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MacBook Pro Bootcamp v dedicated Windows Laptop
- Thread starter TJ82
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My main reason is that I only need one computer to have both operating systems. Some of my Macs have Parallels for Windows, and some use Bootcamp. They all work very good and I can switch back and forth with both operating systems. You cannot do that with a Windows only computer. I have some applications that just work better and have more features using Windows.
Main disadvantage is that the drivers are only barebones and many of advantages of a Mac go every when you use bootcamp (e.g. battery life). If you want to use Windows exclusively, I wouldn't get a Mac laptop (a Mac mini is a different matter though). What Surface model are you looking at?
If all you want to do is run Windows then the disadvantage of a Mac is cost. Why buy a nice Mac is you don't plan to run macOS? However, if you want both macOS and Windows, then I would suggest using virtualization like Parallels and get the best of both worlds, fully integrated side by side, without needing to reboot.
Looking at the Surface Laptop i5 model, latest version.
All our devices are Apple. Watches, Airpods, phones.. and have always had MacBook Pro’s for over 10 years now.
Work always uses windows though and things like excel on it seems different to Mac OS version. Working from home using virtualisation software like Citrix is a bit trickier on Mac. Seems the software for Mac gets updated more slowly.
But it’s liveable. Wondering if life with Mac accessories and phones would be a pain if I got the Surface laptop..
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Never been a fan of parallels. Just never gelled with me. Would rather boot over from experience. Maybe latest parallels is much nicer than what’s I was using 4 or 5 years ago, but still not up for it
I'm really interested to know how Parallels 15 handles Excel calculating.
I'm likely going to go that route and get best of both worse with a Boot Camp environment through Parallels. If I'm going to be working in Windows for an hour or two I'll boot into it it but if I just need to hop in Excel for 10 minutes I'll use Parallels.
I'm likely going to go that route and get best of both worse with a Boot Camp environment through Parallels. If I'm going to be working in Windows for an hour or two I'll boot into it it but if I just need to hop in Excel for 10 minutes I'll use Parallels.
What does your Mac do that keeps you on it as your preferred OS? Why not simply stay on windows if it has a productivity advantage I mean..
Why not just run Excel on the Mac. If you have an Office 365 subscription it covers all platforms, all products.
unless you are a niche user like me, you will spend more money trying to run both OS at the savings of carrying one machine. I game in Windows and work in Mac. So, my boot camp instance is highly customized to my eGPU setup.
I do 80% of my work on the road with nothing else, so my MBP is loaded. When I get home, I can fire up the eGPU and have at it... if I want to game, boot into windows with my eGPU plugged in and rock those FPS... I am sure it would be cheaper to just have a gaming PC sitting next to my desk and just use a KVM switch but there was something to getting all this working on one machine that I found challenging... completely wasteful but my goal is niche as I said.
In the end, do you want a windows machine or do you just need windows to do specific tasks. If it is the later, fire up boot camp, buy a Pro license and make sure your MBP has a 1TB SSD. It's a 20 second process and windows is a monster on the MBP until you hit the thermal throttling (if you run it hard)
I do 80% of my work on the road with nothing else, so my MBP is loaded. When I get home, I can fire up the eGPU and have at it... if I want to game, boot into windows with my eGPU plugged in and rock those FPS... I am sure it would be cheaper to just have a gaming PC sitting next to my desk and just use a KVM switch but there was something to getting all this working on one machine that I found challenging... completely wasteful but my goal is niche as I said.
In the end, do you want a windows machine or do you just need windows to do specific tasks. If it is the later, fire up boot camp, buy a Pro license and make sure your MBP has a 1TB SSD. It's a 20 second process and windows is a monster on the MBP until you hit the thermal throttling (if you run it hard)
Biggest issue, unless it has changed is lack of native multi touch drivers. Makes the OS rather cumbersome to use.
+1 for Parallels for me too. I really like it, I have 4 apps I need Windows 10 for. It's plenty fast enough for business use. Excel runs well on it. The integration with Mac (copy and paste, on same desktop if you want, etc. etc.) is great. I use touch pad exclusively, no mouse at all, without issue. I originally tried Boot Camp and this is way better imho.
Well I need a personal and work machine. Work machine has to be Windows, but when I'm doing personal stuff I much prefer Mac. I need two machines anyway as I'm not going to co-mingle the two.
It would be nice to not have to carry two laptops on weekend trips, vacations, or just sitting on the couch and having to walk to the office, thus a partition with Windows that I can access Sharepoint and "real" Office apps, as well as handle budgeting and other Excel stuff i have for personal things.
Excel on Mac is not viable. There are things it simply can't do like VBA, and then the alt shortcuts are just completely gone. I'd also like to map the keyboard to mirror a windows keyboard which I could do in a VM. I think you could do this on a Mac but not sure if I could get it just the way I want. I want F2 to be F2, not raise brightness.
It sounds like boot camp is the way to go. Just make sure you have at least a 1TB SSD in the machine. Also, find a good mouse that can serve both masters (logitech has a few good ones). Run the May 2019 Win version (1903). Go with Pro and do what I did, hook up a 365 subscription... you can run the Office apps in both instances (I use OneDrive to simplify moving files from each partition safely).
I may flip my 2019 MBP for the new 16" if it offers a bit more under the hood... but my current 2019 (which I undersized due to poor planning on my part) is fine and can run most everything at PC levels (yup, even my eGPU with the Rad vii runs at levels that are totally competitive)
Another vote for Parallels. Gave my work back the XPS 15 and now I program with Visual Studio 2019 and run Windows almost as good as native. I can test our app heavily for hours with no lag. Love having one computer. It even plays Age of Empires 2 on steam acceptably. Lol
Why the need for 1TB? I keep everything work related on Sharepoint cloud (Sharepoint = Onedrive for business...confusing as hell). I will occasionally keep something local but never more than 50 MB.
I thought VBA was supported on the Mac. And with the new MBPs with the touchbar I am pretty sure you can map any of the virtual keys to whatever you want.
Still, I understand the attraction of Parallels. I have a subscription. But I am thinking about dropping it and getting back the disk space. I already have windows machines and Office365 on the Mac meets my needs as well as it does on the my Windows 10 desktop
+1 for Parallels as well. I gave up my Thinkpad a few years ago when Parallels got to the point where I didn't notice any difference running Windows natively. And it's nice to be able to do things like share files, clipboard, etc. between the two seamlessly. It allows me to use the best app on the best platform simultaneously without any compromises.
I love being able to swipe four fingers across the trackpad and just go from Windows to MacOS and vice versa. Still makes me smile sometimes!
I love being able to swipe four fingers across the trackpad and just go from Windows to MacOS and vice versa. Still makes me smile sometimes!
I can finally use iCloud Drive for work and talk to my wife (iMessage).
Makes me smile all day long. I'm going on week 3 of this setup and it has been the greatest thing since sliced bread for me.It is amazing how smoothly it runs - basically natively. It handles massive Visual Studio solutions with ease. I have my work ethernet plugged in via an Anker USB C dongle and the Parallels uses that with ease for our work LAN.
Microsoft Remote Desktop on Mac for RDP'ing into work servers is BEAUTIFUL.
Great question... 512GB was too small for me if I had been smarter and planned correctly. Because of my daily work, I use a lot of samsung x5s (time and materials, so the drive are owned by the client). However, I work on the project on my machine until I deliver... a few copies of video and os x starts to fill up.
1 TB gives you plenty of room to grow if you are going with boot camp. 500gb per partition so you can install games etc on windows and be fine... however, I was an idiot and set up my windows partition and space needs just stupidly...
It's also only 200 bucks more...
I don't know where you live, but here, in western PA, I'm not getting 3GB/s transfer rates from the internet and pulling 100GB virtual machine would take me an hour at least. Maybe we're just behind the rest of the world. And when I travel there are places where I can't get even a single bar on my cell, completely cut off from outside. My current 15 inch laptop has 9.8TB total storage, and I'm 90% full.
Well I'm typically accessing relatively small files. Maybe 20 MB on the high end. No need to store anything local.
My parallels space would basically be Parallels + Windows + Office365 + a few other lightweight programs. Seems like 150GB would be more than enough.
Even with connectivity, I have a chain of custody thing... that's why those Samsung are the bees-knees... but they are expensive af (that's why you plan when getting that SOW in place, cover time and materials folks!).
However, having to move files around at any speed is a step in my workflow that I could have avoided had I not been a dumb-a$$.
Only reason I'd hit up a new MBP is to correct my storage mistake... so, the 3rd year of the 16" might have my name on it.
However, having to move files around at any speed is a step in my workflow that I could have avoided had I not been a dumb-a$$.
Only reason I'd hit up a new MBP is to correct my storage mistake... so, the 3rd year of the 16" might have my name on it.