Parallels and XP?

[jefflemon]

Hi,

I was thinking about buying parallels to test my sites in ie 6 etc. I want to use it with XP but im so confused as to what copy of xp to get (its for a business btw) also is there a better way to do it other than buying parallels?

Thanks

 

[edesignuk]

Parallels or VMware will do you just fine.

Any version of XP will do, it just need to be a full copy of Home or Professional. You can pick either up pretty cheap on eBay brand new I think.

 

[atlanticza]

You could always try VirtualBox - it's free too. See this thread.

VirtualBox runs on Windows, Linux, Macintosh and OpenSolaris hosts and supports a large number of guest operating systems including but not limited to Windows (NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista), DOS/Windows 3.x, Linux (2.4 and 2.6), and OpenBSD.

 

[SrWebDeveloper]

VirtualBox is in beta for Mac OS X as host.

I run Parallels with a cheap OEM version of XP Home and it works quite well in full screen and coherence modes (sharing content between Mac and XP including shared folders and literally copy/paste or drag/drop between OS's, super cool). If you're into more advanced software and need Direct-X support go with VM Ware Fusion as it's slightly better in that regard, otherwise the features between the two are similar. If you opt to run Vista, I suggest 4GB RAM on your Mac and set aside some addition partition space if you use bootcamp.

There is a whole forum for this kind of thing on MacRumors, check it out.

-jim