Thanks for the quick response.
I've heard about Crossover and was looking into that a little. Is that stable/reliable enough to keep school projects on? Also, how seamlessly does that integrate with OS X?
I've not heard of the Mono Project or VB.net. Could you (or someone else) please explain that a little?
Crossover is a paid offshoot of the WINE project. WINE is a windows compatibility layer for posix (mac, unix, linux) systems. Although it is not actually an emulator, it is easiest to think of it as a windows emulator. While not everything is supported, many windows programs (especially more straightforward programs) will run on it. Crossover, like I said, is a retail offshoot of WINE, where the developers have specifically tweaked it so that the most common applications run on it. The latest version is supposed to support Office 2007, although I'm not sure to what level they support VBA. Crossover has a short trial period, to test if out for free if you want, along with fairly decent support.
The .Net Framework is Microsoft's (relatively) new programming platform for windows. It is a common library of functionality that can be used by several different languages, including Visual Basic (VB.Net) and C# (The offspring of C++ and Java having babies). So VB.Net is the Visual Basic Language in conjunction with the .Net Framework (library of common code). Microsoft actually offers a free version of the Compiler, VB Express, on their website.
The
Mono Project is an open source, Posix (Mac, Unix, Linux) implementation of .Net, and many .Net programs can run on it, even those compiled on windows machines. The final result of all of the above, is that if you install mono and write VB>Net applications on it, they will run on both Mac and Windows.
It really depends on what the requirements of your class are.
If it has to be VBA (the specific falvor of VB inside of Office, which is different from that of Visual Basic, which is different from that of Visual Basic.Net) then you will need office (and possibly windows).
If you want to go as cheaply as possible, I recommend Virtual Box, which will let you run windows and is free,
Windows 7 RC1, which is free and will last about 6 months before you have to buy it, and finally, you can even get a 30-40 day trial of Microsoft Office, which might last long enough to get you through your class. (If not, you can always sign up for another trial under a different email address)
Of course you can always buy a full copy of any of the above; I'm just listing the non-obvious alternatives.
