I installed Windows XP on my MacBook Pro today so I could use a few necessary applications that are Windows only, mainly AutoCAD and the ARE practice software (which might be the most antiquated, poorly written piece of shi...I mean software I've ever used, but I digress). I won't go through the process as I'm pretty late to the Boot Camp party, and a lot of other really good Boot Camp guides currently hang out on the internets.
There is a level of comfort in knowing that you can dual boot to use some Windows-only software or use a Windows-only device, but what I find really cool is that Boot Camp basically gives you a second computer for around $100. I would have loved to install Vista on my machine so I could get a little more familiar with the OS (and have a new toy to play with), but my software required XP. Thanks Prometric! I think Boot Camp is a really good solution for people who are curious about Macs and don't have to heavily lean on Windows for productivity outside of the office. Fusion and Parallels are also good, but Boot Camp is free and it runs at native speed, which is nice for heavy software. Boot Camp provides an easy way to delete your Windows partition if you decide that the big W is too much ugly or too much evil for your new beauty to handle.
The install tells you to print out the "Installation and Setup Guide" (26 pages) prior to starting your Boot Camp party, which you'll need to do as you won't be able to access a digital guide during the process. The guide is nice and detailed with graphics to help you recognize certain points along the way, although the Windows portion could be a little more detailed - There are several moments during the Windows installation where the computer sort of freezes for a minute or two and there is no note of these pauses in the guide, which would be nice for impatient people like me. I also had one hiccup during my installation where my computer completely froze and would not boot from the Windows disc until I rebooted the machine.
Not a whole lot to the install and once it's done, it's just Windows....on your Mac. My install runs fine. All of the Leopard drivers work perfectly, my Apple Bluetooth keyboard paired without any problems, and the Boot Camp utility makes rebooting to the OS of your choice a snap.
The part of Boot Camp that takes the longest........installing all the critical Windows updates.
2 Comments:
I took the VMware Fusion route because it was free (work bought it for me) and because I've been extremely impressed with VMware over the past few years running Windows on my Linux computers.
It works pretty well. I'm curious to know if it's fast enough to run AutoCAD. You should definitely get a 30 day trial key and point it at your Bootcamp partition.
I think I'm going to buy it soon when 2.0 comes out.
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