Using windows on a mbp (new user from pc)

[whitespaces]

Hello people, I've been a PC user for last 25 years or so and am looking at turning to mac - mainly as I need a new computer and would like to develop for my iphone. My previous post responses have given me great advice on what to go for but now I just want to ask:

If I get a mbp 15" with 256M 9600M GT - will this give exact same performance running windows via boot camp as if I got the same spec PC?? Does boot camp basically work exactly like having a PC - so will all PC software/games etc. run on this?

How does it work - do you partition some of the hd to act as windows hd space?

Basically I want to know if using a mac as a pc via bootcamp is exactly as using a pc (because i want to run visual studio/c#/pc games etc. with no compromise)?

Many thanks for any help

Stewart

 

[slpdLoad]

Yes, that's the idea, with the caveat that you have to deal with Apple's bootcamp drivers, which may or may not be updated as much as you'd like. For the most part it's a seamless experience. A while back the MBP was declared the fastest Vista notebook.

BootCamp utility will partition your machine for you with no data loss.

 

[MacDawg]

Yes, you use the Boot Camp Assistant to partition the drive and you install your copy of Windows

Yes, you boot natively into Windows (or you can run virtualized with Fusion/Parallels if you like)

Yes, it is a native PC at that point

Woof, Woof - Dawg

 

[whitespaces]

Many thanks for your help.

So using fusion/parallels - does this allow you to effectively run windows in a window within os x? (I'm unfamiliar with this software) - if so how is the performance when say running ms office - obviously i wouldn't expect to be able to run games or anything too heavy if it was within os x.

Also - is this software free or if not how much is it?

Many thanks

 

[Scarecrow01]

I'm running Windows 7 on my new 15" 2.8 MBP and it runs just as good as it does on my Desktop.

I havent gotten VM Ware/ Parrallels yet, so I just use bootcamp and boot into whichever OS I want to use, its very easy and quick.

 

[jsdc2005]

Many thanks for your help.

So using fusion/parallels - does this allow you to effectively run windows in a window within os x? (I'm unfamiliar with this software) - if so how is the performance when say running ms office - obviously i wouldn't expect to be able to run games or anything too heavy if it was within os x.

Also - is this software free or if not how much is it?

Many thanks

With Parallels etc you are essentially running a virtual Windows desktop within a window in OSX. Stuff like Office / IE run pretty well under Parallels / VMWare Fusion. Then again, you can also get MS Office for Mac and run native. I use Parallels and it works pretty well. They do cost about 70-80 list price but usually they're running some kind of promotion.

 

[whitespaces]

Thanks - a bit off topic but how is getting free software for the mac - as in whenever I want to do anything on PC - say I download a FLAC file and need to convert it to mp3 or I want to record video or blah blah - anything really I can always download some free software to do anything. I appreciate that this is prob more limited on a mac but is there still quite a wealth of open source/free software available?