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Computer Buying Help: Mac vs. PC

TWDeac said:
I love VMWare on my PC. Why doesn't Fusion work well on Mac, DCDeac?
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I'm sure it does for a high percentage of people - but its USB support for devices is a little lacking, and as a government tech contractor I use iron keys and remote login mobikeys for a lot of high security stuff which only works on Parallels. I just think it's a slightly better product and I think most reports say Parallels is faster, but they're both generally the same. I'm a huge VMWare supporter in general, just in this one case I don't think they're top dog. One of the coolest things I've seen was the first VMWare VMotion test we can at CBP. At the time, hypervisors and virtual systems were still pretty new - we watched a live system servicing thousands of users literally move from one physical server to another with no interruption in service in a proof-of-concept of their live memory replication. Now it's standard practice.

When OSX got native support for CiscoVPN and quietly improved all of the Unix services (ssh key support, compiler support, Eclipse optimization, etc) in addition to switching to X86 architecture, it jumped from being a cute but fairly useless OS to being a legit power-user workhorse. It's funny that I have a reputation here of being pro-Mac, just a few years ago I wouldn't have recommended a Mac to anyone other than a graphics or music guru. Very curious to see if it won't head back in that direction with Jobs gone.
 
DCDeac said:
I'm sure it does for a high percentage of people - but its USB support for devices is a little lacking, and as a government tech contractor I use iron keys and remote login mobikeys for a lot of high security stuff which only works on Parallels. I just think it's a slightly better product and I think most reports say Parallels is faster, but they're both generally the same. I'm a huge VMWare supporter in general, just in this one case I don't think they're top dog. One of the coolest things I've seen was the first VMWare VMotion test we can at CBP. At the time, hypervisors and virtual systems were still pretty new - we watched a live system servicing thousands of users literally move from one physical server to another with no interruption in service in a proof-of-concept of their live memory replication. Now it's standard practice.

When OSX got native support for CiscoVPN and quietly improved all of the Unix services (ssh key support, compiler support, Eclipse optimization, etc) in addition to switching to X86 architecture, it jumped from being a cute but fairly useless OS to being a legit power-user workhorse. It's funny that I have a reputation here of being pro-Mac, just a few years ago I wouldn't have recommended a Mac to anyone other than a graphics or music guru. Very curious to see if it won't head back in that direction with Jobs gone.
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Very cool. Unfortunately, since my summer internships at Wake, I've moved away from working with VMWare in a corporate environment. It's simply fascinating though. I have a Windows 7 and Ubuntu VM on my desktop. The cheap price of ram makes it so easy to use them.

It will be an interesting few years coming up. I want to get my hands on a Windows 8 RC to see what it is like, but I'm hearing mixed reviews. Not sure that it will be this iteration of Windows OS that makes a dent in Apple's recent success.
 
TWDeac said:
Very cool. Unfortunately, since my summer internships at Wake, I've moved away from working with VMWare in a corporate environment. It's simply fascinating though. I have a Windows 7 and Ubuntu VM on my desktop. The cheap price of ram makes it so easy to use them.

It will be an interesting few years coming up. I want to get my hands on a Windows 8 RC to see what it is like, but I'm hearing mixed reviews. Not sure that it will be this iteration of Windows OS that makes a dent in Apple's recent success.
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They really need a better "app" selection for their metro-screen atm from what I can tell. And I'm hoping it doesn't completely screw over power users wrt using it w/ a "normal" desktop. I'll probs be throwing it on my laptop some time this week and playing around with it (the RTM has leaked all over the place now).
 
cookoutdeac said:
They really need a better "app" selection for their metro-screen atm from what I can tell. And I'm hoping it doesn't completely screw over power users wrt using it w/ a "normal" desktop. I'll probs be throwing it on my laptop some time this week and playing around with it (the RTM has leaked all over the place now).
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Yeah, I might boot up an additional vm and check it out.

They might be taking a page from Apple. I've heard that the Professional version might only be around $70. I'll believe that when I see it, though.
 
It will be an interesting few years coming up. I want to get my hands on a Windows 8 RC to see what it is like, but I'm hearing mixed reviews. Not sure that it will be this iteration of Windows OS that makes a dent in Apple's recent success.
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I'm running W8 on a dual-core Dell - it feels like W7 with a cumbersome shell on top (metro) but I'm okay with it. The apps that launch 'in' metro seem smooth and useful (e.g., Maps) but then you'll click Firefox and have this jarring transition back into the desktop. I like it, but am hoping Microsoft smooths the transitions when moving in or out of metro.
 
Is there a need to get any sort of anti-virus software or download an anti-virus app for my Mac Book Pro?
 
I wouldn't bother with one. "Viruses" for Macs are pretty much limited to trick installers, so you'd have to download something sketchy, agree to install it, and enter your password to allow it to do bad stuff. If you stick to the Apple store and obviously legit downloads you'll be fine. Currently there are so few successful malware attacks that Apple can patch the OS to get rid of them instead of relying on 3rd party software.

Of course, that could change in time as Macs get more popular, but for now you should be fine. If you wanted to be ultra-safe you could buy something, but honestly 2 of the only successful spyware apps ever for Mac were Scareware that claimed to clean/protect OSX. You're better off just choosing a good password and not downloading pirated software.
 
Just picked up my new Macbook Pro from my grad school program today. Awesome. this thing flies.
 
I realize that most PC games are not Mac Book Pro compatible and was wondering what can be done to get around this. I am looking at getting Guild Wars 2 and have read about some different options such as Boot Camp, Parallels, and Wine that will allow you to create a PC environment on your Mac. Have any of you had any experience with any of these or have options that you recommend for making your Mac Book compatible with these types of games?
 
truifh0 said:
I realize that most PC games are not Mac Book Pro compatible and was wondering what can be done to get around this. I am looking at getting Guild Wars 2 and have read about some different options such as Boot Camp, Parallels, and Wine that will allow you to create a PC environment on your Mac. Have any of you had any experience with any of these or have options that you recommend for making your Mac Book compatible with these types of games?
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Your best bet will be bootcamp or parallels. I doubt Wine will work with GW2.
 
truifh0 said:
I realize that most PC games are not Mac Book Pro compatible and was wondering what can be done to get around this. I am looking at getting Guild Wars 2 and have read about some different options such as Boot Camp, Parallels, and Wine that will allow you to create a PC environment on your Mac. Have any of you had any experience with any of these or have options that you recommend for making your Mac Book compatible with these types of games?
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Agreed, Boot Camp or Parallels. The big difference is that Parallels runs on top of OSX. It's still native code so it's still fast - but you lose the resources taken by OSX along with the processor cycles for whatever is running in OSX. If you have a fast machine with a bunch of memory and your game isn't a memory hog, it could be fine. But if you want to dedicate all the power you have in the machine to a game it'd be better just to create a 50gb partition and boot camp it. On the minus side, you have to reboot to play. On the plus side, the game install and windows is kept completely separate from your OSX setup.

In general I'd say Parallels is better for business/productivity/work when you simply can't get away from a piece of Windows software, but Boot Camp is a fall back for times when you'd really prefer to have a 100% Windows system.
 
DCDeac said:
Agreed, Boot Camp or Parallels. The big difference is that Parallels runs on top of OSX. It's still native code so it's still fast - but you lose the resources taken by OSX along with the processor cycles for whatever is running in OSX. If you have a fast machine with a bunch of memory and your game isn't a memory hog, it could be fine. But if you want to dedicate all the power you have in the machine to a game it'd be better just to create a 50gb partition and boot camp it. On the minus side, you have to reboot to play. On the plus side, the game install and windows is kept completely separate from your OSX setup.

In general I'd say Parallels is better for business/productivity/work when you simply can't get away from a piece of Windows software, but Boot Camp is a fall back for times when you'd really prefer to have a 100% Windows system.
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Thanks for the advice. So essentially boot camp just sets up Windows on a separate partition and you will be choosing to either run the Mac OS or the Windows OS? Also, I saw this article about Wine and how it was the best option and wasn't sure what your thoughts on it and the video were http://www.guildwarsinsider.com/mac-play-guild-wars-2-anyway/.
 
truifh0 said:
Thanks for the advice. So essentially boot camp just sets up Windows on a separate partition and you will be choosing to either run the Mac OS or the Windows OS? Also, I saw this article about Wine and how it was the best option and wasn't sure what your thoughts on it and the video were http://www.guildwarsinsider.com/mac-play-guild-wars-2-anyway/.
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The problem with Wine right now is that GW2 hasn't been released (still in beta) so we can't be sure how it will work with Wine. I know GW1 worked with it, so I'm assuming that GW2 might eventually get there as well. In the interim, you might just have to run Boot Camp.
 
I think that since GW2 looks pretty shiny/resource intensive I would probably go w/ bootcamp to be safe. But that's just me. I like being able to have my games turned all the way up.
 
TWDeac said:
The problem with Wine right now is that GW2 hasn't been released (still in beta) so we can't be sure how it will work with Wine. I know GW1 worked with it, so I'm assuming that GW2 might eventually get there as well. In the interim, you might just have to run Boot Camp.
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Cool, which also means I need to buy Windows 7 correct?
 
I haven't seen Wine, I'll have to check it out.
 
DCDeac said:
I haven't seen Wine, I'll have to check it out.
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IIRC, it was developed for gamers on the Mac platform. I think in general it is pretty well regarded and is supposed to give better performance than either bootcamp(you don't have to reboot to your Windows to run a game) or parallels.
 
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