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For my case, Parallels or Bootcamp?

G

gwelmarten

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 17, 2011
476
0
England!
Hi

I'm buying a MacBook Air for my Mum (13 inch) as she wants a laptop that can go in her handbag so she doesn't want to have a separate bag to carry it around in. She definately wants Windows (says she doesn't want to learn a new OS, even though I tell her it's more like unlearning the counter intuition used in Windows) and so the computer will be running Windows 99.9% of the time.

So, it terms of battery life, compatibility and performance (with battery life been the main thing), and forgetting price, should I install Windows for her in Parallels so that it loads full screen as soon as OS X boots, or should I install it in bootcamp for her? I guess in Bootcamp there's nothing to keep Windows from been it's usual resource guzzling self, but then in OS X you're running a whole another OS.

Thanks for your advice,

Sam
 
Sounds like you should buy some kind of Ultrabook as you'll have nothing but trouble if you try and 'force' the Mac on her. E.g. she'll not like Parallels and if you use Bootcamp she'll just boot into OSX everytime accidentally and not use it!
 
I wouldn't buy Mac hardware unless someone has at least some interest in Mac software. Samsung has some very nice ultrabooks. They even cost less than MBAs. Try to get one with Windows 7, not 8. You should still be able to.
 
angelsguardian said:
Sounds like you should buy some kind of Ultrabook as you'll have nothing but trouble if you try and 'force' the Mac on her. E.g. she'll not like Parallels and if you use Bootcamp she'll just boot into OSX everytime accidentally and not use it!
Click to expand...

I'm not forcing it on her - she wants it because Mac's are built so well. Other ultrabooks are ASUS (pretty ugly computer) and Samsung (as a family we hate Samsung for ripping Apple off). I can set it up to boot into Windows by default on boot camp, so for all intensive purposes it would be a Windows machine.

Sam

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Efrem said:
I wouldn't buy Mac hardware unless someone has at least some interest in Mac software. Samsung has some very nice ultrabooks. They even cost less than MBAs. Try to get one with Windows 7, not 8. You should still be able to.
Click to expand...

But the Mac Hardware is designed so much better and is higher quality. That's why she wants it.
 
Get her to convert to OSX. I did it with my Mrs this year who had previously hated it (never used though) and now hated Windows when I installed Parallels on her Macbook so she could use one thing in particular. She made me remove it 2 days later. Now the only non-Apple IT products are a printer and the ADSL modem. Everything work beautifully.
 
angelsguardian said:
Get her to convert to OSX. I did it with my Mrs this year who had previously hated it (never used though) and now hated Windows when I installed Parallels on her Macbook so she could use one thing in particular. She made me remove it 2 days later. Now the only non-Apple IT products are a printer and the ADSL modem. Everything work beautifully.
Click to expand...

I really can't do that. Main problem is that she will be using it for work which is a load of software which only works for Windows (banking stuff, Sage etc). She knows about OS X and uses it on an iMac at home a bit, but doesn't want to be flicking between an OS for home and an OS for work. So it really is boot camp or parallels.
Sam
 
I need to run Garmin Mapsource which is a Windows-only application, so I'm running Parallels on a 13" MacBook Air with 4GB RAM and 256GB SSD.

I'd say your Mum should find Parallels just fine in terms of operational use and performance. No need to set up separate partition and try to second guess the disk space in advance.

Having the Apple desktop and everything else visible will probably encourage her to gradually migrate her non-proprietary use to Apple apps.
 
Make sure you get Win7. I've got Win8 running in fusion, and it performs great, but the UI is difficult to maneuver on a Mac. I guess I would get used to key mappings eventually, but so far i find it painful to get much of anything done.

I'll agree with others who have suggested that it makes little sense to to buy a Mac that will predominantly run Windows. ASUS makes some nice ultra books, but they seem to have strange distribution. The nicer ones don't seem to make it to the US- not sure what the status is in the UK. Lenovo ThinkPads are quite nice, and the X series is very portable - might want to give those a look.
 
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