anything that uses HDCP such as DirecTV2PC / Tivo content
* any game that requires DirectX 10 or 11 support

That's all I've found for now