2013 MBA 13" Windows 8 and VS2012

redGoat · Aug 3, 2013

hi there, first english is not my native language, sorry for the miss speling.

I have been looking around for my new tool, and i fall in love with the air, the problem is that i mostly do my coding work in .net framework (asp.net), so...

Do I will have problems with parallels running windows 8 and visual studio 2012?

I was thinking to get the i7/8GB/256ssd.

that would be enough?
or
do I should get the 512ssd for the VM?

I was reading that there are some problems with parallels 8 in this new Macs, someone out there have done this configuration?

thanks and sorry for my grammar.

By the way this will be my first Mac.

JollyJoeJoe · Aug 3, 2013

redGoat said:
hi there, first english is not my native language, sorry for the miss speling.

I have been looking around for my new tool, and i fall in love with the air, the problem is that i mostly do my coding work in .net framework (asp.net), so...

Do I will have problems with parallels running windows 8 and visual studio 2012?

I was thinking to get the i7/8GB/256ssd.

that would be enough?
or
do I should get the 512ssd for the VM?

I was reading that there are some problems with parallels 8 in this new Macs, someone out there have done this configuration?

thanks and sorry for my grammar.

By the way this will be my first Mac.

If you just stick to .NET you should be fine. However you can't develop for the new WinRT runtime since the SDK uses an emulator which requires hyper V support or something, so no Windows 8/RT and windows phone apps.

That configuration should be fine or any for that matter for just VS use. All matter on how much space you need.

Overall it passes for .NET development but you certainly will prefer to stay in OSX as Windows in parallels will be overall a second class experience being a VM and all.

thejadedmonkey · Aug 3, 2013

JollyJoeJoe said:
If you just stick to .NET you should be fine. However you can't develop for the new WinRT runtime since the SDK uses an emulator which requires hyper V support or something, so no Windows 8/RT and windows phone apps.

That configuration should be fine or any for that matter for just VS use. All matter on how much space you need.

Overall it passes for .NET development but you certainly will prefer to stay in OSX as Windows in parallels will be overall a second class experience being a VM and all.

As someone developing a Windows Phone app in VMware Fusion on a rMBP, you can most certainly run the emulator in the emulator, you just need to fudge some values in a prefs file.

axi0m · Aug 3, 2013

thejadedmonkey said:
As someone developing a Windows Phone app in VMware Fusion on a rMBP, you can most certainly run the emulator in the emulator, you just need to fudge some values in a prefs file.

He's planning to use parallels and when you have to create a hack for something to work means it's not officially supported for a reason. I got pretty fugly bugs when I tried in Fusion. Also Parallels overall provides much better usability and performance but sucks for development.

thejadedmonkey · Aug 4, 2013

axi0m said:
He's planning to use parallels and when you have to create a hack for something to work means it's not officially supported for a reason. I got pretty fugly bugs when I tried in Fusion. Also Parallels overall provides much better usability and performance but sucks for development.

Parallels vs VMware isn't going to be the deciding factor in a $1200 purchase. Either way, I'd suggest trying to set it up again as once you get it running, there's no bugs - at least none that I can see!

axi0m · Aug 4, 2013

BTW just realized this is the MBA we are talking about here, go to used to presuming MBPr since I had it for the last year.

At 1.3Ghz ULV Dual Core chip virtualization may not be the best option, I'd try bootcamp. Maybe the i7 version with 8GB of RAM will provide adequate performance, doubt the base config will though.

boycecodd · Aug 4, 2013

It all depends on the type of project you're working with. When I'm in VS2012 I'm working on a monster of a solution (but then again, I use a Windows desktop for practically all of my Windows development work).

If it's a small website then a lower spec machine might do the job, even via Parallels/Fusion (although I would definitely never go lower than 8Gb if virtualisation is used).

The current base Air beats the crap out of the PC I had at work until just a couple of years ago.

redGoat · Aug 4, 2013

thejadedmonkey said:
Parallels vs VMware isn't going to be the deciding factor in a $1200 purchase.

whatever works, don't matter if is parallels or VMware...

so basically you guys are saying, that i will be fine running the VM on the Air, if i just do minor job in visual studio, otherwise i need to go for bootcamp, right?

My idea is have the Air as a "all-in-one mobile development main machine": ios,wp8, android, web app(python, asp.net) and some experiments with kinect.

Do I will be good with the Air?
or D
Do I should get a Pro?
or
forget about macs and get a windows ultrabook and lose the ios dev feature?

thejadedmonkey · Aug 4, 2013

redGoat said:
whatever works, don't matter if is parallels or VMware...

so basically you guys are saying, that i will be fine running the VM on the Air, if i just do minor job in visual studio, otherwise i need to go for bootcamp, right?

My idea is have the Air as a "all-in-one mobile development main machine": ios,wp8, android, web app(python, asp.net) and some experiments with kinect.

Do I will be good with the Air?
or D
Do I should get a Pro?
or
forget about macs and get a windows ultrabook and lose the ios dev feature?

In my experience, the Air is limited by 2 factors: 1 being the HDD space is severely lacking - 128gb is too small for any development, 256 being on the small end of acceptable. The other is simply that running a development environment off of a computer with just 2 USB ports is sometimes a pain. At work I usually max my MBP's 3 USB ports, and thats without running a Windows VM.

Also, VirtualBox (oracle's) does not pass whatever voodoo Windows needs, so VirtualBox will not run the Windows emulators.

redGoat · Aug 7, 2013

Well I mostly do web Dev, I used to have a HP probook, and only used one usb port for conecting the lap in a hp monitot.

One thing, is really a big diferent de i5 vs i7 for the VM's?

I'm planing to get 512ssd/8ram.
I dont know if get full thing, for the baterry life

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2013 MBA 13" Windows 8 and VS2012

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