[ManUtd871]

I am considering getting a macbook pro 15', 2.0 ghz, with 2 gigs of RAM and the 256 mb video card. This will be my first laptop (I use a custom built PC right now), and I have a few questions since I am a strictly Windows user, but I am thinking of buying a mac because of the option of loading windows on it. I am a moderate gamer but I will mostly be using it for school work and entertainment. My questions are: Will having parallels for the majority of my windows programs and then using bootcamp occasionally to boot in windows for gaming possible? and if so will the games run well, and is it a good idea? Thx.

[griffman]

Yes (it's possible to use Parallels for most Windows apps, and then Boot Camp when needed), yes (the games will run well, most nearly anything other than perhaps bleeding-edge current at ultra high res), and yes (it's a good idea).
-rob.

[ManUtd871]

Great, thanks alot.

[dmainzman]

Question is... how many licenses would one have to pay for?

[griffman]

One per machine -- you can activate two (or more) copies of XP on the same machine without too much trouble.
-rob.

[dmainzman]

I'm glad to hear that, since I was pretty interested in booting up another copy in parallels in addition to my boot camp... But I read that article about parallels on macworld's homepage the other day, and I remember it saying something about having to call windows to activate the second copy?... Is that really necessary?
Stupid telephones.... /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

[griffman]

Yes. When you go to activate the second copy, you can't -- because your copy of Windows knows it's been activated. So you get this horrendously long onscreen number (60 or 70 digits), and a phone number. Dial the phone number, read the horrendously long number to the computer, wait a couple minutes, speak to the tech support person, explain that it's the same machine, and then write down the new activation code they give you and use it.
-rob.

[steamboat26]

I know that everyone has already gone over this, but i want to make sure. Parallels= run almost any Windows OS inside Mac OS X, and you don't get exposed to spyware and viruses and all the windows bad stuff
Boot camp= run XP as part of a partition, reboot to get into a different OS, you are exposed to all the windows bad stuff
Is that right?

[griffman]

Parallels= run almost any Windows OS inside Mac OS X, and you don't get exposed to spyware and viruses and all the windows bad stuff
Boot camp= run XP as part of a partition, reboot to get into a different OS, you are exposed to all the windows bad stuff
Is that right?
Actually, any time you're running Windows and you have a net connection, you're exposed to whatever Windows viruses are presently in circulation. It doesn't matter if you're running it via Parallels or Boot Camp; if (a) your version of Windows is open to the attack, and (b) the attack sees your machine some how, it will become infected.
The main difference is simply how each is set up: Parallels builds something like a disk image, right on your OS X drive. Boot Camp, as you noted, uses a new partition to set up Windows. Neither one will expose your Mac data to Windows attacks, though.
Make sense?
-rob.

[solarmoo900]

actually, with parallels, you have a chance of getting any shared folders infected. with boot camp its a whole new partition so it cant be ruined
but on either one, the actual windows can be ruined, but u can easily reinstall it

[griffman]

I didn't want to go into the whole shared folders thing, because it would technically apply to either: in Boot Camp, you can connect to other Macs via typical networking, so theoretically they're exposed as well.
But the reality is that even if you're using shared folders, the only virus that might do something is one that erases the contents of a hard drive. But most of those that I'm familiar with rely on knowing paths (i.e. C:/Windows/etc). And even if a virus were to do something like erase your entire "hard drive" in Parallels, your shared folder would be fine -- it's not on "C:", it's got its own drive letter.
In short, it's theoretically possible (and we wrote as much in our review). However, I wouldn't spend much time worrying about it, other than (as is good practice with anything!) making sure you have current backups.
-rob.