Vista or XP on a Macbook
I'm going to install Windows on my girlfriend's Macbook. Vista or XP, I'm not sure which would be better. She will be using it for work primarily for Excel and Microsoft Visio.
I think all she needs is XP but I don't know if Vista is "better".
I heard that Vista is supposed to be much more secure than XP.
On the other hand I heard that Vista requires a graphics card that has 128mb of dedicated graphics memory; the macbook doesn't have any dedicated graphics memory. (My brother just purchased Vista and a lot of the visual bells and whistles, like cascading windows, don't run because he has a graphics card that has only 64mb of graphics memory.)
Also, I thought I read somewhere that when installing Vista on a Mac, you can only install the most expensive version. Does anyone know if this is true?
Also, I don't know if I should be concerned that Vista will take up more HD space than XP. She has a 120GB HD. We were thinking of partitioning 32GB to Windows. (Using the Fat32 file format, 32GB is the maximum space that can allocated while still keeping it stable.)
Does anyone have any advice and or clarification to the things I have heard.
Thanks in advance for the advice.
I think all she needs is XP but I don't know if Vista is "better".
I heard that Vista is supposed to be much more secure than XP.
On the other hand I heard that Vista requires a graphics card that has 128mb of dedicated graphics memory; the macbook doesn't have any dedicated graphics memory. (My brother just purchased Vista and a lot of the visual bells and whistles, like cascading windows, don't run because he has a graphics card that has only 64mb of graphics memory.)
Also, I thought I read somewhere that when installing Vista on a Mac, you can only install the most expensive version. Does anyone know if this is true?
Also, I don't know if I should be concerned that Vista will take up more HD space than XP. She has a 120GB HD. We were thinking of partitioning 32GB to Windows. (Using the Fat32 file format, 32GB is the maximum space that can allocated while still keeping it stable.)
Does anyone have any advice and or clarification to the things I have heard.
Thanks in advance for the advice.
Comments
I'm going to install Windows on my girlfriend's Macbook. Vista or XP, I'm not sure which would be better. She will be using it for work primarily for Excel and Microsoft Visio.
I think all she needs is XP but I don't know if Vista is "better".
I heard that Vista is supposed to be much more secure than XP.
On the other hand I heard that Vista requires a graphics card that has 128mb of dedicated graphics memory; the macbook doesn't have any dedicated graphics memory. (My brother just purchased Vista and a lot of the visual bells and whistles, like cascading windows, don't run because he has a graphics card that has only 64mb of graphics memory.)
Also, I thought I read somewhere that when installing Vista on a Mac, you can only install the most expensive version. Does anyone know if this is true?
Also, I don't know if I should be concerned that Vista will take up more HD space than XP. She has a 120GB HD. We were thinking of partitioning 32GB to Windows. (Using the Fat32 file format, 32GB is the maximum space that can allocated while still keeping it stable.)
Does anyone have any advice and or clarification to the things I have heard.
Thanks in advance for the advice.
I'm a dual platform user. Vista has so many compatability issues with drivers and hardware that I would strongly recommend against using it. For your intended usage, you will be much better off with XP.
Even better, since the only 2 programs mentioned are Excel and Visio, you can use MS Excel on the Mac and in lieu of MS Visio, use OmniGraffle 4
http://www.omnigroup.com/applications/omnigraffle/
Besides being much better than Visio, the program can impost and export Visio files. You can also get many free "extras" which include pre-written stencils , diagrams , flowcharts etc. You can do all your work in Graffle and then export to Visio for co-workers if needed.
I'm going to install Windows on my girlfriend's Macbook. Vista or XP, I'm not sure which would be better. She will be using it for work primarily for Excel and Microsoft Visio.
I think all she needs is XP but I don't know if Vista is "better".
I heard that Vista is supposed to be much more secure than XP.
On the other hand I heard that Vista requires a graphics card that has 128mb of dedicated graphics memory; the macbook doesn't have any dedicated graphics memory. (My brother just purchased Vista and a lot of the visual bells and whistles, like cascading windows, don't run because he has a graphics card that has only 64mb of graphics memory.)
Also, I thought I read somewhere that when installing Vista on a Mac, you can only install the most expensive version. Does anyone know if this is true?
Also, I don't know if I should be concerned that Vista will take up more HD space than XP. She has a 120GB HD. We were thinking of partitioning 32GB to Windows. (Using the Fat32 file format, 32GB is the maximum space that can allocated while still keeping it stable.)
Does anyone have any advice and or clarification to the things I have heard.
Thanks in advance for the advice.
Well, I will say when you first install Vista, I might be able to say it's too secure, if that makes any sense. You need to turn off some of the warnings cause every time you open an app, click something, download something, or do anything for that matter, Vista will ask you "do you want to allow this", or "did you mean to open this program", and some other ones. I turned a lot of them off because it was getting a little too ridiculous. As for needing the most expensive one, that's not true. It tells you what versions are compatible when your installing boot camp and I remember seeing a lot of different ones. I will say it is graphic intensive, but I've herd of people installing Vista on a MBP, a Macbook Might be a different story, being that it has integrated GFX. Um, about FAT32 and all that, I installed Vista with I think 40gigs, I don't think I made it any more than that, but I do use MacDrive for everything. You can read/write to Mac HDDs without a problem, and it's only 50 bucks. It's probably the smartest thing I've bought for my computer in a while. Now I can just have the OS's on one hdd and have everything else on my other drives, look into it. Being that your GF isn't going to be doing anything the absolutely requires Vista, I would just go with XP. You know it works, you know what the problems are already, and with anti-virus, and some spy ware apps, your pretty much ok. Try it out. What's the worst that can happen, you need to erase the partition and install again? It doesn't take more than 20 mins.
Thanks for your input. I agree, since she is just using those two programs, it seems like it would be easier to just work on the Mac OS and use Omni Graph. I suggested this to her.
We did install Office 2004 for Mac. Although there was a small issue for her with the Mac version of Excel. On the PC version there is a short cut that she uses quite a bit. When playing around with the Mac version she discovered that although the command is listed in the menu bar, there is no short-cut for it. (Is there a way for her to create a short-cut?). It sounded she normally uses the short-cut so much that the Mac version (without the short-cut) would have a significant impact on her efficiency.
When I suggested Omni Graph, she was open to it, but she thought that Visio made more sense since her partners use Visio and at least on of her clients uses Visio. She is a Financial Annalist. So she thought it would be better to stay with Visio so that everyone is always on the same page. Also sometimes she does stuff in Visio for her partners.
Given all of this running Windows did seem to make the most sense.
Although, I didn't know that Omni Graph could import and export Visio files. If we could just get the short cut situation in Excel solved, then perhaps she might be able to do everything she needs in the Mac OS! Thank you very much for your input it really helps. Please let me know if you know anything about how to create a short-cut. I just called her. The short-cut on the PC that she uses is:
Alt-E-S (for doing the function "Paste Special")
(Is there a way for her to create a short-cut?).
You can define shortcuts for any application if you go to the System Prefs > Keyboard & Mouse > Keyboard Shortucts. The click the plus button and select the application. Then type in the name of the menu item exactly including capitals. Then choose whatever shortcut. I can't remember if you need to relaunch the application - make sure the shortcut is not used already, I doubt alt-E-S will be though. I would recommend making it a shorter command if it's used a lot, this way she will increase her productivity more.
When I suggested Omni Graph, she was open to it, but she thought that Visio made more sense since her partners use Visio and at least on of her clients uses Visio. She is a Financial Annalist. So she thought it would be better to stay with Visio so that everyone is always on the same page. Also sometimes she does stuff in Visio for her partners.
You can run Visio and Excel in Parallels or Crossover too. This saves dual booting. It's annoying that the whole Office suite for Windows still runs faster than any word processing app under OS X even in virtualization. The programs open as soon as you finish double-clicking.
http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxmac/
For the money, Parallels gives you better value and compatibility but you don't need Windows with Crossover (play the movie on the above link to see).
Vista is:
* More secure
* More future-proof
* Simpler
and furthermore, it's easily available. IE 7 is much better than IE 6 and only vista includes the dramatically more secure IE 7 (IE 7 for XP is much less secure due to lack of protected mode). Of course, it appears to still be less secure than Mac OS X!
Vista will fit in about 32 GB without problems it takes up about 12 for itself. Very hoggy but that leaves enough for visio and such with no space problems.
Finally, Vista does work with the GMA950 however if you get Home Basic you don't get Aero anyway. Aero is just a bunch of special effects IMHO anyway so not a big deal. My Grandma uses Home Basic and it works fine.
I would recommend Vista. Home Basic.
Even when the people selling it are calling it bad value for money?
Vista is:
* More secure
* More future-proof
* Simpler
The first point remains to be seen.
The second point yes but XP will be supported for a long time yet and Vista lacks support that XP already has.
Lastly, I didn't find Vista easier to use. It was actually harder because they've moved everything around compared to XP.
Vista will fit in about 32 GB without problems it takes up about 12 for itself. Very hoggy but that leaves enough for visio and such with no space problems.
XP takes up about 2GB. It's also much better supported in virtualization programs.
Seriously though, I've got a PC running Vista Home Basic and whilst it looks kinda nice, there are quite a few security and compatibility issues. I would install XP, it's proved itself.. install Vista after they release Vista SP1
I would also recommending isolating it from the internet - sort of like putting a condom on Windows - in order to avoid the various malware lurking around. Start with a dual boot if you don''t go with 2000+parallels and move to Parallels if re-booting becomes a pain.