Vmware vs dual boot

[Filo]

Hey you techno geekies, I have a question for you...

Computer: Mac Book Pro, 2.4GHz, 250GHD.
Question: dual boot or Vmware to run windows? Or (crazy) external hard drive with windows on it.
Constraints: want windows mainly for Office Suite and Quicken. Everything else will be done on OSX

Opinions? Reasoning helps too.

[GaribaldiCU]

I'd go the VM route. Given the limited usage, having access to the OS and apps from within OSX is valuable. I personally use Parallels. I'm not sure if you can with VMWare (can't see why not) but Parallels gives you the option of loading a Boot Camp partition virtually from within OSX. In that case, you'd get both dual boot and VM. Just a thought. PM me if you want more details.

[~Barn~]

I hear good things about Parallels, too.

[dirkterrell]

A free option:

http://www.virtualbox.org/

Dirk

[rforsythe]

VMWare Fusion FTW. I used Parallels for a while, but switched. It's fully integrated with the OS so you can run Windows as part of your desktop, share files, etc. No need to dual boot, but I guess you could. In your case you don't need to etch out every last drop of Windows performance for games or something, so just running a VM image is probably best (also it will save you drive space, since you allocate a certain amount but it only uses what you need).

FWIW I also have the Mac MS Office suite and it works good; we also have iWork which I tend to use 98% of the time, but some people in this company insist on sending files that only MS can read, and the Mac MS Office is great for it. No need to run a VM at that point.

[TurboGizzmo]

With Vmware you can do bootcamp AND if your in OSX you can use VMware to boot the bootcamp partition in VMware if you dont want to restart.

But you should check out the new Office 2011 for OSX its pretty sweet.

[rforsythe]

With Vmware you can do bootcamp AND if your in OSX you can use VMware to boot the bootcamp partition in VMware if you dont want to restart.

Yep, but in his case he hasn't outlined any reason why he'd actually want to go to that trouble. The other issue with dual boot is you tie up the disk space fully from the start; with the VM it will just expand the image over time as it needs to.

[TurboGizzmo]

Yep, but in his case he hasn't outlined any reason why he'd actually want to go to that trouble. The other issue with dual boot is you tie up the disk space fully from the start; with the VM it will just expand the image over time as it needs to.

Oh well that solves the problem of wanted to dual boot and VM since you will have both to choose from, and space isnt a issue, get a 750gb SSD hybrid drive :)

[Canuck]

Parallels FTW!