What are your experiences with bootcamp?
What problems and solutions do you have?

New Mac user here.
Got a 1.83 macbook, upgraded Ram to 2Gb, and hard drive to 120GB. (non apple upgrade but much cheaper) :)
But i'm still pretty attached to the windows system since all my softwares and files and networks are PC. I'm so clueless on the mac. Needless to say I'm running bootcamp/ xp most of the time, had it not been for bootcamp, i'll still be on the PC.

Very happy with bootcamp! NOt expecting it to be a seamless transition though.

No right click > solution use a software to assign a key to teh command button! It works!

No delete key, can't use ctrl-alt-del: use external mouse to get right click, right click the lower right task bar and get to the task manager

Brightness and sound buttons don't work - minor

It's been only a week. So far been pretty happy with it, with a few hiccups.
main problem is adobe bridge won't preview my raw files, works okay with photoshop cs2 though. Not sure why. so it's back to canon's DPP for me.
But Cs2 itself is way faster on bootcamp than on my previous laptop.

Don't get too cozy with BootCamp though. I use it to play windows games on my iMac coz the games are cheaper and more plentiful, but that's it.

Bootcamp is set to expire once Leopard (OS X 10.5) is released so all those bootcamp installs may cease to function after a set time.

@Dave

if bootcamp cease to function in MAC's then is it right to assume that Windows can no longer run on the macbook? Can we still have a dual operating system as soon as Leopard comes out?

I'm cosidering to upgrade to a macbook.....because I would want to be able to play my windows games in my laptop.

No Apple does not intend to continue allowing dual boot. What it does intend to do is allow one to install Windows applications directly into OS X 10.5 without requiring Windows at all.

I am definately speculating, but that's the general perception floating all over the net.

had it been intentional, bootcamp is great marketing move for mac! and it would be in their best interest to allow it to happen.
Knowing how deeply entrenched some people already are into windows, it would have been much harder to convince people to buy a mac. Bootcamp allowed "downward compatibility" so to speak. At the very least if i can't make something work in mac, i still have something to go back to. Bootcamp made the transition possible. It's two laptops in one. PC and work on one side, personal and photography on the other. Way Cool!

so far i'm liking the mac side, in the meantime:
don't forget to install your antvirus on the windows. ;)
Oh yeah, don't hibernate as well. :) trust me!

No Apple does not intend to continue allowing dual boot. What it does intend to do is allow one to install Windows applications directly into OS X 10.5 without requiring Windows at all.

I definately speculating, but that's the general perception floating all over the net.


So Dave, what's the speculation of when 10.5 will be released? Install Windows apps directly into OSX? Excellent!

You can actually do it NOW in OS X 10.4 using a commercial application called Parallels (http://www.parallels.com/en/products/workstation/mac/). This solution is similar to the old Virtual PC BUT remember both OS are now intel native so you get superior performance from the XP running within OS X.

http://www.parallels.com/files/upload/desktop_1.gif

Apple's track record for releasing a major OS upgrade is 18 months. Tiger was introduced to the public in May of 2005 so we are expecting an announcement in Macworld in August with potential release to the public by December... AGAIN pre-empting Microsoft Vista which has been pushed back (again and again and again) for a 2007 release.

By the time Vista is out (admittedly incorporating some features we Mac users have been enjoying since Panther (2 versions ago), Apple will be well on it's way starting it's next version.

hows the performance of parallels compared to bootcamp?
I'm guessing that if mac comes up with an integrated solution for PC users that it might work too to bring more people over to the Mac camp.

i haven't tried photoshop on the macbook, heard it's much slower at this point compared to the windows version? Has anyone tried this?

I gave the bootcamp xp a workout last night on photoshop. Processed 350 raw files. THe macbook ran very hot, but Very speedy! My main gripe about bootcamp would be the raw files don't preview on Adobe bridge, but i discovered the dng converter works and i'm a happy camper. highly recomended.

Going back and forth between the two programs is quite painless especially since the macbook side boots up really quickly. but the problem would be space on hard drives, there's got to be ample space to support the two Operating systems. They both demand a lot of space, and so it's better to upgrade to a larger drive. You need two sets of software to burn Cd/dvds, two of everything pretty much. heard you can share a few things like itunes and mp3s but i haven't tried it.

Dave,

I downloaded a demo version and installed it. I find it odd. Can't run my printing RIP on it. I don't think it would also be a good place to edit Photoshop. Resolution doesn't look right, unless I'm doing something wrong. I'll check it out again just in case I'm doing something wrong.

Hi Nick,

Have you tried putting parallels on full screen mode? Or were you on windowed mode only? Haven't tried printing yet so I can't help you with that.


@enjoy re: mbp w/ PS
I've tried using CS2 on an MBP side by side with my pbook and timed a few tests. I had some graphic design buddies and they conducted the tests. A lot of the tests, the MBP did faster than the last of the line PBook 1.67ghz. But others it seems the PBook was faster.

hows the performance of photoshop in your MBP (mac) vs bootcamp or parallels?

Wouldn't it be wiser to just wait for CS3? than to get the CS2 to run on the MacBook since it's not universal binary yet?

Update... It's official, Bootcamp will be included in Leopard.

I run CS2 in Rosetta and it's ok.

Never found it slow at all.

same here CS2 in Rosetta (mini core duo w/ 1.25gb ram) pretty fast even with aperture at the same time.

hi dave, i tried installing parallels but it gives me this message which i found in their FAQ:

I've powered on Virtual Machine and got a black screen with a message “No boot device available”. What's wrong?

answer:
Such situation happens when the hard disk is already partitioned but hasn't yet an Operating System installed. Check that you have your bootable and installation media connected and the appropriative Boot sequence ('CD-ROM, Hard disk, Floppy' or 'Floppy, Hard disk, CD-ROM') is set in the Virtual Machine properties.

meaning.....

i have bootcamp installed in this machine too. does it mean that i would have to repartition my drive to use parallels and discard bootcamp?

any ideas guys?

Your query about parallels is already quite in-depth so might I suggest you take your question to philmug.ph. That's the real Mac users forum in the Philippines and I'm sure they'll get you running in a jiffy.

yup i did dave. in davmug and imug ill go to philmug too. thanks sir.

hmmm need a referer there. anyone in philmug want to refer me? thanks guys

Use me as referrer... Dave_D

ok sir got it

thanks

paul i hope you find your answers there, 99% of my mac knowledge in the past 2+ months was because of philmug! :D goodluck!

hmmm might try this so i could use picasa... but it says at apple.com that i need 10gb free space before i download,, is it gonna use all 10gb of hard drive space? coz i will install it at my laptop and i can't afford to lose that much space.....:(

if you only have a 60gb hard drive, and partition it equally to less than 30gb, then both the bootcamp (windows) and mac partition could be used by either operating system. data and programs can be installed on either partition. So you don't necessarily loose 10gb worth of space. But it's a different story if you upgrade your hard drive or use a larger partition. i would suggest using parallels instead if you have a much larger hardrive or plan to use partitions larger than 30gb (fat32).

if you only have a 60gb hard drive, and partition it equally to less than 30gb, then both the bootcamp (windows) and mac partition could be used by either operating system. data and programs can be installed on either partition. So you don't necessarily loose 10gb worth of space. But it's a different story if you upgrade your hard drive or use a larger partition. i would suggest using parallels instead if you have a much larger hardrive or plan to use partitions larger than 30gb (fat32).

thanks enjy,, but for the meantime i'll try apple softwares na lang like lightroom ( like this one ) and aperture,, thanks for the suggestion