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#1
April 22nd, 2004, 05:06 PM
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| What is virtual PC like? OK, I'm trying to convert my dad to a Mac, and he says his apps won't run on it. Is virtual PC a good solution? Or is it really bad? I just want to hear from anyone who uses it and can tell me what its like, so I can tell him.
__________________ "But how can you communicate with Enzo Hernandez when he speaks Spanish and you speak Mexican?" Indigo iMac G3 500mHz G4 1gHz iBook www.humongousrotatingbearentertainment.com  |
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#2
April 22nd, 2004, 05:11 PM
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| Depands on what your Dad wants to run. Office XP will run ok. Games won't run and some complex graphic progs will be slow as well. I think the speed of VPC 6.1 on my G4 1Ghz and 512mb allocated memory is close to a P2 266. Not really fast, but this was not to be any pc replacement. You might want to talk your Dad into VPC 7 which sounds very promissing and should get out soon.
__________________ iBook 600; 12''; 640mb; 8mb Rage; DVD-CDRW-Combo, 20GB P4 1.6; 2x80GB Raid1 (file-server) tiBook 1Ghz, Superdrive, 768MB, 64mb 9000, 60GB |
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#3
April 22nd, 2004, 07:17 PM
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| VPC is adequate for business applications you just "have to run" in Windows because there is no Apple version. Browsers, word processors, etc. are usually keyboard bound anyway and running in VPC is no exception. Just remember there is no graphic acceleration and anything involving complex graphic display or manipulation will be almost painfully slow. VPC 7 will offer compatibility with the G5 but unless Microsoft has found a way to repeal the laws of physics it is unlikely it will be much faster other than the speed boost provided by a G5 if that is what you are running on. Like any application VPC is better if you have a lot of RAM and can devote 512+MB to VPC. Perceived performance is also a function of the version of Windows you are running. Most folks say Windows XP Pro is a real dog, but I have found XP Home Edition to give reasonable performance on a dual processor G4/1.25 MDD. Others swear by Windows 2000. I would stay away from Windows 98 and ME, I have started running into apps that won't run on these older Windows versions.
__________________ G4/1.25 MDD, 1.5 GB, OS X 10.4.5 G4/133 Quicksilver, 1.2 GB, OS X 10.4.5 iBook G4/1.25, 1 GB, OS X 10.4.5 |
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#4
April 22nd, 2004, 09:46 PM
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| I'd be curious to know exactly what apps your dad is talking about. My bet is that he could easily find the exact same apps for the Mac or very usable equivalents if he really wanted to. Problem is, like with most PC users, there just isn't a big compelling reason to switch. Especially given that they would typically "need" to invest a good amount of money in duplicate software. I can't say I blame them. I sure wouldn't want to dish out a bunch of money for essentially the same software I'd already been using on a given machine.
__________________ "You are" = you're • "It is" = it's • It's really that simple |
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#5
April 22nd, 2004, 10:13 PM
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| Quote:
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#6
April 22nd, 2004, 10:30 PM
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| My Dad uses Microsoft Remote Desktop from my laptop sometimes. It's actually very fast; he now uses it on his PC-to-remote-PC stuff too instead of VNC. Unlike VNC, you're not sending the actual screen data, so the refresh rate is loads better. I believe it works along the same lines as Virtual PC (rendering raw data on the client side), but unlike Virtual PC, you don't have to run all the actual operations there, just the UI. So, unless you're trying to run a game (which I tried, BTW. About .5 FPS) or something, you should be fine wish what Satcomer suggested.
__________________ < Also Known As aeromusek in places > < PowerBook | 1.67GHz | 1024MB RAM | 120GB | 17" High Res > < iPod | 20GB | 3rd gen > "the show must go on" - the artists of the world |
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#7
April 22nd, 2004, 11:28 PM
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| I have a few apps which are Win specific and must haves, and they run alright on VPC. Right now I have Win2kPro under VPC 6.1 on the iBook with 256mb ram given to it. It's about the same speed as a PII-400 Dell Laptop my brother has running XP when you're loading simple programs or the OS. I personally wouldn't use Office under it, but for the 'must haves' it works good. IE (various versions to test sites), Top Producer 6i, Act2000, PACE, and a bunch of other real estate related programs which only materialize in win versions. I've also run Clementine (data mining/analysis software) with ok results. I played with it on a friend's PB (1.25ghz G4) and it was a slight bit faster, at least it felt that way. --- Originally tried running XP Pro and it was way too slow to use, even when running XP with the classic skin. Win2kPro is much better in terms of usability and speed under VPC.
__________________ . | mdnky@macosx.com | My Homepage | My Music | Restore the Pledge | MacOSX.com Widget | • MacBook Pro Core2Duo 2.33GHz 15", 2GB DDR2 RAM, 120GB, DL Superdrive, OS X 10.5, • Apple 23" Cinema HD Display, Apple Slim-Stainless Keyboard, Logitech Optical Scroll Mouse • iPhone 8GB, iPod Photo 30GB, Nikon D50, Nikon L6, Epson 3490, Epson R1800, HP LaserJet 1200 • LaCie 500GB d2 Quadra, LaCie 160GB d2 FW, harman/kardon SoundSticks II, Mighty Mouse, iSight Last edited by mdnky; April 23rd, 2004 at 04:34 PM. |
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#8
April 23rd, 2004, 10:33 AM
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| A friend of mine was trying to convince me to switch and, as a long standing PC user, I was reluctant. He let me use his G5 and 23" cinema display for a week last year. The day after he had his system back I bought a 17" iMac and haven't looked back since!
__________________ "Is that a gun in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me?" "It's a gun." Words ~ Photos ~ Music ~ Books |
