Macbook Pro Help

[intellectual]

I am about to purchase a macbook pro with all likelihood and had a few concerns that I am in need of adive on. I am new to the Mac Operating System, usually mostly Windows and a bit of Linux and had some questions on a few things:

My questions are:
1. As I am going to college for engineering I will need Windows with bootcamp/ Parallels, what kind of battery life does the new macbook pros, 15 inch run while under bootcamp with Vista/XP and does the batery life decrease with Parallels/ VM fusion open.

2. Are there ever any problems with licensing or any major flaws with bootcamp/ Parallels that cause programs not to work.

3. Does Office 08 suck, that is a bit of a concern for me as I do like Office 07 on my Windows machine.

Thank-you for any answers you can give!

 

[komiothebeat]

1. haven't had any problems running programs in parallels, i was using XP since there were problems with the programs i was using and windows vista ( i was using 3D studio max, some of the shaders and whatnot weren't compatible with vista or something just wouldn't open.

2. This was what screwed up my final project for college,,... i had 3d studio max open and one of my teachers advised me yo install fusion so i could use 3d studio max on the mac side through windows.. DOING THIS SCREWED UP THE LICENSE !!! every time i opened the program it was saying invalid license and wouldn't allow the program to open completely, was unusable. so for this i would recommend just using boot camp (comes free already installed on macs

3. this one is just my opinion, i prefer the iwork suite opposed to the office suite but thats just me seems nicer to me

 

[GimmeSlack12]

Office 08 sucks. I just can't justify not telling you this. I would just install Office 07 on the Parallels side of things, or use Office 04 for Mac. I cannot stand how often Office 08 on Mac likes to flip out on you and just how annoying and unnacceptable it is (and don't even get me started with the Spaces compatibility).

 

[Jethryn Freyman]

My questions are:
1. As I am going to college for engineering I will need Windows with bootcamp/ Parallels, what kind of battery life does the new macbook pros, 15 inch run while under bootcamp with Vista/XP and does the batery life decrease with Parallels/ VM fusion open.

There's a decrease in battery life, as you're using more resources.

2. Are there ever any problems with licensing or any major flaws with bootcamp/ Parallels that cause programs not to work.

Not with Boot Camp, as it's a full normal copy of Windows running on generic hardware. Most things are fine with Parallels.

3. Does Office 08 suck, that is a bit of a concern for me as I do like Office 07 on my Windows machine.!

It's good.