PC World: MacBook Pro is the fastest Windows Vista Laptop ever tested! (laptops, desktop)

[MacFan]

PC World - In Pictures: The Most Notable Notebooks of 2007 (http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,136649-page,3-c,notebooks/article.html - broken link)

PC Worlds most notable notebooks of 2007:
"The fastest Windows Vista notebook we've tested this year is a Mac. Try that again: The fastest Windows Vista notebook we've tested this year--or for that matter, ever--is a Mac. Not a Dell, not a Toshiba, not even an Alienware. The $2419 (plus the price of a copy of Windows Vista, of course) MacBook Pro's PC WorldBench 6 Beta 2 score of 88 beats Gateway's E-265M by a single point, but the MacBook's score is far more impressive simply because Apple couldn't care less whether you run Windows."

[Wanderlust07]

Just one of the reasons why I use a Mac!

And where the heck are the rest of the Mac users?? I know they're in the forum somewhere...just quiet, I guess.

[chaz longue]

I can't use a Mac. I must use a Windows machine. But I'm told repeatedly they are wonderful.

[MacFan]

Originally Posted by chaz longue

I can't use a Mac. I must use a Windows machine. But I'm told repeatedly they are wonderful.

You could get a mac and run Windows on it as well. That way you have Windows for those time you absolutely must have it and you can use OS X for everything else. I know that the MLS systems in quite a few states are Windows only.

There are actually two ways to run Windows on the new Intel macs.

You can use Apple's free BootCamp software with allows you to choose when your mac boots whether you want to run Windows or OS X. BootCamp is currently a public beta but is going to be included as part of OS X Leopard which is being released in November.

You can also purchase a virtual machine software such as Parallels that allows you to actually run Windows as an application inside OS X so you can have both running at the same time. This is what I have done since I need Windows to update my GPS unit.

BootCamp works with Windows XP and Windows Vista only, while Parallels works with all versions of Windows all the way back to 3.1 and with Linux and others as well.

Here are a couple of links to both options in case you are interested in checking out this solution.

Apple - Boot Camp (http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/ - broken link)

Parallels Desktop for Mac

Just a thought.

[Saintess]

Originally Posted by SharPit

You could get a mac and run Windows on it as well. That way you have Windows for those time you absolutely must have it and you can use OS X for everything else.

That's exactly what I do. I use Parallels and its like I have two computers for the price of one! Whenever I need to use the PC, I switch to Windows, and the rest of the time I'll switch back to to use the Mac.

I only really need Windows because there is a feature that only Internet Explorer has that no other browser does, and that is the ability to load and run my Time Card, which does not support Firefox, Safari, etc... So, basically I just need it for the browser so I can get paid!

[chaz longue]

Thanks for the suggestion.

I've researched this, and while it might indeed be possible, the tech support people at the software vendor simply say "we do not support macs". I work with the MLS database all day. The software is custom written for the MLS in my state. I pay a thousand dollars+ a year to a specific software vendor to have password access to this database. And it's only written for Windows machines. I could be the only subscriber to try to use this with an Intel based Mac and one of the programs/os you mention - but it seems like I'd be on thin ice if the vendor's tech support people simply won't support a mac.

I'm guessing this will change in the future, but for now the very real risks seem to outweigh the benefits. Particularly with the high cost of Macs and the fact that they release new operating systems much more often than Microsoft does...I'm no huge fan of microsoft mind you - if I had to buy a new machine today I'd buy it with XP and extra RAM, (not Vista) and upgrade later...

Sometime I'll try parallels out in my local MAC shop and work with the MLS to see how it works, out of curiosity.

Thanks!
David Beckett

Originally Posted by SharPit

You could get a mac and run Windows on it as well. That way you have Windows for those time you absolutely must have it and you can use OS X for everything else. I know that the MLS systems in quite a few states are Windows only.

There are actually two ways to run Windows on the new Intel macs.

You can use Apple's free BootCamp software with allows you to choose when your mac boots whether you want to run Windows or OS X. BootCamp is currently a public beta but is going to be included as part of OS X Leopard which is being released in November.

You can also purchase a virtual machine software such as Parallels that allows you to actually run Windows as an application inside OS X so you can have both running at the same time. This is what I have done since I need Windows to update my GPS unit.

BootCamp works with Windows XP and Windows Vista only, while Parallels works with all versions of Windows all the way back to 3.1 and with Linux and others as well.

Here are a couple of links to both options in case you are interested in checking out this solution.

Apple - Boot Camp (http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/ - broken link)

Parallels Desktop for Mac

Just a thought.

[nl2134]

Proud Mac user right here

[Marodi]

For laptops I think mac's are on par with PC's. However desktop PC's are far superior being that you can actually change your components with relative ease.

[Mach50]

This doesn't surprise me 1 bit.

Originally Posted by Marodi

For laptops I think mac's are on par with PC's. However desktop PC's are far superior being that you can actually change your components with relative ease.

You can do the same thing on a Mac, I have upgraded my sound card, video card and hard drive all myself on my Mac G5 Tower.

Apple writes drivers for ATI video cards, so they work just fine.

Adding memory is easy on a Mac...

The only thing that is difficult to upgrade is the MBoard and CPU, but by the time you are ready to upgrade that you might as well buy a new machine anyway.

[motormaker]

Anothe Mac gut here. Luv em.