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crowdaddy

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 25, 2004
151
0
East Ontario
How bad is Virtual Pc's performance? Is it absolutey unbearable or is it decent enough to do somethings on it? Could I install Microsoft Office on Virtual PC and have it run RELATIVELY smoothly?
 
You are aware that MSOffice X will run on OSX? You probably do, Sorry, just sometimes people overlook the obvious.
 
crowdaddy said:
How bad is Virtual Pc's performance? Is it absolutey unbearable or is it decent enough to do somethings on it? Could I install Microsoft Office on Virtual PC and have it run RELATIVELY smoothly?

That depends on your hardware. I recommend to stay as low-end with the version of Windows you run as possible. I run Windows NT4 Service Pack 6 on a G3 900 and it runs pretty smooth, so does Office 2000. I do not recommend running Windows XP or Office XP in VPC though, I found them both pretty slow even in high end machines.
As for the other post, yes, Office is native but if you need stuff like Frontpage, Exchange and Access you will need Virtual PC with WinOffice.
Cheers,

Ahmed
 
It'll run decently, but as has been pointed out there is a Mac version of Office. There are also numerous alternatives that are not made by Microsoft.

Any reason you want to run Office in VPC?
 
Horrortaxi said:
It'll run decently, but as has been pointed out there is a Mac version of Office. There are also numerous alternatives that are not made by Microsoft.

Any reason you want to run Office in VPC?

If he's like me, then he will wish to save money and not buy any more licenses. 200 bucks here and there is too much for most people.
 
It'll probably run okay with XP on a G4. I use VirtualPC for just one program (it reads a CD-ROM full of books), and while it hesitates some, it is certainly usable.
 
Yes yes I am not totally a noob...I know there is office for Mac but I already own it for my PC....see what I am saying? I don't want to have to buy it for Mac all over again and pay $$$ for it
 
crowdaddy said:
Yes yes I am not totally a noob...I know there is office for Mac but I already own it for my PC....see what I am saying? I don't want to have to buy it for Mac all over again and pay $$$ for it

I think you'll find it's a pain to use that way just because the startup time for Windows is so slow. It will let you save your state (kind of like sleep), but even this takes a while to load. And if you just leave VirtualPC on with Windows on, it will sap your performance elsewhere. So you have to stop and start it as needed. And the clipboard between VirtualPC and OS X doesn't work well for me. Personally, I would find this to be a very clunky solution. But I guess it's worth a try if you already have Virtual PC. If you don't isn't it the same difference, more or less, to buy the standalone VirtualPC and Office v.X?
 
crowdaddy said:
Yes yes I am not totally a noob...I know there is office for Mac but I already own it for my PC....see what I am saying? I don't want to have to buy it for Mac all over again and pay $$$ for it

That makes perfect sense to me. I wish I would have done the same since I own Office XP already. Plus MS-Access is unique database tool that you can generate nice reports and forms. Even have simple forms for the web. Nothing like it from the Mac side. File Maker Pro isn't nearly as nice try trying out the demo. I keep sending suggestions to MS for porting all of Office products to the Mac including a program called Photo Draw that was included with Office 2000. Microsoft Money is much better than Quicken too.
 
VPC, life, the universe, and everything

crowdaddy said:
How bad is Virtual Pc's performance?

What kind of system are you running?

One thing to remember is that VPC almost completely ignores the 2nd processor in dual processor configs (it uses it for video). My Dual 450 G4 is unbearable with VPC because of this.... even with a 32 MB Radeon that VPC can't use and 1 GB of RAM (512 MB dedicated to VPC), and quitting the Finder to run VPC.

If, however, MS can pull off some smooth programming, then VPC 7 on a G5 might just WOW us all. (And if it still only utilizes one processor all the more reason to get a G5 iMac rather than spending extra on a Dual G5 Powermac).

Another option a lot of people suggest is getting a $500 Dell box and using MS's Remote Desktop Client (http://www.microsoft.com/mac/otherproducts/otherproducts.aspx?pid=remotedesktopclient). Haven't tried it, but it is supposed to be quite a speed improvement over VPC.

Does anyone know if VPC 7 is shipping in May with Office 2004? Or is Office Pro w/ VPC going to ship later?
 
BornAgainMac said:
That makes perfect sense to me. I wish I would have done the same since I own Office XP already. Plus MS-Access is unique database tool that you can generate nice reports and forms. Even have simple forms for the web. Nothing like it from the Mac side. File Maker Pro isn't nearly as nice try trying out the demo. I keep sending suggestions to MS for porting all of Office products to the Mac including a program called Photo Draw that was included with Office 2000. Microsoft Money is much better than Quicken too.

I'll just chime in that as much as I love my iBook, Office.X is not on the list of reasons. I did buy it b/c I can get it through my school's site-license for $70. While there are a few things I really like, such as the palette-style formatting tools, in general I prefer Office XP or 2000.

Then again, Access is a dog to begin with on PCs so I wonder if it wouldn't be downright scary in VPC. I don't have VPC (yet).
 
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