New to Mac - Boot Camp/Windows XP question

[snowwing]

I will receive my 13" MBP this week and I have a couple of questions. Will this version of XP work for me? http://www.compusa.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2552182&CatId=672 The reason I ask is that there are so many different prices from different vendors - very confusing. My new machine will come with Parallels software - do I still need a copy of XP? and will it run simultaneously with OSX (4gb RAM) Would "Open Office" for Mac read my original Excel and Word files?
Thanks for the advice - I did search but didn't find a difinitive answer!
RC

 

[alphaod]

Yes that copy will work on your computer, but be warned that it is an OEM copy which means once you install it on your Mac, it's pretty much locked to that computer and if you switch computers you're suppose to buy another copy. Of course Microsoft doesn't really re-enforce this.

As with Parallels, that's just a virtualization software which allows you to run another OS (ie: Windows) inside of OS X. It does not contain any OSes within itself. With Boot Camp you need to reboot the computer and Windows runs in-place of OS X.

And yes Open Office should open up your Word and Excel documents without any issues. You just don't get the frills of Office, but it gets things done.