Windows 7 Ultimate

[hakka]

To mr. Fangpyre. People using Windows Server 2008 for a LOT MORE than just exchange. Its IIS7 (yeah, ASP.Net is the most powerful WEB technology till today, Apache+PHP is so weak and....patchy), SQL Server 2008/2010 (are you serious about using Oracle on Mac?) and Azure (FIRST EVER REAL CLOUD PROGRAMMING MODEL till today), Silverlight 4/Expression....and many many more.... Try to read something other than just MacLife ))) for example TechNet.com ))

Windows 7 runs warmer on MacBook just because of drivers supplied ...guess who?....Apple )) Nothing wrong with Windows7 - just Steve's team intentionally makes ...."an error" Practically identical hardware works fine, smooth and quiet on Dell.Sony,HP.... Interesting....hm...

[hakka]

2 ederici

OSX 10.6.2 is definitely RIP OFF as well as paid upgrades to 10.6.3. Apple is ONLY company charging for service packs. :P

Windows 7 has improved security model and lot less annoying security windows. Actually in this particular topic is JUST SAME AS OSX. Remember u have to type your password installing App/Package, changing some system files, opening some preference panes.... WIndows 7 does EXACTLY THE SAME, protecting your SSS from viruses/worms/trojans... Windows 7 firewall and security center is WAY BETTER than in OSX, Windows 7 concept of home network based on P2P principals showing again how weak OSX in networking ))

[Whackhead]

I had 7 installed via Parallels, however I was not too impressed. I binned-it. I have found that Windows-7 gave me about as much pleasure as going for root-canal treatment. Somehow I don't seem to have the need for Windows anymore. I actually get frustrated on my work desktop.

Back to the Topic...

[michl]

I had 7 installed via Parallels, however I was not too impressed. I binned-it. I have found that Windows-7 gave me about as much pleasure as going for root-canal treatment. Somehow I don't seem to have the need for Windows anymore. I actually get frustrated on my work desktop.

To each their own but, personally I was quite impressed with Windows 7. In effect this is the first version of Windows I could see myself using without a gun to my head (boss holding it, usually) Too bad I don't need it either :->

And even more impressed by the Parallels Desktop 6 + Windows 7 combo, a gigantic leap ahead in my (Mac)book over the PD 5 + Win XP I had to run before...

[Whackhead]

Maybe that was one of my problems... I'm limping on Parallels 4...


One day when I have more guts, I will give it another go.

[michl]

I come from Virtual PC so... now that was so unusable(!) Bought PD at v2 I think, and it was -comparatively- so impressive. Yet nowhere close to, say, BootCamp. Every version after that was better, but still not "fast enough"(tm). And, finally, PD 6. That is the ticket.

As the spoilt Softcircus says, "Parallels 6: Working Software… At Last"

Ars Technica did an in-depth review. The conclusion:

"Parallels has had their eye on Windows 3D gaming from the start and, with this release, they've finally converted me. I've been a virtualized-gaming skeptic, but the results with this new version are what every delusional Mac gamer was hoping was achievable in the days of VirtualPC on the PowerPC. The graphics can be jacked all the way up, and there's no laggy latency—that's pretty incredible, considering that you'd expect lag if it was going through OS X's Quartz compositor, on top of the Windows 7 window compositor. But there isn't any lag.
..."

[Whackhead]

Okay... Just an update, which is probably worth it's 0.02 fils...

Got Parallels 6 and installed it with very little success on 3D gaming, etc. Somehow the graphics and setup was not sufficient. Restarted the Virtual Machine & tried to tweak the settings. I gave-up and deleted the Virtual PC. I uninstalled Parallels and re-installed. On the second installation I was aksed whether I wanted to download the update available, which I agreed to download and install. 204Mb later, I have a fully functional Windows7 Ultimate virtual PC with a fair to good Windows Experience Index.

What I'm amazed off most is that my wifes' HP (Acronym for High Price), with 4gig Ram, dedicated graphics card, etc... ACTUALLY scored LOWER on the Windows Experience Index than the Mac, which is running both OSX & the Virtaul PC, despite the fact that I have only 1GB Ram allocated to the Virtual PC... I was really surprised.


I think it's safe to say that you were right. Parallels6 actually works.

[dandantheitman]

At my base OS is Linux, and so for a lot of windows type stuff rather than using CrossOver Office or Wine I use a VM. I started with VMWare, which I have used for years, but loved the seamless mode that VirtualBox offered, and was also told I would get better performance than VMWare server. so I converted my VMs and started using VirtualBox.

I decided to give parrallels a chance a while back, and its resource utilisation or lack thereof is fantastic! So much better than VMWare Server/Workstation or VirtualBox. Even running a copy of windows XP on my MacBookAir proved to be zero challenge and the VM proved to be very responsive.

[michl]

Thanks for the feedback. It's always good to know of real experiences... esp with the MacBook Air -- "very responsive", wow that's good given the relatively "low end" specs. And so we can assume Parallels Desktop should run just nice on the new MBA (esp. boosted with 4GB RAM!)

At some point VMWare was really running head-to-head with Parallels but now the latter has taken a big lead, and VMWare has some serious catching up to do. Well that can only be good for us customers! VirtualBox is different, being a free product, cannot compete at the same level - but nonethless offers excellent quality as it is.

[huzzyz]

I used a MAC for the better part of 2 years with my MBP 17" sold it last year. Don't think I will ever go back. Windows 7 is the fastest selling OS ever for a reason fact not fiction. I am not saying that its out of this world but for a power user MAC is just I don't know too vanilla.