Windows on a MacBook

Installing XP with Boot Camp or Virtualization (Parallels or Fusion) works quite well. If you are going to game, you would probably want to use Boot Camp and boot natively... and either way you would benefit from maxing out your RAM.

You can get a better idea here: Booting Windows on a Mac

If you connect to the internet at all, then you will need antivirus protection for XP. The standard free options are probably enough if you are careful. I use AVG Free. Your Windows partition will function just like a PC, so everything you would do on a normal PC applies.

Woof, Woof - Dawg

 

Try Windows 7 from the Microsoft website first. Its free to use until June next year (starts shutting down every 2 hours in March). If it doesn't work for you, you could always install XP. I have it on my MacBook and it seems to be working fine. I use Avast anti-virus with it.

 

YMMV, but that is not my experience. W7 is very stable for me and faster than XP in most situations (although I haven't tried it with games). I would never recommend Vista for games.

 

I installed Windows XP via bootcamp for precisely the same reason as you. I have steam already with tons of games that I haven't played so it was an easy decision. I upgraded my hard-drive to a 500GB Western Digital Scorpio and allocated about 150 GB to my Windows XP partition.

Honestly though unless you are a hardcore gamer you don't really need Windows to get your gaming fix. With digital download services like GameTreeOnline, MacGameStore, and Gametap as well as all the browser-based games and the Mac's own retail games there really is enough games for 95% of most users to be content. People disagree but then they play Call of Duty 4 on their 360 all day or World of Warcraft on their PC's and I'm like you could have done that on the mac.

 

I have XP Pro on my MB installed but after installing Windows 7 RC1 on my PC machine, I think I'm gonna upgrade my MB to this latest OS (WIN7).