advice for switching to Machintosh!

[chronox]

Hi guys..
im new here, im one of those 1000s who are switching to mac since its Intel support. I am very desparate to buy the MacBook pro c2d 15" with 256mbvram.

But there are some questions in ma mind that need to be cleared. I've been using windows since ... i dont remember. Obviously I would use and code windows programs and switching completely would take some time.
So here are my questions:

- Using windows on parallels- is the network supported via parallels? Im also a cpp coder, and usually play with simple TCP/IP protocol and socket programming.

-Bootcamp? Ive read reports that running windows on macbookpro via bootcamp would cause some real heating problems. I dont kno much about hardware, but i was thinking is it possible to get an external USB HDD, maybe a 80GB, and install windows over it. I kno that a PC would boot over via USB, but would MBP? if yes, i was thinking of getting the 32GB Flash card solely for windows purposes. Is this supported?

-My Vaio had an option of choosing between intel's integrated gfx and the vram. So when im gaming only then i use vram. Is this possible in macbook via software?

-I code alot of simple applications for simple use... like i'd code a gadget for vista in delphi(pascal)/ Visual Basic to display any information... ( endless possibilities, i havent ATM but i'd like to).
Do we have such freedom in mac? coding simple Object application?? Like an expense program, my medical doc. ?
And is there any equivalent to VisualStudio / Delphi or something that would let be create personal apps natively on a machintosh.??

-lastly.. well, this is just a curious question.. and i kno that mac isnt for gaming,, but how would a mbp c2d perform against an HP or a dell with similar configurations. ?? im regular in CS:S / battlefield/ GTA etc.. etc.. i play casually but i'd like to think that i could play a new game if it comes out.


thats abt it.. probably im asking alot.. but no matter wat.. im gonna switch to mac. its just that i wana decide between a MB or a MBP.

thanks guys, appreciate any help

 

[Eraserhead]

- Using windows on parallels- is the network supported via parallels? Im also a cpp coder, and usually play with simple TCP/IP protocol and socket programming.

dunno, i'd say native (bootcamp) would be better for this as parallels is virtualised (though you can also do it on OS X)

-Bootcamp? Ive read reports that running windows on macbookpro via bootcamp would cause some real heating problems. I dont kno much about hardware, but i was thinking is it possible to get an external USB HDD, maybe a 80GB, and install windows over it. I kno that a PC would boot over via USB, but would MBP?

MBP's boot via Firewire and USB. There won't be overheating problems with bootcamp.

-My Vaio had an option of choosing between intel's integrated gfx and the vram. So when im gaming only then i use vram. Is this possible in macbook via software?

I don't believe so, I don't think the MBP has integrated gfx at all.

-I code alot of simple applications for simple use... like i'd code a gadget for vista in delphi(pascal)/ Visual Basic to display any information... ( endless possibilities, i havent ATM but i'd like to).

Why code for Windows when you have a Mac?

Do we have such freedom in mac? coding simple Object application?? Like an expense program, my medical doc. ? And is there any equivalent to VisualStudio / Delphi or something that would let be create personal apps natively on a machintosh.??

Yes, Mac's have Xcode which is equivalent to Visual Studio, Xcode 3.0 is also coming with Leopard and looks amazing, you can also use Dashcode to make Dashboard widgets (like Vista gadgets). Best of all the dev tools are free.

-lastly.. well, this is just a curious question.. and i kno that mac isnt for gaming,, but how would a mbp c2d perform against an HP or a dell with similar configurations. ?? im regular in CS:S / battlefield/ GTA etc.. etc.. i play casually but i'd like to think that i could play a new game if it comes out.

It will be similar to a similarly spec'd Dell or HP, I'm assuming you'll be gaming under Windows.

PS You may not know that OS X is Unix based so all the unix dev tools (make, gcc etc. etc.) are included with the developers tools (which come with your Mac).

 

[iW00t]

- Using windows on parallels- is the network supported via parallels? Im also a cpp coder, and usually play with simple TCP/IP protocol and socket programming.

Yes. It can either receive an entirely different IP address of its own (appearing to be another computer communicating on the same medium) or connect through the supervising MacOS's network connection. Very nifty.

-Bootcamp? Ive read reports that running windows on macbookpro via bootcamp would cause some real heating problems. I dont kno much about hardware, but i was thinking is it possible to get an external USB HDD, maybe a 80GB, and install windows over it. I kno that a PC would boot over via USB, but would MBP? if yes, i was thinking of getting the 32GB Flash card solely for windows purposes. Is this supported?

Nope. The boot camp software provides no options for installing Windows on anything other than a 2nd partition.

Apple: No options. That is the price of simplicity

In fact if you are buying a Macbook Pro, you don't even have the option of a good screen.

-My Vaio had an option of choosing between intel's integrated gfx and the vram. So when im gaming only then i use vram. Is this possible in macbook via software?

The Macbook doesn't even have a dedicated GPU. I'm pretty sure the Macbook Pros don't have a feature as nifty as the Vaios. Apple does cater to grandmas who can't even find that power button you know

-I code alot of simple applications for simple use... like i'd code a gadget for vista in delphi(pascal)/ Visual Basic to display any information... ( endless possibilities, i havent ATM but i'd like to).
Do we have such freedom in mac? coding simple Object application?? Like an expense program, my medical doc. ?
And is there any equivalent to VisualStudio / Delphi or something that would let be create personal apps natively on a machintosh.??

No.

There is X-code and Objective C though, world renowned for its crappiness in contrast to the wonderful IDE known as Microsoft VS and C#.

Oh yeah, maybe Java... Macs supports Java too!

-lastly.. well, this is just a curious question.. and i kno that mac isnt for gaming,, but how would a mbp c2d perform against an HP or a dell with similar configurations. ?? im regular in CS:S / battlefield/ GTA etc.. etc.. i play casually but i'd like to think that i could play a new game if it comes out.

It will be slower, the GPU on the Macbook Pro is underclocked and running below stock configuration. It is a known fact.

thats abt it.. probably im asking alot.. but no matter wat.. im gonna switch to mac. its just that i wana decide between a MB or a MBP.

thanks guys, appreciate any help

You should at least wait till Leopard is out, word has it that new lines of Macs will be released then to coincide with its release. You don't want to pay top dollar for a top of the line machine (since Apple has no such thing as a 1.66ghz Macbook Pro by the way) for only the next 6-8 weeks don't you?

 

[Eraserhead]

There is X-code and Objective C though, world renowned for its crappiness in contrast to the wonderful IDE known as Microsoft VS and C#.

Right , the thing is that Xcode is free, from what I've heard VS is slightly better, though Xcode 3 looks amazing (I have never used VS though), if you want to know more about how Xcode and VS compare I'd look at http://arstechnica.com's forums.

 

[netdog]

Parallels will generate a subnet automatically using the Airport or Ethernet

I have no experience with Bootcamp

The MacBook Pro doesn't use Intel 950 Graphics. It has an x1600 and hence none of its 256MB of VRAM are drawn from system memory (unlike the regular MacBook).

Dont know about programming on the Mac

It performs great using Bootcamp. Parallels isn't really for gamers, but you only need one Windows installation as Parallels is now able to use a BC install as its own as well.

I switched in January 2006 and have never looked back, and I was a power Windows user. These are great machines. Enjoy your MBP. I am sure you will.

 

[iW00t]

The MacBook Pro doesn't use Intel 950 Graphics. It has an x1600 and hence none of its 256MB of VRAM are drawn from system memory (unlike the regular MacBook).

I believe what the OP was referring to is a feature that Sony Vaios have which allows the user to use either the GPU or Intel graphics for his session.

The rationale is that IIG is more energy saving and hence if you don't need to game that's a good option to have available. Why waste power to juice up the GPU when all it does it Expose?

 

[ChrisA]

- Using windows on parallels- is the network supported via parallels? Im also a cpp coder, and usually play with simple TCP/IP protocol and socket programming.

-Bootcamp? Ive read reports that running windows on macbookpro via bootcamp would cause some real heating problems. I dont kno much about hardware, but i was thinking is it possible to get an external USB HDD, maybe a 80GB, and install windows over it. I kno that a PC would boot over via USB, but would MBP? if yes, i was thinking of getting the 32GB Flash card solely for windows purposes. Is this supported?

-My Vaio had an option of choosing between intel's integrated gfx and the vram. So when im gaming only then i use vram. Is this possible in macbook via software?

-I code alot of simple applications for simple use... like i'd code a gadget for vista in delphi(pascal)/ Visual Basic to display any information... ( endless possibilities, i havent ATM but i'd like to).
Do we have such freedom in mac? coding simple Object application?? Like an expense program, my medical doc. ?
And is there any equivalent to VisualStudio / Delphi or something that would let be create personal apps natively on a machintosh.??

If you have a Mac and want an external drive. Buy Firewire. It's faster than USB. But USB would work. Using an external drive and heat produced by the computer are totally un-related.

If you are doing software development I could not think of a nicer environment than Mac OS X. First off OS X is BSD UNIX. All of the UNIX tools are available. TCP/IP stacks were running on BSD UNIX long before there was a company called "Microsoft". On top of the UNIX base Apple has added lots of nice stuff for programmers. First off there is "Apple script" which lets you program the user interfaces of most programs. There are many interpeted languages available and most compiled ones too. There is a visual interface builder that works with serveral languages.

Al the Mac development stuff is free and comes with the basic OS or yui can download it. No need to sed Apple any extra money.

Windows on a Mac works just like Windows. Any software you have should work fine. Also there is "Wine" which is the Win-32 API under Mac OS-X. Much of your CPP code may compile native on the Mac if you have Wine.

 

[chronox]

hey thanks for the information guyz. Its helping..
iW00t: yea, i decided to wait for leopard and the new line of MBP speculated to launch endofspring. Thanks for your honest replies. Meanwhile im going through the Xcode .. to get myself accustomed.

its a shame that bootcamp doesnt allow booting xp off an external drive. Parallels does permit this. Im hoping this to get in leopard! Does that mean, for using multiple OS.. i gotta have 3 partitions for win/linux/macos??

I used to have a vaio that actually had a decent feature that wud enable us to choose integrated gfx ..or VRam. helps when it comes to power saving.

ChrisA: the dev tool list you laid out is good news. i wonder tho, as would it be as simple as creating a small window in VB...
I use CPP mainly for automated appz using mostly APIs w/o any GUI.

 

[RojoLeo]

Hi guys..
im new here, im one of those 1000s who are switching to mac since its Intel support. I am very desparate to buy the MacBook pro c2d 15" with 256mbvram.

I just made this same switch, from a Vaio to the same MBP. Welcome.

Bootcamp? Ive read reports that running windows on macbookpro via bootcamp would cause some real heating problems. I dont kno much about hardware, but i was thinking is it possible to get an external USB HDD, maybe a 80GB, and install windows over it. I kno that a PC would boot over via USB, but would MBP?

I haven't had any heating issues. I personally would recommend partitioning off 32gb of your HD (step up to the 160gb) for Windows and using an external drive that you can use with both Windows and Mac.

its a shame that bootcamp doesnt allow booting xp off an external drive. Parallels does permit this. Im hoping this to get in leopard! Does that mean, for using multiple OS.. i gotta have 3 partitions for win/linux/macos??

Yes, you must have a partition for each OS. And although possible, it is a bit tricky to get 3 supported with BootCamp.

My Vaio had an option of choosing between intel's integrated gfx and the vram. So when im gaming only then i use vram. Is this possible in macbook via software?

There is no integrated gfx with the MBP. You mentioned battery power, but are you honestly gaming while untethered?

I code alot of simple applications for simple use... like i'd code a gadget for vista in delphi(pascal)/ Visual Basic to display any information... ( endless possibilities, i havent ATM but i'd like to).
Do we have such freedom in mac? coding simple Object application?? Like an expense program, my medical doc. ?
And is there any equivalent to VisualStudio / Delphi or something that would let be create personal apps natively on a machintosh.??

This depends entirely on what your purpose for coding is. Personally, I code asp.net web applications and must rely on Visual Studio 2005 and SQL. So BootCamp and WindowsXP are the perfect solution for me. However, the type of applications you mentioned above seem to be specific to the user experience of the OS. In which case you'll find coding these types of apps for the Mac to be very pleasant. If you need to program for Windows, take the time to boot into Windows and use a proper program.

lastly.. well, this is just a curious question.. and i kno that mac isnt for gaming,, but how would a mbp c2d perform against an HP or a dell with similar configurations. ?? im regular in CS:S / battlefield/ GTA etc.. etc.. i play casually but i'd like to think that i could play a new game if it comes out.

You'll have absolutely no problems with the games you mentioned above. I've played all of them flawlessly. Of course it's no desktop, but you really can't ask for better game performance without paying considerably more.

its just that i wana decide between a MB or a MBP.

If you do want to game, and cost isn't a real concern, go with the MBP.

You should at least wait till Leopard is out, word has it that new lines of Macs will be released then to coincide with its release. You don't want to pay top dollar for a top of the line machine (since Apple has no such thing as a 1.66ghz Macbook Pro by the way) for only the next 6-8 weeks don't you?

I have to disagree with this. Chances are, you're going to want to wait at least a few weeks/months before adopting the new OS so any bugs can be worked out. And you're talking about $120. Hell, I got Apple to take off another $75 without asking for it when I mentioned I might cancel my order because it was taking so long. Don't deny yourself the fun for a mere 100 bucks.

Buy Firewire. It's faster than USB.

Actually, this is true for a Mac. On a Mac, both Firewire 400 and 800 are faster, but benchmarks show that USB 2.0 is faster than Firewire 400 on a PC. Go figure. They just implement the technology differently. Check it out.

 

[Scarlet Fever]

i think the mac version of VisualBasic is RealBasic

 

[CaptainHaddock]

Apple: No options. That is the price of simplicity

Macs aren't designed to run Windows.

It will be slower, the GPU on the Macbook Pro is underclocked and running below stock configuration. It is a known fact.

Untrue.

 

[chronox]

RealBasic looks sweet. I guess this would meet my needs. The reason im waiting for leopard is for the Bootcamp and its support for Vista.

Im really encouraged, and all set to get it.

 

[RojoLeo]

RealBasic looks sweet. I guess this would meet my needs. The reason im waiting for leopard is for the Bootcamp and its support for Vista.

Im really encouraged, and all set to get it.

I've been using Vista Business since it was officially released and I refuse to install it on any other machines, and I will be reverting my pc back to WindowsXP this week.

I've given it a fair chance, I've tried to make use of some of the really cool new features, I use the sidebar a lot, but the stability is absolutely horrible. Visual Studio 2005 crashes constantly. Acrobat refuses to work. Dreamweaver crashes if I try to save a file to my secondary hard drive. Word crashes if I have my printer set as the default printer. Lots and lots of little quirky things like that. I'll give it another try in a couple of years.

Also, Vista will work with Tiger and this version of BootCamp, although not "officially" supported.

Edit: they just released BootCamp 1.2. It IS now officially supported.