Parallels / windows to mac

I'm not sure exactly how parallels does it, but vmware (fusion) has a converter that will create a virtual machine that is a clone of your existing computer, assuming that it can be seen on a network. You don't need to install windows ahead of time (you are using the OS from the target machine).

I would imagine that parallels has a similar tool.

Hope this helps

Kev

 

have fun running photoshop in a VM.

 

you're right - it probably wouldn't be great, but with 2 cores allocated, you might get acceptable performance. After all that is pretty subjective from a user perspective.

 

why don't get the Mac Version instead? running them on a virtual machine will add another layer to the OS that will have to run the VM and the application

 

It can be done over a home network, can be either wired or wifi. Basically with both the host machine and target machine online, you run the converter from the host machine. You just need to give the converter the username and password for the administrator account (in Windows, an account that can install software), and basically follow the dialog boxes and let it run. In most cases it takes about an hour or so for the converter to run.

BTW - This is vmWare specific, since I am not a parallels user. vmWare Fusion and Parallels are both virtualization hypervisors. Also, VirtualBox is a free alternative that you might consider if you are planning to use a windows virtual machine.

Once you convert the windows machine to a virtual machine, you don't need to continue to use it if you wish, you would just launch the virtual machine on the Mac. For instance on my MBA, I have VMs for Win 7, Win 8, and Fedora (I use all of these for work...)

Hope this isn't too confusing

 

The default Mail App isn't bad, but to be honest, I prefer Outlook, so that is what I use (the Mac version). In my Win 7 VM I primarily use MS Project and MS Visio, since I don't have Mac counterparts to those apps.

 

All in all, it really is fairly easy. For Linux distributions, I just download them to a thumb drive, and select create new vm, and point vmware to the installation files. It will give you some choices for system configuration (CPU cores, RAM allocations, etc). Usually I just accept the defaults and let it run.

Running the converter actually takes a little more time and patience than creating a new vm from scratch, but the trade off is that you have a clone of your original system with all the applications installed. Of course, the fact that I use vmWare at work in an enterprise environment sort of helps...

Kev

 

You can install Windows by Boot Camp. The performance will be much better.

----------

Of course your Windows network will recognise your mac.

 

That is certainly a viable option, and performance would be better under bootcamp, but for me, not having to reboot to change operating systems is more convenient and worth the performance hit. For my specific usage, the performance of the vm is more than adequate, since none of my applications are very resource intensive. The majority of the time I am using a 2011 MBA, and have no issues.

 

I'm also in the process of switching from PC to Mac (used both platforms between 2006 and 2010) and would recommend purchasing Mac versions of currently used programs wherever possible, reserving emulation for irreplaceable PC-only stuff. Me, I'm heavily invested in Citavi for reference management and can't do without Paint.NET for occasional image editing.

Granted, seamlessness costs money, and apart from Office there's nothing else on the software side that'll involve a big outlay for me. So it's easy for me to preach consolidation.

Oh, and don't rule out VMware!

 

Now that you're offically in the mac club, just a quick pointer:

MAC = Media Access Control - and is a unique address for network devices
Mac = (Apple) Macintosh

I promise this is in no way intended to be a b*tchy post and is only for infos sake. You're probably having second thoughts about moving over now - but I just can't help myself...

On your main question, if you have your installation disks for the windows software I really think you'd benefit from installing windows fresh on a new VM on your new mac. That way you don't have any of the legacy bloat that might slow down the system and give your apps the best chance to run smoothly on top of OSX. I good feature of both parallels and fusion is the integrated mode where it effectively runs the apps in OSX rather than needing you to 'boot up' the VM and work fully immersed in the windows environment. Which makes it nicer experience in my opinion.

Richard.