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Why Windows?

C

camardelle

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 17, 2011
359
6
Texas
When I purchased my iMac in August, I really had no idea how much I'd like using Apple computers. For this reason I never really considered moving anything to the iMac from the Windows machine I was using. I justified this by telling myself that one (uno/single) program I used wouldn't run on my iMac and still have it in place. This was a program I'd use to create custom routes to upload to my gps. I've started using BaseCamp for Mac and am slowly making the adjustment.

My question is, why would I want to run Windows on my machine? I see a lot of folks doing just that and can't imagine why other than for software that isn't Mac compatible. I'm not a gamer so maybe that's why?

I'm not judging, but I'm thinking of taking the leap completely in Apple computers and losing any semblance of Windows altogether and transferring all my pics and such to my iMac and MBP.

Am I off base here?
 
camardelle said:
My question is, why would I want to run Windows on my machine? I see a lot of folks doing just that and can't imagine why other than for software that isn't Mac compatible. I'm not a gamer so maybe that's why?
Click to expand...

You answered your own question there. I have Windows XP in BootCamp just so I can play some older Windows games that I still enjoy.
 
Some people like apple hardware but prefer windows as the OS, so there's people who load windows for that reason.

other reasons include software that is not available on OSX, playing games and what not. Basically its personal preference, they choose to run windows partly or fully because they want too :)
 
Im a convert, and there is only one thing that I have not yet managed to do on a mac. That is digitally signing .EXE and .AIR files.
For that I use a very small windowsxp virtualbox machine, thats it.
Thinking about it, I can probably do .AIR apps now on mac too. So it's just the Windows .EXE files.

Other than that everything I do is Mac.
 
SandboxGeneral said:
You answered your own question there.
Click to expand...

Wow! Using a Mac has really had a positive impact on me. LOL

Thanks for all the replies. I have to admit that I'm not head over heels in love with the Mac version of the software I'm using, but in all fairness I haven't given it a good chance yet. If I get accustomed to it, my Windows machine will definitely get used even less than it does now.
 
I'm returning my iMac for a Windows today. I just don't want to run Bootcamp or pay for Parallel and most of the program I'll need for college is Windows based. I miss notepadd++ like crazy!!! I figure there's no point in running Windows on a Mac when I can get a Windows laptop for cheaper.

I love my iMac in the short time I had it and maybe I'll get it after I'm done with School.
 
I use windows purely for a couple of Apps required for work which are Windows only (mainly our accounts/payroll software).

I did use parallels for a while, but after a while I decided that I would rather not have windows on the machine, so I found an old Windows laptop and I use that instead. I also use remote desktop to work directly on our server.

I far prefer doing it this way, although it makes moving files around a bit harder (I have to use idisk to move files and obviously will have that change that soon).

If it wasn't for work then I could leave windows completely.
 
I'm running my windows out of VMWare Fusion. Very nice for the few thinks I would use. Maybe not for gaming but some stuff from the company is just fine. Not really often used though.
I also used it to install the Win8 preview or ML 10.8. I never used BootCamp and will not. Just VMWare. Is just too easy.
 
I run Windows 7 on VirtualBox. VB is free, and works well. I only use it for MS Project @ Work, so I need it for that only. If MS had a OSX Version, I'd never need it.
 
My next windows PC will be a game launcher for me, that's it. I used every Microsoft OS since DOS 5, but switched to OS X a couple years ago. Funny thing is it was kind of on accident. I just wanted to see what the programming environment was like.

Anyway, if you aren't a gamer or don't require anything that requires native video drivers under windows, then you can just toss it in a VM to launch EXEs. IMO, it's they best way to run windows anyway because you can bring some of the workflows over from OS X (if you set it up to share the mac filesystem).
 
identity said:
I'm returning my iMac for a Windows today. I just don't want to run Bootcamp or pay for Parallel and most of the program I'll need for college is Windows based. I miss notepadd++ like crazy!!! I figure there's no point in running Windows on a Mac when I can get a Windows laptop for cheaper.

I love my iMac in the short time I had it and maybe I'll get it after I'm done with School.
Click to expand...

There are plenty of replacements for Notepad++ on the Mac, Chocolate.app is in beta and that seems like a really nice text editor :).
 
My wife runs Windows in Vmware because her office uses a VPN client that is Windows only. She literally opens a full Windows session simply to browse office's network folders, and to copy the document she needs.

I only have Windows installed in Vmware so I can do tech support for my wife. The only time I fire it up is when I need to figure out something for her.

For everything else we are totally Windows-less. It was tougher for my wife because she came a Windows Corporate environment... but now she has no desire to return to Windows. I've never actually been in a Windows only environment - well, since Win 3.1. I went from DOS to (briefly) Win 3.1 to IBM's OS/2 (including eComStation) Apple's OS X 10.4.

So, I've never felt the transitionary angst of losing Windows' benefits. :D
 
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