Using Mac Laptop through Windows Desktop

[thenewguy]

So I love my macbook pro - absolutely LOVE osx. But I am going to be building a windows desktop soon for gaming, photoshop, animation, etc. Can't afford a Mac Pro, so I don't have too much of an option. I'm sort of looking into running a hackintosh but I won't bring that up here b/c my guess is that we're not allowed to discuss it?

Basically I want to know what my options are for using a Windows box for games and intensive tasks while using the Macbook Pro for all the other stuff (web browsing, ilife, etc.)

So My options that I was considering were these:

Run both windows box and macbook pro at the same time using a DVI/USB/Audio KVM switch. This could work, but with things like external drives and other peripherals plugged into the KVM, I think it would not be the safest or most convenient way (ex. how does sleep work with a KVM'd mac?)

Running OSX as a virtual machine in Vista - not sure if this is possible, or technically legal.

OR, I just had this thought - if I networked my laptop and my PC together, could I work on the PC and have the Mac as a remote-access machine? It would be right there, but just connected via the network so I didnt have to deal with KVM boxes and I could just run it as a window in Vista? Anyone know what the performance hit would be?

Thanks for your thoughts!

 

[kasakka]

Running OSX in a virtual machine is entirely possible, in fact I've done it on my Vista. Unfortunately the performance isn't great because things like Quartz Extreme and Core Image don't work, it's slightly sluggish but entirely usable.

Instead of buying an expensive KVM switch you could try Synergy to use your PC keyboard and mouse with the MBP. According to a friend of mine it works quite well. This is what I plan to use when I get my Macbook Pro.

I used to run both Vista 64-bit and "Hackintosh" OSX on my desktop PC and it worked really nicely because I happened to have the right hardware combination for it (Nvidia graphics card, Intel processor, the right motherboard chipset, FireWire audio interface..) but eventually switching between the two operating systems got rather tedious since I could achieve all the same tasks in Vista.

 

[StuBeck]

Running OS X in virtualization isn't legally allowed unless it is the server version.

You can remotely connect to the Mac through Windows. We do it at work to teach the techies how to use a Mac (we only have one mac and its downstairs...and we're lazy!)

 

[thenewguy]

Running OS X in virtualization isn't legally allowed unless it is the server version.

You can remotely connect to the Mac through Windows. We do it at work to teach the techies how to use a Mac (we only have one mac and its downstairs...and we're lazy!)

Do you find the performance hit is great? I'd be wanting to use it for pretty much everything except heavy duty tasks.

 

[StuBeck]

It takes a bit for the system to calm down from the "OMG I'm running two operating systems!" But its fine after that. I do have 4 GB of RAM in my system too. The fan also gets really loud for some reason (assume its poor bootcamp drivers) but then calms down after a bit.