Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Refujeet

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 28, 2005
18
2
After debating between getting a MacBook or a MacBook Pro for the last few weeks, I went into an Apple Store and purchased a MacBook today (Backlit keyboard and upgraded the RAM to 4 gigs). If you are curious, my major concern was downgrading to a smaller screen from my PowerBook...but since the resolution is the same, I really shouldn't be too bothered.

Moving on the my questions:
1) One of the biggest reasons why I'm upgrading is being able to run Windows. I occasionally need to use Excel and it's a lot easier to use Excel on windows than a mac. I'm curious what will give me the best solution to run windows? (Parallel, Boot Camp, Fusion (?)...etc.) My primary concern is being able to use the function keys in excel while in windows mode. Also, I'd prefer to be able to use Windows while in OS X.

2) What version of Vista should I buy? I've gotten recommendations to buy Vista 64-bit versus the 32. Thoughts?

Thanks.
 

alphaod

macrumors Core
Feb 9, 2008
22,183
1,245
NYC
Congrats on the computer!

1) Best solution is BootCamp then use VMware to run the BootCamp partition as a virtual machine. This allows you to run BootCamp when you need the full performance of the computer; when you need to just use something that's just Windows only that is quick and doesn't require a lot of computing power, you can run VMware and choose the BootCamp partition as the virtual machine.

2) I would get Vista x64; that's if you want to fully use all your RAM. I know some hardware and software does not work on 64-bit Vista; for example my scanner doesn't.
 

kasakka

macrumors 68020
Oct 25, 2008
2,360
1,060
2) What version of Vista should I buy? I've gotten recommendations to buy Vista 64-bit versus the 32. Thoughts?

Thanks.

None. Windows 7 is coming in August and the beta version is very solid. Microsoft closed the beta program but you can still download the Win7 64-bit beta from BitTorrent sites and get a legit key from Microsoft.

I've been running the Win7 beta for several weeks now and haven't bothered booting to Vista at all.

But if your needs are only for Excel etc, have you tried something like OpenOffice on OSX?
 

GfulDedFan

macrumors 65816
Oct 17, 2007
1,063
23
Indiana
I occasionally need to use Excel

I need to use excel a lot and in order to use it, I use Numbers in the iWork suite. I can open an excel file in Numbers, use it, save it, send it out as excel. Everyone that I collaborate with has no idea that I'm not using excel. You should try iWork '09 for free before investing in ms windows and excel.
 

HazRutter

macrumors regular
Jan 2, 2009
212
0
England
I need to use excel a lot and in order to use it, I use Numbers in the iWork suite. I can open an excel file in Numbers, use it, save it, send it out as excel. Everyone that I collaborate with has no idea that I'm not using excel. You should try iWork '09 for free before investing in ms windows and excel.

Wow, thanks for this, I did not this was the case, this has influenced my Mac descions greatly!
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.