What programs will/won't work with this solution?

[pokermac]

Does anybody know?

I use my mac for home and work. I just bought a vaio which is absolute junk in terms of design, functionality compared with the powerbook. The ideal for me would be to have a MacBook Pro with an easy dual boot solution that I could VPN tunnel in to work with (IT only supports windows VPN).

I also like to play poker on my mac (www.poker-mac.com (http://www.poker-mac.com)) and it would be cool to be able to get onto bodog, party, etc...

So what will and won't work with narf's solution?

thanks

[fezzasus]

Everything should work with this solution, it is a completly seperate install of windows, nothing is emulated so there is no difference now between a macbook running windows to a pc laptop of similar spec running windows (although you do have the option with the macbook pro to run mac, i hope that once people have got over the inital novelty of running windows most will find themselves running os x)

the current problem is finding drivers that work with the mac's hardware, i understand that the graphics driver is the most important because the main reason for people having a pc over a mac is to play games, mac's can do everything else

[Sixfortyfive]

I think the big issues right now are device drivers (mainly display and stuff like bluetooth, wifi, etc). Games that don't require hardware acceleration (like the poker stuff you mentioned) are probably good to go.

[pokermac]

Wow,

That's sweet -- so we'll need drivers for the fifteen button mouse and the HP Printer, etc... but any software running on XP (i.e. VPN stuff from citrix, etc... and games will run fine).

Why are people so freakin' out about playing Games then? B/C we need a driver for the graphics accelerator in the MBP? I see - so Counterstrike will run but really poorly?

thanks

[Maaij]

BT keyboard from Apple works fine

[pokermac]

Maaij,

so are you booting into your choice at startup and its working fine?

[kitesnow]

While impatiently waiting for my MBP I wonder:

Does anyone have MS Office working, in particular Access at reasonable speed?

Thanks

[hokutorii]

Hey kitesnow,

I'm waiting for my MacBook Pro as well. Either way, just wanted to say that Office should run totally fine. Mind you I obviously haven't tested it, but from what I understand 2d is fine. It's just the 3d accelleration that's missing right now for games. Things like office don't need hardware accelleration and should run at 100% speed. Remember, this isn't like using Virtual PC or something like that. You can think of it as being like a brand new desktop PC, but with a piece of crap 2D only video card. Office should run just as fast as any brand new PC core duo laptop.

[Steve1496]

I can confirm:
Office runs fine, not sure about Access though.
Microsoft Activesync crashes the computer or me.

http://wiki.onmac.net/index.php/Software_Problems

[bgd]

Will programs using their own bootloaders to boot into Windows work?

Specifically, I'm very interested in whether there is any possibility that full disk encryption utilities like DriveCrypt Plus Pack (http://www.securstar.com/products_drivecryptpp.php) could work with this solution. These utilities install their own bootloader for pre-boot authentication before they boot into and decrypt the Windows partition 'on the fly'...

[reggie]

I've configured an MBP to dual boot. Here's the result...

Software
- Windows XP SP2 with latest security download and PAR's are all okay
- Office XP Pro, all apps are running just fine
- MacDrive Version 6
- Mcafee Security Center
- SQL Server 2000
- MS Project 2003

All software running just fine, a little bit of a detectable slowdown due to the video drivers but perfectly usable and acceptable

General Observations
- I loaded the recommended drivers for the wireless, its functioning just fine
- Both partitions are visible inside of OSX with the XP partition being read only
- Macdrive allows me to read/write to the OSX partition from XP
- Mighty Mouse plugs and plays just fine
- The video, albeit lagging a little is perfectly acceptable for work related stuff
- USB's are behaving correctly


Any Questions?

[CyberDoberman]

I've finally got my 20" iMac booting great.

Problem is... when I use Dvdshrink to backup a DVD, it works great when backing up to a hard disk.

If I try to back up to a dual layer DVD using the Nero plugin (nero 7)... the iMac will just reboot at a random part of the burn. WILL NOT BURN THE DISC COMPLETELY. I have $20 worth of TOASTERS now.

Any suggestions?

This is the ONLY software loaded on windows:

dvdshrink and NERO7.

I've installed the following drivers:

Sound, Lan, and iNtel 945