Macbook Air 11" 2012 Windows 8 Questions?

[sw6lee]

I am currently running mountain lion on my macbook 2012 11inch version, and I am very looking forward to mavericks due to increased battery life and reduced cpu usage.

However, my android devices and macbook really don't go well together in my opinion, so I'm thinking of installing windows 8 or 8.1 via bootcamp.

First of all, I'm pretty new to mac, so just wondering, if bootcamp is same as completely installing the operating system..

Also, I am very concerned about battery life on windows 8 or 8.1 on 11 inch 2012 macbook air. I get usually 5 hours on my mba on mountain lion when around medium brightness, and just web surfing, sometimes youtube videos, and usually non intensive cpu usage is going on.

However, I have heard that battery life on mac is horrible when running windows. Is windows 8 the same? How about 8.1? is battery life improved on mac do you think with windows 8.1?

Oh one more thing, I have a 128gb version, and I have currently 64gb left. Do you think I can install windows 8 or 8.1? Will I have almost no storage left?


Thanks so much!

 

[ritmomundo]

However, my android devices and macbook really don't go well together in my opinion, so I'm thinking of installing windows 8 or 8.1 via bootcamp.

I don't have much experience with bootcamp, so I can't answer those questions, but what issues are you having between your android devices and OS X?

 

[sw6lee]

I don't have much experience with bootcamp, so I can't answer those questions, but what issues are you having between your android devices and OS X?

Thanks for your reply.

I have actually posted a question related to the problems with this, but didn't really get resolved. so I am very keen on smoothness of browser, and to me, Safari is the only smooth browser on my mac. But there are not many options to sync tabs and bookmarks with my Safari on mac and an android browser for my phone and tab. I tried Dolphin Connect, but it does not sync bookmark with Safari, and only syncs tabs. I tried using DeliciousSafari on my safari and using droidlicous on my android, but still it doesn't seem like an ideal solution for me.

Chrome on mac is too choppy even after changing setting in "flags". The initial scrolling before completely loading a webpage is very choppy, where safari is very smooth. Firefox is even worse on mac imo. But I believe both chrome and firefox are very smooth on windows. Especially, I remember having a very smooth experience with firefox on windows last time I was using windows.

This web browser syncing is what's really bugging me. Really thinking of getting iPad mini 2 when it comes out, and selling my nexus 7. However, if running windows on my mba 2012 11" will solve the issue without much sacrifices, that's another good option for me I think.

 

[Mrbobb]

64GB is gonna be iffy guy, I have read people installing Win7 and BAM! right on top they lose 48 GB. I have no idea why it takes so much space but that's what I read.

Now you are aware with bootcamp you cannot share data between Win and OSX. If you want to share data between the 2 OS, you have to use and purchase a separate virtual machine thingy like Parallel.

 

[sw6lee]

64GB is gonna be iffy guy, I have read people installing Win7 and BAM! right on top they lose 48 GB. I have no idea why it takes so much space but that's what I read.

Now you are aware with bootcamp you cannot share data between Win and OSX. If you want to share data between the 2 OS, you have to use and purchase a separate virtual machine thingy like Parallel.

Oh my..48gb. that's crazy. I wonder if it's the same for windows 8 or 8.1 I heard the hardware requirement is reduced for these. Still. I think I guess I don't think 64gb will be enough though..I guess I will have to get an ipad mini. But now what would I do with my new android phone. have to sell that as well or something..ahh

 

[MrGimper]

Oh my..48gb. that's crazy. I wonder if it's the same for windows 8 or 8.1 I heard the hardware requirement is reduced for these. Still. I think I guess I don't think 64gb will be enough though..I guess I will have to get an ipad mini. But now what would I do with my new android phone. have to sell that as well or something..ahh

To give you an idea, I have a Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit VM running in VMware Fusion.

It's using 30GB of a 60GB partition, and this VM has Office 2013 and Visual Studio installed. Take 7GB off for those two apps/suites, then you're looking at about 23GB for a vanilla Win 8.1 install.

 

[sw6lee]

To give you an idea, I have a Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit VM running in VMware Fusion.

It's using 30GB of a 60GB partition, and this VM has Office 2013 and Visual Studio installed. Take 7GB off for those two apps/suites, then you're looking at about 23GB for a vanilla Win 8.1 install.

Hmm.. I have heard of VMware, but never used it before. Is it actually installing it in the computer, or it's just a server? I'm downloading the trial right now to see, but going very slowly right now. And I'm wondering if the performance on Windows is as smooth on VMware as on actual windows machine.

Thanks.

 

[MrGimper]

Hmm.. I have heard of VMware, but never used it before. Is it actually installing it in the computer, or it's just a server? I'm downloading the trial right now to see, but going very slowly right now. And I'm wondering if the performance on Windows is as smooth on VMware as on actual windows machine.

Thanks.

My reply was to give you a realistic size of a standard Windows 8.1 install, so you could gauge the size of your BootCamp partition.....

However, on the subject of VMware, they make numerous products. Server products such as ESXi, and workstation products like Workstation (Windows) and Fusion (Mac).

I use Fusion on my Air and iMac. I find it fantastic and have experienced no issues running Windows. The only reason you'd need to run BootCamp is if you need all your machine resources dedicated 100% to windows, and graphic intensive apps.

 

[Acorn]

Ive used both bootcamp and parallels. if you boot into bootcamp its just like a normal windows install. everything is quick and fast like you would expect. if you use parallels its a bit different. your using the parallels graphics driver which is not as good as native. however you can get by doing most things even some light gaming.

you can even do both. have a bootcamp partition and then install parallels pointing to your bootcamp drive. so you can choose which one depending on what your needs are for that day. the only downside is you have to activate windows twice. this usually works without issue but if you have a oem version of windows and something happens to your windows partition and you have to activate one or two more times it will fail. then you have to call microsoft and its a bit of a hassle. best thing is to use winclone to back up your windows partition once everything is activated.

 

[sw6lee]

Okay.. i think it may be a bit too much work..and not sure what I should do..Thanks guys anyway for your replies. I think I will just get an ipad mini 2 when I get a chance. Was going to get a new android tablet anyway, and if I buy a new android tablet like LG G Pad 8.3 ($350), then also have to pay for Windows, so it's more money and even more hassle. I can just get an ipad mini and maybe deal with not syncing my phone, as it's only 8gb (nexus 4) and just my toy for themeing, etc.

Thanks again guys for your help!

 

[Y So Jelly]

64GB is gonna be iffy guy, I have read people installing Win7 and BAM! right on top they lose 48 GB. I have no idea why it takes so much space but that's what I read.

Now you are aware with bootcamp you cannot share data between Win and OSX. If you want to share data between the 2 OS, you have to use and purchase a separate virtual machine thingy like Parallel.

Windows 7 takes something like 10 GB minimum. The rest is storage partition.


You can read files between Windows and OSX but no editing. This is fine for playing music, watching movies etc.

 

[ritmomundo]

Thanks for your reply.

I have actually posted a question related to the problems with this, but didn't really get resolved. so I am very keen on smoothness of browser, and to me, Safari is the only smooth browser on my mac. But there are not many options to sync tabs and bookmarks with my Safari on mac and an android browser for my phone and tab. I tried Dolphin Connect, but it does not sync bookmark with Safari, and only syncs tabs. I tried using DeliciousSafari on my safari and using droidlicous on my android, but still it doesn't seem like an ideal solution for me.

Chrome on mac is too choppy even after changing setting in "flags". The initial scrolling before completely loading a webpage is very choppy, where safari is very smooth. Firefox is even worse on mac imo. But I believe both chrome and firefox are very smooth on windows. Especially, I remember having a very smooth experience with firefox on windows last time I was using windows.

This web browser syncing is what's really bugging me. Really thinking of getting iPad mini 2 when it comes out, and selling my nexus 7. However, if running windows on my mba 2012 11" will solve the issue without much sacrifices, that's another good option for me I think.

I haven't used it personally, but a coworker told me he uses an application called Xmarks and it works well for him (Safari on his MacBook Pro, syncs with Chrome on his Droid). Maybe give that a try, see if it meets your needs.

Edit: Sorry, I looked into that more, and it looks like you would need to subscribe to Xmarks premium ($12/year) for features like open tab sync and use on a mobile device. I was under the impression it would be a free solution, but its not.

Edit 2: Alternatively, and this might seem like more work than its worth, I think you can install the Xmarks extension (free version) in Safari and Chrome on your mac. Leave Chrome running all the time, and as you use Safari, it will sync with Chrome. Then use Chrome's built-in sync features to sync tabs and bookmarks with Chrome on your Android. It seems like it would work, in theory.

 

[sw6lee]

I haven't used it personally, but a coworker told me he uses an application called Xmarks and it works well for him (Safari on his MacBook Pro, syncs with Chrome on his Droid). Maybe give that a try, see if it meets your needs.

Edit: Sorry, I looked into that more, and it looks like you would need to subscribe to Xmarks premium ($12/year) for features like open tab sync and use on a mobile device. I was under the impression it would be a free solution, but its not.

Edit 2: Alternatively, and this might seem like more work than its worth, I think you can install the Xmarks extension (free version) in Safari and Chrome on your mac. Leave Chrome running all the time, and as you use Safari, it will sync with Chrome. Then use Chrome's built-in sync features to sync tabs and bookmarks with Chrome on your Android. It seems like it would work, in theory.

Hmm.. your Edit 2 solution is actually very very interesting! Yea I didn't use Xmarks because it was a subscription based app. If it was one time payment, I would definitely buy it. Also, I didn't know that Xmarks would sync tabs as well? I thought it was only bookmarks.

Although..not sure 100% how Xmarks works as of yet, as I was just thinking, In order to sync tabs with my android phone using Chrome, then the tabs that I want to sync have to be open on Chrome. That means I need to open up websites on both Safari (because I'm using it on my mac) and Chrome (in order to sync) so that I can access that website on my phone/tablet.

But I think there might be a better solution. I can use dolphin on my android, so dolphin syncs TABS with my Safari perfectly, so I can do that. But for bookmarks, I can use, as you said, use Xmarks both on Safari and Chrome, to sync them, and the bookmarks on Chrome for mac will sync with Dolphin for Android, because Dolphin syncs both tabs and bookmarks with Chrome on mac. I think this is a good solution!

I will try it and let you know. Thanks a lot!

 

[ritmomundo]

Hmm.. your Edit 2 solution is actually very very interesting! Yea I didn't use Xmarks because it was a subscription based app. If it was one time payment, I would definitely buy it. Also, I didn't know that Xmarks would sync tabs as well? I thought it was only bookmarks.

Although..not sure 100% how Xmarks works as of yet, as I was just thinking, In order to sync tabs with my android phone using Chrome, then the tabs that I want to sync have to be open on Chrome. That means I need to open up websites on both Safari (because I'm using it on my mac) and Chrome (in order to sync) so that I can access that website on my phone/tablet.

But I think there might be a better solution. I can use dolphin on my android, so dolphin syncs TABS with my Safari perfectly, so I can do that. But for bookmarks, I can use, as you said, use Xmarks both on Safari and Chrome, to sync them, and the bookmarks on Chrome for mac will sync with Dolphin for Android, because Dolphin syncs both tabs and bookmarks with Chrome on mac. I think this is a good solution!

I will try it and let you know. Thanks a lot!

No prob. I hope it works. It's a bit of work to set up, but if it works smoothly, it'll be worth it.

 

[sw6lee]

No prob. I hope it works. It's a bit of work to set up, but if it works smoothly, it'll be worth it.

It worked very well! BUT..as Xmarks users probably know right now, that Xmarks doesn't work with Safari on Mavericks.. So it worked for a few days and not it doesn't again.. lol Will wait until they fix Xmarks.

 

[ritmomundo]

It worked very well! BUT..as Xmarks users probably know right now, that Xmarks doesn't work with Safari on Mavericks.. So it worked for a few days and not it doesn't again.. lol Will wait until they fix Xmarks.

Glad to hear it! Hopefully they'll come out with an update soon.