Final advice before I dive into Parallels?

[riddle]

I'm a Windows-hater from way back (I was a Unix guy before Mac OS X gave me the best of both worlds). I'm about to finish grad school and fear that I may soon be working in a Windows shop, so I'm thinking this may be a good time to swap my personal PB G4 for an MB or MBP specifically in order to run Parallels. Ideally I'd like to continue using my Mac on the job; if that becomes impossible, then at least I'd be able to bring Windows-dependent work home from the office.

Windows applications I have in mind: at this point I'm thinking Visio and maybe a little ArcGIS, but who knows what else will get thrown at me. I don't anticipate needing any graphically intensive applications (no 3D rendering, etc.)

So before I take the plunge, some questions:

- I need a 2 GB machine so I can give 1 GB to Mac OS X and 1 GB to Windows, right?

- A 2 GHz MacBook should be adequate even if a MacBook Pro would be better, correct?

- Should I stick with XP until and unless my workplace has entirely shifted to Vista?

- Is there any reason to invest in Office for Windows or should it be possible to smoothly move to the Mac environment for Office apps? (I guess this might depend on whether my workplace makes heavy use of Outlook. Ugh. :-( )

- What's a good rule of thumb for the disk requirements of a comfortable Windows partition?

- Any other advice or caveats?

Thanks!

P.S. For anyone wondering about the feasibility of ArcGIS under Parallels, here's a test report: http://listserv.uri.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0609&L=scgis&T=0&P=178

 

[MacsAttack]

I'm a Windows-hater from way back (I was a Unix guy before Mac OS X gave me the best of both worlds). I'm about to finish grad school and fear that I may soon be working in a Windows shop, so I'm thinking this may be a good time to swap my personal PB G4 for an MB or MBP specifically in order to run Parallels. Ideally I'd like to continue using my Mac on the job; if that becomes impossible, then at least I'd be able to bring Windows-dependent work home from the office.

Windows applications I have in mind: at this point I'm thinking Visio and maybe a little ArcGIS, but who knows what else will get thrown at me. I don't anticipate needing any graphically intensive applications (no 3D rendering, etc.)

So before I take the plunge, some questions:

- I need a 2 MB machine so I can give 1 MB to Mac OS X and 1 MB to Windows, right?

I'm using a 1MB MacBook. A VM with 512KB works just fine for me eunning Visual Studio 2005.

More memory will be better though

- A 2 GHz MacBook should be adequate even if a MacBook Pro would be better, correct?

Correct. My 2GHz MacBook works just fine.

- Should I stick with XP until and unless my workplace has entirely shifted to Vista?

Stick with XP.

I mostly use W2K. Old licence scavenged from a machine I retired. No Windows activation nonsense. Not connected to the Web. No securoty wories.

- Is there any reason to invest in Office for Windows or should it be possible to smoothly move to the Mac environment for Office apps? (I guess this might depend on whether my workplace makes heavy use of Outlook. Ugh. :-( )

Unless you need Access, the Mac version of Office is fine - even under Rosseta (if you have 1MB+ of memory)

- What's a good rule of thumb for the disk requirements of a comfortable Windows partition?

8 to 12 GBytes works for me

- Any other advice or caveats?

If you want stability do not use the Beta of Parallels.