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skibob1027

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 8, 2006
78
0
Illinois
I just bought my first Mac (and Intel iMac) about 4 months ago. When I bought it, I immediately purchased a copy of Windows to install on it - fearing compatibility issues with my other PCs. It took me about 3 weeks to really get comfortable using Mac OS X, and to become an "fluent" with it as I am with Windows - but now, I've realized that I don't even use Windows anymore! Has anyone else shared this experience?
 
I've recently installed Windows on my MacBook, and I've been using the Windows more for the past week. But that's because I'm playin the sims and doing some Inventor work. Otherwise I'm on OSX, nothin' beats OSX. I'm getting problems left and right here, but that was expected, I know what Windows is like.
 
I have Parallels Desktop + Windows XP Pro installed and I've used it twice. Once when I first installed it to chuck all the XP updates on, and install a virus checker. The second time was to do my tax online. I wont need to use Windows again until tax time comes round again this time next year.
 
risc said:
I have Parallels Desktop + Windows XP Pro installed and I've used it twice. Once when I first installed it to chuck all the XP updates on, and install a virus checker. The second time was to do my tax online. I wont need to use Windows again until tax time comes round again this time next year.

That seems almost justifiable to install Windows. What do you use that needs windows to do taxes?
 
SamIchi said:
I've recently installed Windows on my MacBook, and I've been using the Windows more for the past week. But that's because I'm playin the sims and doing some Inventor work. Otherwise I'm on OSX, nothin' beats OSX. I'm getting problems left and right here, but that was expected, I know what Windows is like.

Holy cow, you just gave me a reason to boot into Windows! I totally forgot that I even owned a copy of The Sims 2 - because my old Toshiba laptop had such a hard time running it! I'll have to dig it up and install it!
 
skibob1027 said:
Holy cow, you just gave me a reason to boot into Windows! I totally forgot that I even owned a copy of The Sims 2 - because my old Toshiba laptop had such a hard time running it! I'll have to dig it up and install it!

Yea I was just playin' and I got the BSOD, and I was in the process of changing my whole house. I didn't get to save. hours of work down the drain.Oh well.

risc said:
In Australia the Australian Tax Office eTax application is Windows only.

That suxxors.
 
SamIchi said:
Yea I was just playin' and I got the BSOD, and I was in the process of changing my whole house. I didn't get to save. hours of work down the drain.Oh well.

Ahh, that sucks really bad. My old Toshiba laptop had a really bad overheating problem when running anything even remotely graphics-intensive. Rather than a BSOD, it would just simply trigger the thermostat and crash - and I wouldn't be able to restart it for about an hour. So, number one reason I switched to a Mac...

- Better hardware!
 
I generally boot into windows with bootcamp 3-4 times a week on my MBP to play Counter-Strike: Source, not some big cs guy just like to play alot it's fun. The only reason I have windows on my MacBook Pro is to play games not available on the mac or games that I played before I switched.
 
I had parallels to run a few very old windows games, but as much as I would love to be windows free I unfortunately have to use windows at work :mad:

Nice to see most people just do it for a few rare apps or games!
 
Quite often actually....

Instaid of a paragraph explaining why/what i use windows on my 2ghz MBP i'll make a list, with brief reasoning where nessisary:

  • MS Visual Studio .Net (um, this one should be simple)
  • Star Wars: Galaxies (no mac version, if there was i'd use it)
  • Adobe Photoshop CS2 (because it's lightyears faster than on OSX atm, get off your toukas' Adobe!)
  • F.E.A.R. (again no mac version)
  • Absolute Poker (to feed my TX Hold'em obsession, no decent online poker client for mac, that i've found)
  • Vegas Video (now, let the flaming begin, but seriously i like how it works and i've got tons of scripts for it)
  • The Sims 2 (i've got all the games and all the expansions, i'm not gonna buy it again for OSX until most of them are avail in a pack for under $60)

So now the question is how often. Well when ever i need to use any of the above apps or games, thats when I do so. But when i'm done i quickly scurry back to the OSX that i've grown to love.
 
It depends really for me. I am using it maybe a bit more than what i normally would do now because i quite frequently watch Big Brother UK via live stream (hooked up to my tv/monitor) on XP as it is not compatible with Mac OS.It is something to do with the licensing policy and copyright, they will not allow it to play via Flip4Mac or on Mac software. Basically i use Windows Media Player for some things that will not work on Mac OS.

I also sometimes use it for MSN messenger sometimes once a week maybe more or maybe less and I also use it for MSN Paint sometimes if i want to edit something as sometimes i find it easier to use that than Preview.
 
Well, once I get a big enough hard drive on my MB (60 GB just isnt big enough for dual boot) I will be installing XP. Mainly for games that I've already bought - and other games that havent come out on OSX/run better in Windows.

On the other hand, I hardly ever game apart from emulators. And when I get a 360/Wii I doubt I'll use my MB at all for games.
 
i installed it in my mac mini right after bootcamp came out. Installed the updates and couple of programs that i needed, but right after that i found missingsync is what i need windows for because of my treo 650. not i NEVER boot back into it. i was going to look into how to remove it to regain the space back. asta windows!
 
I only use Windows to play games and once in awhile for Visio, but other than that I always use Mac OS X, as it is far superior.
 
I have parallels. I use windows solely to check web-design works on IE6. That's about it... :)

Though I'm not anti M$, it's just other than for that purpose I have no need to use it.
 
I use XP about 4 days a week. Years of stock information is in MS Money and my financial information is in Quicken. Neither of these programs a perfect, but can't find anything close to them on the Mac.

Yes, Intuit has a Quicken for Mac, but it is far behind the PC version and converting is not made easy or accurate by Quicken. Microsoft will never make MS Money for Mac.

Been using Bootcamp because I've been unable to get Parallels to easily backup to external drive or external DVD writer. Need to make daily back ups and it is so much easier with Bootcamp
 
Unfortunately I have to use it everyday when I'm in production to run a high end MPEG2 video encoder and a DVD weblink generator. Both programs are only available for PC, so I gotta do what I gotta do. I'd rather run Apple versions, but Compressor just isn't nearly as good as the encoders available for PCs.
 
I rarely use Windooze in my MB. Only when I need to use DVD Shrink to cut some parts of my DVD collection as a backup. I wish there was something similar for OSX too. If I find a similar freeware for OSX I`ll not use windooze at all.
 
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