[Asirah]

I want to install Windows XP Professional on my new G5. I've heard of Parallels and Boot Camp but I don't know which one I should use...

What are the pros and cons of each?

[VegasACF]

Originally Posted by Asirah

I want to install Windows XP Professional on my new G5. I've heard of Parallels and Boot Camp but I don't know which one I should use...

What are the pros and cons of each?

Parallels offers both OSes running at the same time, so no reboots. But little to no video hardware support. If you're wanting to play games or do anything that requires direct I/O between the OS and the video card you'll not want to go with this.

BootCamp basically allows the Mac OS to create a Windows partition and create a Mac-specific hardware drivers disc to be created, as well as do whatever is required to get around the BIOS bits. Once you run BootCamp it does nothing. When you boot into Windows you are doing it natively. That means direct hardware support, not Windows-through-Mac OS hardware support (which is somewhat similar to the way Virtual PC handles it, though there are differences, mind you).

If the thought of going through about one minute of reboot time (and the trouble of holding down the Option key upon restart) bothers you (and you're not going to be playing vid card-intensive games) go with Parallels. If you want to be able to run Windows as if you were running a non-Mac Intel machine go with BootCamp.

[Pensacola Tiger]

Originally Posted by Asirah

I want to install Windows XP Professional on my new G5. I've heard of Parallels and Boot Camp but I don't know which one I should use...

What are the pros and cons of each?

On a G5, neither one is an option, as they both require an Intel based Mac.

If you want to run Windows XP on a G5, you will need to buy Microsoft's Virtual PC for Mac.

[tedwinder]

Aren't there intel-based G5's?

[Pensacola Tiger]

No.

[VegasACF]

Oops! Good catch. I missed the G5 part.

Nope. No Intel-based G5s. Only the MacBook, MacBook Pro and Mac Pro series have Intel processors and are capable of running Windows natively. The original poster's only option is to run Windows in Microsoft's Virtual PC environment. And, as someone with firsthand experience with VPC, I can tell you that's not much of an option.

[Pensacola Tiger]

Only the MacBook, MacBook Pro and Mac Pro series have Intel processors...

Well, don't forget the iMac and Mac Mini.

[VegasACF]

Oh yeah. :blush:

I'm really not on my game today! My team's losing. That's why. Yeah, sure. That's it.

[Nameisnobody]

Are they worth buying in your opinion?
I was told that the Mac has other programs that do the same thing as PC based programs.
But no Visual Basics tho, which I need, oh well.

[VegasACF]

Are what worth buying? Intel-based Macs? I love mine. I'm currently running Windows XP on it (for a work-related reason), but more often than not boot up into Mac OS. Either is equally stable.

[Nameisnobody]

To VegasACF.

I was talking about the parallel and boot camp programs, are they worth your money?
Also as I said before aren't there similar programs that the Mac has, that's as good as the PC version?

[Pensacola Tiger]

Well, Boot Camp is a free download from Apple, while Parallels Desktop costs ~$80 if I recall correctly. There is a big difference in how they work, though. Boot Camp requires that you reboot the Mac to get to Windows while Parallels Desktop allows you to run Windows as a process under OS X, so there is no need to reboot.

Parallels Desktop also supports several different versions of Windows, while Boot Camp has official support for Windows XP Pro only.

Keep in mind that you will have to buy a legitimate version of Windows no matter which program you wind up with.

[tedwinder]

Originally Posted by VegasACF

Oops! Good catch. I missed the G5 part.

Nope. No Intel-based G5s. Only the MacBook, MacBook Pro and Mac Pro series have Intel processors and are capable of running Windows natively. The original poster's only option is to run Windows in Microsoft's Virtual PC environment. And, as someone with firsthand experience with VPC, I can tell you that's not much of an option.

These are Intel, right?

[Nameisnobody]

Ah so Bootcamp is downloaded from Apple eh?

But someone told me that if (but rarely) your Mac blows up (not literally) because of Bootcamp, you wont get any help from Apple, cause its a beta software, and Microsoft, they dont want MS workin on a Mac (maybe, someone told me). So is it true?
Does boot camp really do that or is it an extremely rare thing to happen?

I was just plannin to do all my necessary work on the Mac side and use the Windows side as a game centre because of the ability to partition a drive for your Windows which takes advantage of your video card unlike Parallels.

[VegasACF]

Originally Posted by Nameisnobody

Ah so Bootcamp is downloaded from Apple eh?

Yes. And it will be part of the OS when Leopard comes out. Or Ocelot. Or Manx. Or whatever they're going to be calling it.

Originally Posted by Nameisnobody

But someone told me that if (but rarely) your Mac blows up (not literally) because of Bootcamp, you wont get any help from Apple, cause its a beta software, and Microsoft, they dont want MS workin on a Mac (maybe, someone told me). So is it true?
Does boot camp really do that or is it an extremely rare thing to happen?

I don't know how a piece of software could cause such a thing. Worst case scenario is you have to reinstall everything from scratch. Good thing you always back up your data. You do back up your data, right?

I've been using Bootcamp and Windows XP Pro for the many months I've had my MacBook Pro. No problems whatsoever here.

Originally Posted by Nameisnobody

I was just plannin to do all my necessary work on the Mac side and use the Windows side as a game centre because of the ability to partition a drive for your Windows which takes advantage of your video card unlike Parallels.

Indeed.