“A good friend asked me a couple days back what I thought was the best solution when it comes to running Windows applications on his new X86 Mac. The first thing I asked him was, is there a equivalent native application that will do the job for you? As I have always believed native applications and games are always the best solution in the end. His reply was ‘ummm… no not really,’ so I thought I would dig around and see what solutions were available at this time to run Windows applications on a x86 Mac,” TWICKLINE blogs for Wine Review.
The article looks at VMware Fusion vs VirtualBox vs Darwine vs Boot Camp vs Parallels vs CrossOver Mac and provides several video examples.
Full article here.
I like parallels, especially version 3. It works well for me. Haven’t tried darwine or virtualbox though.
“ummm… no not really”
translation:
“I don’t know because I’ve never looked and I’ve always been told that there is no software for Macs so I just assumed that was the case.”
@larry
Sad…but true.
This article isn’t all that enlightening except in where is shows how popular Wine is. Each one of those options has strengths and weaknesses and they are hardly discussed. I was hoping for a chart of features for comparison. Even then the user experience needs to be taken into consideration. Parallels does a pretty good job of this, but they make fairly major changes to the UI on nearly every release just so we know something’s different I guess.
You mean to tell me there’s not a native version of Bonzai Buddy?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonzi_Buddy
so without reading the article, which one won?
Within 6 months their loathing for Windows will have made them find a true Mac solution…
Or they’re mad.
that article did suck. it was just kind of an overview of what each one does, no tests or examples of anything special.
i’ve used fusion, parallels, bootcamp, and crossover. crossover sucks to me. it ran office fine but running IE6 was a pain in the ass. plus they don’t support IE7 yet. fusion was just funky. it didn’t seem stable and beat up my computer. parallels was nice, the coherence modes and such were impressive. (note: when running fusion and parallels i only had 1gb of ram in my macbook. i’m definitely thinking performance was affected). so far, bootcamp is the best bet. it’s all native and you get the complete system resources so it’s all good.
i found a neat shortcut to rebooting too with a program called quiksilver and using an apple script. i just hold down b and ctrl for 2 seconds and the computer reboots into windows. that trick is on macinstruct.com.
For goodness sake! That article was painful to read, my brain swum with incomprehension at what it was all about.
x86 harks to the days when the first Intel Mac was born, is that a new Mac? or is it a refurbished Mac that is new to the owner?
The current Macs are based on x86_64 and can therefor run any operating system natively, why oh why the fuck do we have to be subjected to such non event articles?
Just go out and talk to a genius and they will advise you what Mac to buy in order to do the things you want to. Inventing the wheel in this modern day and age will just leave you gasping at what went by, by the time you successfully re-invent one.
Drink some Camel’s Milk! looks like you could do with a jolting fart to bump (bumb as in a good kicking) start you back into reality!!!
Crossover Mac is amazing….why install the windows OS if you don’t need too?
They don’t say. Lame article
Having drunk a swig of Camel’s Milk to calm my nerves, I meant to say bum rather than bumb in the last entry.
I switched 6 months ago, and only because of MacIntel and Parallels. Parallels is great, its only flaw – I almost never use it now, I don’t need it anymore, I found everything I need on the Mac Platform. Parallels is mostly an instrument to help people to switch to Mac.
I still use Parallels. The Mac can’t or I should say doesn’t do everything just yet. http://www.investors.com pretty much requires IE for their premium tools. For stock charting software, nothing comes close to TC2007 but it only runs on Windows.
My point is, stop looking down your nose at people that need to run Windows. They may not like it but in some cases they just have no choice.
Also, without Parallels, I would never have made the switch.
AVS DVDtoGo, a smart wizard-styled tool, copies movies and converts just any video to iPod, Sony PSP, Archos, Zen Creative, mobile or a portable media…
http://www.mp4-converter.net
The purpose of the post is to give the reader enough information to start there own evaluation process. There are NO winners or losers, all of the tools have own strengths and weaknesses. If you need someone to tell you what best fits your personal needs then this blog is defiantly not for you!
There should be no comparisons, only winners.
That way, we can all feel good.
Showing faults is mean.
Koombyeya!
MW:maybe
Parallels rocks. I need to do sysadminish stuff on Windows-based servers and support Windows users, so it’s great for all that; seamless and when Windows barfs all over itself, I just delete thevirtual disk file, replace it with my backup copy and I’m up and running in minutes.
WE DON’T WANT NO STINKING WINDOWS!!!
To those who unfortunatly have to use it on your Mac, your only compounding the adoption of NATIVE MAC OS X APPLICATIONS!
Developers: “Why make a Mac version when they can just boot Windows?”
Microsoft: “Haha”
So a formal fsck you to you Mac owners running Windows to run a app that there is a perfectly good native OS X application.
Please, don’t bore me with your petty excuses.
On the other hand, for those who joined us from the DARK SIDE and bought a Mac to transition completely from Windows, we welcome you.
Support the better platform NOW or kiss it goodbye to Windows domination.
Mac’s running Windows, stupid idea.
@Smarty Pants
Apple was the one who built Boot Camp so people could transition away from MS windows, So if Apple thinks this is a good idea why shouldn’t other software shops do the same? And possibly build a superior solution?
(quote)Mac’s running Windows, stupid idea.(/quote)
This would be like saying Apple is stupid for supporting this option?
The freedom to let people choose what best fits there needs is never a stupid idea…. IMHO
I really don’t agree with Smarty Pants. Solutions like Parallels encourage people to switch to Mac. Many people think about it but fear that they will not be able to use the software they are used to. Now they can. And when they get used to Mac OSX, they start using it for almost everything but the softwares that only work on windows, or to use IE for some sites. It’s a total win for Apple.
“ummm… no not really”
translation:
“I don’t know because I’ve never looked and I’ve always been told that there is no software for Macs so I just assumed that was the case.” —
You nailed it!!
Have VMware by now… But i’m looking forward a better CrossOver (the one app i use on windoze isn’t supported) to split out M$ of my Mac!
They forgot DOSBox, for those who need DOS to run their ancient-but-beloved software. http://dosbox.sourceforge.net/
IF IT WAS NOT FOR PARALLELS / VMWARE I WOULD NEVER SWITCH FROM WINDOWS. BUT THATS TO THE VMWARE MY VERY FIRST OWNED MACBOOK WILL BE ARRIVING IN A COUPLE DAYS!
I HAVE ALWAYS ADMIRED MACs BUT WAS NOT WILLING TO SWITCH BECAUSE WINDOWS SUPPORTS LARGE SELECTION OF SOFTWARE. NOW I WILL BE SWITCHING AND HOPEFULLY IN A FEW MONTHS I WILL BE ABLE TO RUN MAC SOFTWARE ONLY AFTER LEARNING ALL MAC SOFTWARE.