Getting a MacBook - Bootcamp?

DAVEM · 2 Dec 2006 at 12:46

Hi All,

My old T21 thinkpad has had it's day

, and I've decided to get a shiny new macbook.

I use Windows XP most of the time, but I'd like to use OSX, Windows and Ubuntu.

I'm not sure if the best option is Paralells (sp?) or BootCamp. :confused:

It's solely for statistis/maths/physics/programming applications

Thoughts appriciated, p.s. the model I'm looking at is the one up from the base model.

Cheers

David

Hate · 2 Dec 2006 at 12:51

i don't believe you can dual boot linux with bootcamp, I remember reading somewhere that if you want OSX on your hard drive then it can only happily co-exist with Bootcamp.

toosepin · 2 Dec 2006 at 14:56

If you need XP for programming apps etc I'd recommend Parallels over bootcamp. You can use Parallels full screen and it feels like a full desktop. If you are soley going to be using XP then Boot Camp is the way, however remember it's a bit annoying have to restart into one operating system.

Watch out though because Parallels is looking into Boot Camp intergration so you could effectively have a Windows partition and use both BC and Parallels.

PS: It's easier to install Parallels

daven1986 · 4 Dec 2006 at 11:56

if you want games you have to go with bootcamp. otherwise use parallels

daven

toosepin · 4 Dec 2006 at 14:44

Parallels doesn't take advantage of 3d graphics acceleration, however with the latest update you can specify the amount of dedicated RAM for your Virtual Machine which is useful if you want to run apps such as Photoshop etc.

toosepin · 4 Dec 2006 at 14:45

Oh and forgot to mention, Parallels has just been updated to work with Boot Camp installations (although I haven't got it working -- it's a beta release) which would be very useful if you want to use both without two windows insallations.