[drphoto]

As I transition out of photography and into pharmacy, I have to deal w/ Windows based software. I'd like to stick w/ Mac if possible, and boot in XP when necessary. Does it work well? I'm talking about Bootcamp and running windows natively, not in emulation.

The one unfortunate fact is that the Macbooks are so much more expensive. I got an email from CompUSA that had Lenovo Thinkpad w/ dual core Intel, 2 gig RAM, etc running XP for around $700.

[Crimson]

FWIW, virtualization works very well. The only program I absolutely have to run in Windows is AutoCAD which is quite the resource hog and processor-intensive. I used to run it in native XP with Bootcamp, and then tried the trial version of Parallels 3.0. I haven't used Bootcamp since, and this is on an 'older' Core Duo black Macbook with 2 GB of RAM. Windows under Bootcamp works great; I just find having to switch back and forth between OSes a PITA.

[yooper]

I run Windows XP (bootcamp) on a Mac Mini and an iMac.  While I don't make a habit of running XP, both computers work without a glitch. 

My sister also has a Macbook Pro, started college and is now required to log into a couple "Windows only" websites to do some homework. (come on! WAY to many college kids with Macbooks now, get it together!).
Anywho, I helped her set up bootcamp and she has no issues either.

Mark

[mnel34]

I am running Vista 32 bit on a  I Mac 1.83 ghz with 4 gig of ram  I use boot camp and all works fine except . The Apple usb mouse works fine on Mac OSX or Windows but the Apple wireless key board does not work on Windows . I can use the old Windows USB key board fine on OSX or Windows but I like the Apple key board better. Anybody have a idea how to get Windows to see the Apple wireless Key board ?

[floobydust]

FWIW, virtualization works very well. The only program I absolutely have to run in Windows is AutoCAD which is quite the resource hog and processor-intensive. I used to run it in native XP with Bootcamp, and then tried the trial version of Parallels 3.0. I haven't used Bootcamp since, and this is on an 'older' Core Duo black Macbook with 2 GB of RAM. Windows under Bootcamp works great; I just find having to switch back and forth between OSes a PITA.

 I have both Parallels and VMware Fusion running on the MacBook Pro. Fusion allows you to allocate multiple CPU cores to the virtual machine (version 2 supports up to 4 cores), more than 2GB of memory plus 64-bit OS capability. For something like AutoCAD it should give you a nice boost in performance.

 Regards, KM