Virtual Machine on my first iMac

[MacMiguel]

Hello everybody. I'm new on Apple computer world XD I've always used Windows, and some of the programs I use are only available for Win7 so I'll have to use it on my new mac (sometimes, I'm gonna use MACOS mainly of course).

Do you think VirtualBox is a good alternative to virtualize Win7?

What do you suggest me?

 

[Steve121178]

You can use free tools or you could use something good like Parallels or VMware Fusion (which would be my choice).

 

[justperry]

You could also use bootcamp but it is not a VM, it is a partition where Windows resides and it runs exactly like a PC.

 

[RebornTheGame]

For whatever it's worth

I made 'the big leap' in July and replaced a HP Elitebook with a rMBP. I have a couple of Windows apps of which I was not quite ready to learn the OSX equivalents. I use Parallels and I have been delighted by its simplicity and performance. My new iMac will also have Parallels installed and have Win7 for my few legacy apps.

My only difficulty, remembering when to switch between two keys OSX: Cmd and Win7: Ctrl.

 

[MacMiguel]

The problem is that I'm gonna use Matlab and the toolbox of Xilinx (for FPGA's compilation), so it requires processing capability. I will lose too much computer power by using a virtual machine or I could work without problems???

 

[Steve121178]

With VMware you can add extra CPU cores to give your VM more processing power. I presume you can do the same on Parallels.

However, I do not know how CPU intensive your applications are. So maybe you are just better off with a Windows based machine for your work, but only you can make that decision.

 

[MacMiguel]

With VMware you can add extra CPU cores to give your VM more processing power. I presume you can do the same on Parallels.

However, I do not know how CPU intensive your applications are. So maybe you are just better off with a Windows based machine for your work, but only you can make that decision.

MATLAB uses a lot of computer ressources, it's true...... but I do a lot of thing on the computer, I've done a balance about it and iMac fits my need because:

-I can use it like a PC, the proccesor is 4-core and enough powerful for my use.

-I need a very-good screen and i'm not disposse to use two screens and things like that. By other side I don't have space to use another thing instead of an all-in-one.

- Others models of all-in-one of the competence are less powerful or they are even more expensive than iMac.

-A notebook is not an option at all

So I'm not going to use a PC nowadays.

I'm trying to avoid doing a partition with windows, I think I will try to use VMWare if VirtualBox does not work right...

My last option would be doing a partition

 

[anvikapur]

Hello everybody. I'm new on Apple computer world XD I've always used Windows, and some of the programs I use are only available for Win7 so I'll have to use it on my new mac (sometimes, I'm gonna use MACOS mainly of course).

Do you think VirtualBox is a good alternative to virtualize Win7?

What do you suggest me?

VirtualBox is a powerful x86 & AMD64/Intel64 virtualization product. It allows you to run multiple operating systems on your computer, at the same time. VirtualBox can run a large number of guest operating systems, including (but not limited to) Windows (NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista, Windows 7), DOS/Windows 3.x, Linux (2.4 and 2.6), Solaris, OpenSolaris, and OpenBSD.

VMware Workstation
VMware Player
VMware Fusion
VMWare ESXi
VMLite VBoot