Bootcamp or parallels?

[Useless Git]

Hi.

I've just got home with my new Macbook Pro 15" Retina with 256GB SSD.

I was going to use Bootcamp for Windows 8 Pro but I was thinking I might buy Parallels instead. Has anyone here used it?

Looking at videos on youtube it looks pretty good but i wonder if there are any compatibility problems with any programs like photoshop or office.

 

[GeX]

Do you need Windows for anything other than Photoshop or Office, there are OSX versions of both.

 

[UnworthyBean]

Why not do both? If you Bootcamp Windows 8, Then you can create a Parallels virtual machine from that Bootcamp partition. Anything you do in the Bootcamp partition will be reflected in Parallels and vice versa.

Means if you need the power, Use Bootcamp but for light usage you can just use Parallels.

But in short, They will work as intended.

Edit: Should have added, Do you already have Photoshop and Office? You can get these for Mac.

 

[Useless Git]

Why not do both? If you Bootcamp Windows 8, Then you can create a Parallels virtual machine from that Bootcamp partition. Anything you do in the Bootcamp partition will be reflected in Parallels and vice versa.

Means if you need the power, Use Bootcamp but for light usage you can just use Parallels.

But in short, They will work as intended.

Edit: Should have added, Do you already have Photoshop and Office? You can get these for Mac.

I already have Office, Photoshop and a few other programs that i don't want to have to buy Mac versions for all at once.

Over time I'll go fully Mac only but for now I'll need windows.

Your suggestion of using both sounds ideal, I didn't realise Parallels could use a Bootcamp partition for a VM.

 

[MacRS4]

I suspect you'll rarely end up booting into BootCamp, unless you're a gamer.

Also, you can run into issues with Activation in Windows given that when virtualised the environment appears as different hardware. Parallels Tools is supposed to fix it, but it doesn't always. Never really looked into it that much.

You'll get pretty good performance in Parallels too. Below is my Win8 Index in Parallels, running on my 2011 MBP.

 

[GW1970]

I have been running win 7 in parallels 8 for a few weeks and works a dream but I guess it helps that I have allocated it 16gb of the ram my imac holds.

Software being run ranges from Microsoft office through to autocad 13