Running mainly Windows 7 with Bootcamp?

[mattyb.]

Hello,

I have been a PC user for a while now but I picked up a Macbook Pro 15 Retina this week. I am a big fan of the Apple hardware reliability and speed. However I am not really the biggest fan of OSX and it doesn't run some of the shipping software for my business.

I have been thinking about going pretty much mainly Windows 7 (also didn't want to buy a new PC with Windows 8) on the MBP using bootcamp.

The SSD is at the 758GB. Typically when people do boot camp they do mainly OSX with some Windows leaving a small partition for Windows. Therefore since I am doing the opposite should I go around 600MB for Windows and leave 150MB for OSX for the few times I would maybe want to use it?

Any thoughts?

 

[Verix]

You could use your OS X install DVD and go to utilities->disk utility
there you could create two partitions, one of 600GB and the remaining to the second partition

since you wouldn't have done this with boot camp assistant, you'll have to boot between the two systems by holding shift(option) when the computer boots up, there you'll have to choose between OS X and Windows

there might be other ways around this, like making partitions with boot camp assistant and then using other software to resize both partitions to your needs

also possible would be formatting the entire disk through disk utility and installing just windows on it afterwards, which might be the most hassle-free approach if you don't care about OS X

 

[saturnotaku]

Any thoughts?

Yeah, you made the wrong choice of notebook. Windows doesn't fully play nice with the Retina display as it doesn't support HiDPI, so you'll need to use some form of scaling (set your desktop resolution to 2880x1800, scale at 199%). Your battery life is going to be significantly worse in Windows because the GPU is enabled full time, whereas there's automatic graphic switching in OS X.

If you depend on specific software for your livelihood, it would have made more sense to invest in a business-class notebook (HP Probook/Elitebook, Dell Latitude/Precision, or ThinkPad) because their warranties are superior. They can include on-site next business day support and accidental damage coverage, two things Apple lacks.

Now you're free to do as you wish, but buying any Apple notebook to use primarily as a Windows machine entirely defeats the purpose.

 

[Verix]

Now you're free to do as you wish, but buying any Apple notebook to use primarily as a Windows machine entirely defeats the purpose.

Agreeing with everything you said, but buying one of the entry-class affordable Mac computers even just to use with windows, you're still getting a damn fine computer. For a 15'' though, without the GPU switching battery life will suck. Then again as a work computer it might be using wall current most of the time.

About scaling, does windows 8 (8.1) fix anything regarding HiDPI? I wouldn't know but I'd expect them not to keep lagging behind, apple is hardly the only manufacturer using retina displays nowadays, I figure support would be there (Fujitsu and Samsung launching a 3200x1800 'QHD+' display laptop for example).