Feb

19

2007
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If you want to run Windows applications on your Intel powered Mac, you will be happy to learn that there are three different ways. The first method is by using Crossover for Mac, the second is using Parallels, and the third method is using Boot Camp. Each has their own advantages and disadvantages. This article will explain the differences between these programs and from there you should be able to figure out which method works best for you.

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Crossover for Mac

Advantages :
1.) You don’t have to boot up Windows to run an application
2.) You don’t need to own or install Windows.
3.) Software does not use as much resources as Parallels

Disadvantages of this program are :
1.) The amount of programs that run on Crossover for Mac are limited.
2.) Crossover for Mac costs $59.

Codeweaver’s Crossover for Mac is built off the Wine (Wine Is Not an Emulator) engine, popular on the Linux platform. Crossover does not require that you install Windows itself because Crossover is more of a compatibility layer for running Windows programs. In Crossover you work with “bottles” that makes the requisite Windows API layer for your programs to run. With that stated programs fine tuned by Codeweaver runs best on Crossover, with other non-supported applications are more hit and miss. To see a full compatible list of applications known to run on Crossover you can click here. Codeweaver Crossover for Mac is built for the Intel Macs only.

Crossover for Mac is best suited for people that only needs a small subset of popular Windows Applications to run on their Mac. As an example Microsoft Office 2000, Office XP, Internet Explorer 6, Quicken, Quickbooks, Adobe Photoshop, and the video game Half-Life are all supported by Crossover for Mac and run very well. If you are wondering why someone want to install these application, when most can be purchased in native OS X (or emulated Rosetta versions) mode or have a similar program on that platform? Examples would be If you are a web developer and want to make sure your apps or webpages are compatible with Internet Explorer, thus firing up IE 6 in Crossover makes that job super quick and easy. Although Microsoft Office has released a native OS X version of Office for Mac, their program has not been compiled for Intel Macs, consequently the program takes a significant performance hit when run on Intel Macs. Furthermore, if you already own a copy of Microsoft Office XP or 2000 for Windows, you can save a significant amount of money by installing that Windows Office suite rather than purchasing Office for Mac.

Crossover for Mac is an easy program to install (like all Mac programs) and after installation, installing additional applications is as easy as clicking one of their supported applications in their software installer. If the program is not on their supported list then you can select the “install unsupported application” method. It is recommended that when you install unsupported applications, you install the applicationi in a new “bottle” rather than having the unsupported application interfere with the installation of the supported applications. You can easily setup new bottles in either Win98, Win200 or WinXP modes.

Personally, I find the Crossover for Mac to be most useful for the smaller applications and utilities that can not be as easily found on the OS X platform. As an example, I find the freeware Widows application HDTVtoMPEG2 an indispensable tool for quickly splicing high-definition tv recordings. I’m not aware of a comparable free application on the OS X platform, so I use HDTVtoMPEG2 under Crossover for Mac. The program runs flawlessly for me, even though it is an “unsupported” application for Crossover. Another program I use frequently under Crossover for Mac is the windows music player, Foobar. Since iTunes cannot play my FLAC files, I use the very capable and lightweight Foobar application under Crossover with no problems (Foobar is also an unsupported application in Crossover).

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Parallels

Advantages :
1.) You can run all Windows programs, except those requiring heavy use of 3d acceleration.
2.) Parallels gives you advance networking features between the Mac and Windows computers.

Disadvantages :
1.) You have to boot up Windows to run a single Windows program.
2.) You have to own a Windows disc.
3.) Parallels costs $79.

Parallels is an emulator like VMware that runs all variants of Windows, including Windows Vista, in virtual machines. Basically, this means that your computer will share cpu, ram, hard drive between the operating systems, causing a performance hit. Parallels has done a great job minimizing the performance hit by optimizing their code for the new Intel chips. Performance is particularly snappy when you have more than 1 gigs of ram installed in your Mac. Although Parallels is still in beta, (latest version being Release Candidate 3 Build 3170), Parallels definitely has the feel of a finished product. Buyers that do purchase Parallels now gets a free upgrade to the final version whenever it is released.

When you install an guest operating system via Parallels, the program separates the guest operating system as an isolated file, which means OS X completely isolated from the guest operating system. In other words you won’t have to worry about a Windows virus or spyware infecting your Mac or even Windows taking down your Mac via a BSOD.

Parallels is compatible from Windows Vista all the way down to Windows 3.1, as well as Linux and FreeBSD. Network, USB, CD-Rom/DVD-Rom, even the iShare webcams all work in the Windows guest os environment through Parallels.

One of the coolest new features in Parallels is the “Coherence” mode. What this allows you to do is hide the guest os, but still have the guest os running in the background. As an example, With Windows set as your guest os, the Windows Start menu can now be added to the OS X dock bar and you can launch Windows programs via the Windows Start menu, without having to see the Windows background. This is very neat.

As stated before all Windows applications will run in Parallels except 3d intensive applications. If you have Windows XP installed as your guest os in Parallels, you can even upgrade that to Vista. Aero mode does not work in Parallels.

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Apple Boot Camp :

Advantages :

1.) You can run every Windows application that is available.
2.) Apple’s Boot Camp is free to use.

Disadvantages :

1.) You have to shut down OS X and reboot into Windows.
2.) You have to own a Windows disc.

Apple’s own Boot Camp software is another solution to install Windows and its Applications onto your Intel Powered Macs. This would be my least favorite choice, simply because you have to boot out of OS X and boot straight into Windows. Kind of defeats the purpose of owning a Mac hunh? But, the biggest advantage is that you can run all the applications that are supported in Windows. Installation for Boot Camp is now extremely straight forward if you want to install Windows XP. Apple’s Boot Camp can be used to boot Windows Vista, but drivers are not supported as well as in Windows XP. You can download Apple Boot Camp from Apple’s Website (the program is a hefty 142 megabytes).

What you’ll need to install Boot Camp (from Apple’s Website)
* Mac OS X Tiger v10.4.6 or later (check Software Update)
* The latest Firmware updates (check Support Page)
* 10GB free hard disk space
* An Intel-based Mac
* A blank recordable CD
* A printer for the instructions (You’ll want to print them before installing Windows, really.)
* A bona fide installation disc for Microsoft Windows XP, Service Pack 2, Home or Professional (No multi-disc, upgrade or Media Center versions.)

Installing Windows XP in Boot Camp is easy and painless. First make sure you have updated your Mac with all the latest updates. Then install Boot Camp. Then launch the Boot Camp Assistant and click through a few windows.

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The main question you may ask is which method is best for you? The answer simply depends on what your needs are. If you already own an older version of Microsoft Office for Windows or just want to run some basic Windows applications then Codeweaver’s Crossover for Mac would be your best choice. If you want to install Vista and its applications, or you need to run a wide variety of applications (outside of heavy 3d rendering programs) then Parallels would be the best choice. I absolutely love the “Coherence” mode that is built into Parellels. If you are one of the few that needs to run AutoCAD or play the latest Windows only 3d video games then Apple’s Boot Camp would be the best choice.

For myself I use a mixture of Crossover and Parallels. Crossover for the times when I need to launch a quick Windows app like HDTVtoMPEG2, QuickPar, or Foobar. Other times when I need to use Windows apps more extensively or want to play around with Vista then I use Parallels. I should also note that the improvements found in each new build of Parallels is nothing short of astounding. When running Vista or XP in Parallels the performance hit is slightly noticeable on my Macbook, but nothing that in gets in the way of using either operating system productively. Having the Windows Start menu available to me via Parallels and its Coherency Mode is an awesome feature! Boot Camp is nice, but I would rather not have to reboot my computer to use an application, but it’s still nice to have that option as well.

Parallels Desktop 3.0 for Mac
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15 Comments so far

  1. 15 luna6 Says: July 26, 2007

    Himanshu : No effects whatsoever besides taking up the extra hard drive space. Separate systems that resides on the same hard drive (dual boot). Also there’s most likely native OS X versions of those applications you mentioned besides Autocad. I do believe that the newest Parallels 3.0 has 3d support and Autocad can work there. So I would say get the macbook …and dual boot with Boot Camp into Windows when you need to. If you get tired of rebooting you can most likely do everything you want with a Parallels virtual machine. Cheers

  2. 14 Himanshu Says: July 26, 2007

    hey guyz…. i am planning to buy a mac notebook…..
    i am doing architecture… and need softwares like photoshop, corel, 3dmax, autocad, revit, etc daily.

    i read about bootcamp…. i dont mind using it…

    but wt effect it wil hav on my macintosh ?? wil it slow down ???? or dey wil act as seperate systems…???? mail me back at him_damian@yahoo.co.in

  3. 13 Joe Says: June 19, 2007

    I tried out running foobar via CrossOver, It’s bad. I give you all a warning. I am hearing a BIG difference in listening tests. I’m using a t.c. electronics konnect 8 firewire audio with Ultrasone Proline 650 headphones to compare (Not cheap). The CrossOver foobar2000 is missing a lot in the higher frequencies, It sounds bad compared to Cog. Tried to A/B Cog with foobar2000 running in VMware and it’s pretty close. I may be feeling Cog is a little tiny bit better.

    If you are doing audio over CrossOver, beware! Do listening tests with the same material on different players (for example vs Cog native to OSX or iTunes) and decide for yourself. I think there is a big problem here with CrossOver and if you enjoy music you should avoid using it for audio playback. (I tested with FLACs ripped from my own CDs).

  4. 12 Joe Says: June 19, 2007

    I like VMware more than Parallels. Also a note, v1 license is avail for about $40 (1/2price) to beta users I read on the vmware forum. So far VMware has been working much better for me than Parallels. One important note with that is linux support. VMware has drivers to enhance linux (such as Fedora and Ubuntu) where Parallels lacked last time I checked.

    I hate iTunes. I’ve been using Cog which is pretty good, but I miss foobar2000. Reading that it works with CrossOver does it for me. I’m gonna go install that sucker right now. Thanks!

  5. 11 John Cartogan Says: February 21, 2007

    “Parallels is working on 3d acceleration as well”

    Yeah right. I’ll believe it when I see it. They have also announced a year ago that they would be working on a server product. It seems it has been mysteriously “delayed” :)

    When it comes to robust virtualization, I stick with VMware. VMware Fusion for the Mac (http://www.vmware.com/fusionbeta) is on the right track, and I’ll buy it (or maybe it will be free?) when the final product is released.

  6. 10 PaulG Says: February 20, 2007

    Sorry Jim C, I have a MacBook Core Duo 2.0Ghz, 2GB RAM, and 160GB HD and believe me Office 2004 runs big time slower then it does on my 3 your old Power Mac G5. It is not even in the same league. If it works as fast for you, then great, but there is a huge performance hit.

  7. 9 JP Says: February 20, 2007

    http://www.macworld.com/news/2006/08/08/parallelswwdc/index.php

    Parallels is working on 3d acceleration as well :

    “What’s more, Parallels Desktop for Mac will see “fast 3D graphics support,” presumably to help cater to gamers who want to run Windows games without having to reboot their machine using Boot Camp and a separate Windows partition.”

  8. 8 Max Payne Says: February 20, 2007

    a better way to run windows apps on the mac

    http://www.vmware.com/products/beta/fusion//

    something special the others can’t do that the people at VMware are working on

  9. 7 Luna6 Says: February 20, 2007

    I’ve used Office for Mac on a native PPC Powerbook G4 in the past and I found it to be horrible. The program made OpenOffice seem zippy in terms of speed. I used Word primarily and an on a daily basis for notetaking. The program would crash on me at least once a week! Needless to say I gave up on it and used Pages or OpenOffice Writer. So no thank you to Rosetta emulation mode for me, when it ran horribly in native mode. I do like the options to run Office in Crossover or Parallels. I’m still loving the coherence mode in Parallels and launching Word 2007 through that - one of the neatest things I have seen this year, along with the latest version Beryl in Linux.

  10. 6 A.B. Says: February 20, 2007

    I find that MS Office crawls on my MacBook Pro and on PowerPC systems. Its just a poorly written, non-native application that feels like a windows frankenstein, rather than a specially created Mac version. They can’t even create a good UI!

  11. 5 Piratu' Says: February 20, 2007

    Yes, choerence can make a difference with VMware Fucion, but it lacks a lot of Fusion’s features like universal drag & drop, USB device sharing between Mac OS and Windows, pausing a VM and finally the performance. I’ve tested both of them, Paralles and VMware Fusion on a intel MacBook Core 2 Duo 2GHz and 1Gb of ram and Fusion (still in beta but built on a VMware Workstation 6 code base) is by far the winner, the laptop was more responsitive with it and I didn’t heard (at all!) the coolers as they runs wild with Parallels.
    CrossOffice is an alternative but verry limited when you need to run some “exotic” applications on Mac that aren’t in the “supported” list. Regarding the speed is by far the best solution to run Windows apps on Mac.

    … ah, not to forget, VMware Fusion supports accelerated 3D apps, DirectX 8.1 for instant, but is a great step forward (soon well no need a Windows PC to run its games!)

  12. 4 Michael Says: February 20, 2007

    Um, if they do get OpenGL and DirectX 3d acceleration working, that would turn a very good program into an mindblowing program :). Got my fingers crossed for that feature.

  13. 3 Darkelve Says: February 20, 2007

    On the Parallels blog they said they are working on OpenGL and DirectX 3d acceleration. I’m curious to see what comes of that.

  14. 2 Jim C. Says: February 19, 2007

    Nice article, but one little bit of text bothered me:

    “Although Microsoft Office has released a native OS X version of Office for Mac, their program has not been compiled for Intel Macs, consequently the program takes a significant performance hit when run on Intel Macs.”

    I suppose they are theoretically taking a performance hit, but frankly it seems to run just as fast as it does on a PowerPC Mac. Rosetta (the PowerPC to Intel translation engine) works amazingly well for non-CPU intensive applications (and MS Office isn’t *that* CPU intensive). In fact, it was MS Office that Steve Jobs used show off the speed of Rosetta apps when he introduced the Intel Macs in January, 2006.

    So, while some CPU-instensive apps — like Photoshop CS2 — run quite a bit slower under Rosetta emulation, many others — like MS Office for Mac — are fine.

  15. 1 Foosball Says: February 19, 2007

    Nice article, I appreciate the overview of the various ways to install Windows on OS X. I think its a strange sight to see the Windows start menu on the OS X dock bar. I am planning to give Parallels a try. Just thought I would mention that VMware makes a similar product to Parallels which can be read about here http://www.vmware.com/products/beta/fusion/