Jules Says

Installing Vista on a Mac: finally, all systems go

At long last, I'm running Vista on my MacBookPro. My previous posts about installing windows (part 1 and part 2) and  installing Vista described a disastrous and ultimately failed attempts to install Vista Home Premium on my iMac. The short answer: if you're running Parallels Desktop for Mac, the only Vista that will work is the big, fat, most-overpriced Ultimate version. Don't even think about using the upgrade model.

So I reluctantly sprung for yet another copy of Windows. As if there weren't already enough flavors of Windows Vista (there are 7, not including upgrade versions), I opened the clumsy packaging to find I have to choose between two install discs - 32-bit and 64-bit. Since I have a brand new beefy MacBookPro and the latest rev of Parallels, I went ahead and assumed I could use the 64-bit install disc. Yes, I should've checked first. I don't remember the error, but my Mac wasn't one bit happy with it. I barely got into setup, had a nasty crash that seemed to even affect Parallels. I didn't even bother looking up what might have gone wrong. I just reinstalled Parallels and used the 32-bit disc. It installed without a hitch. Given my track record, getting Windows installed on the second try is pretty good.

Why Parallels thinks I have a floppy drive, I don't know. It's running fine on 512MB of RAM, which is way less than it takes to run it on a PC. Gotta love that :)

My quickie review of Vista - it's slow. It's really testy - it asks permission for everything, often several times while installing a single piece of software. I don't know who said this - I'd love to attribute this quote to the orinator... "Vista is XP in a skirt."

Here's a screen shot (click to enlarge to 1440 x 900) of my MacBookPro running Parallels in coherence mode. Coherence mode lets me run windows and mac programs side by side without having to deal with the windows desktop. My Mac doc runs along the left side and the Windows task bar along the bottom. (this is my preference - you can leave your doc at the bottom - it'll run below the Windows task bar.) I'm running VPchat (Windows only), Adium (Mac only) and Twitterific (Mac only).

Yes, I named my Vista virtual OS Parasite Rex, after the most excellent book of the same name. Parasite Rex : Inside the Bizarre World of Nature's Most Dangerous Creatures - it's fascinating, extremely readable science.

Bullish on Apple

Leander Kahney writes in Wired News about the change in how people are thinking about Apple in the last few weeks. There certainly does seem to be a widespread shift an attitudes about Apple. He points out that Wilkes University in Pennsylvania is switching to Mac to save money, and experts are recommending Macs for the enterprise. There's no longer an argument that there's not enough software available for Macs, since Macs can run Windows software perfectly well. Even Wall Street thinks Apple is a good deal these days.

Kahney attributes this sea change to the iPhone and the fact that it already looks to be a massive hit. I disagree.

More and more people are having to make the decision about upgrading to Vista. If they're forced into upgrading to Vista when they buy a new computer, they also have to make the decision about any other computers they own for compatibility reasons. And then there's MS Word 2007, which will require a translator to play nice with previous versions of itself.

With a Mac running Parallels Windows apps run right alongside Mac apps, and the two OSs can share files with a simple drag and drop. You no longer have to worry about viruses. A Mac desktop doesn't cost much more than an equivalent PC laptop. And there's that whole "ease of use" thing, and the fact that for the most part things just work on a Mac. Why would anyone buy a PC any more if they didn't have to? No wonder Mac sales are up.

And I agree that in the case of Wall Street, buzz about the iPhone helps, but you really have to give the iPod a fair amount of the credit as well..

Have your views about Apple changed? How? Why?

Installing Windows on a Mac: the short version

My original post on this was rather a lot to slog through, so here's the short version of my recommendations for installing Windows on a Mac using Parallels. More info here.

• If you're going to install Vista, make sure it's either Ultimate or Business. Home versions, even premium, will not work with Parallels. More info here.
  If you're installing XP, I'm assuming you're starting with a legitimate copy.
• Do the installation offline. You'll need Norton installed before you connect to the net.
• If the CD you have happens to be SP1, you'll need to upgrade to SP2 and install Nortons before going online
• SP2 is hard to find. I had to hit up a friend with a private server to find a copy.
• Burn a copy of SP2 and Nortons to a CD (I've done this - you're welcome to borrow my CD if you live nearby :)
• Install SP1
• Copy the SP2 installer and the Nortons installer to the desktop before installing
• Upgrade to SP2
• Install Nortons
• Go online when Nortons goes to upgrade LiveUpdate.
• Update Windows

I've had no trouble since my first successful installation.

Installing Vista on a Mac: lessons learned

Here's a newer post of my successful installation of Vista.

(Originally posted Feb. 15)

This is really more an update to the original post about installing Windows on a Mac. I've since learned that the version of Vista that I bought - Windows Home Premium - is not compatible with a Mac running Parallels. According to Mary Jo Foley of Zdnet,

"Here's the back story: Parallels Desktop for Mac product allows users to run Windows and Mac OSX side-by-side on Intel-based Apple machines. But due to Microsoft licensing restrictions, Parallels users are allowed to run only certain versions of Windows Vista - namely Windows Vista Business, Windows Vista Enterprise (available to Microsoft volume licensees only) and Windows Vista Ultimate - in a virutalized environment. In order to run Windows Home Basic or Vista Home Premium using Parallels, users must buy additional licenses of these products in order to not violate their end-user license agreements (EULAs), Microsoft officials said. Full story.

Apparently Vista Home Basic will work with BootCamp - the license issue focus on running Vista on a virtual machine. I wish I would have found the Parallels official statement about it before I bought the Home Premium edition.

I found nothing about additional licensing anywhere I looked. Basically, you'll need to buy either Enterprise or Ultimate to run it with Parallels on your Mac.