How do you make a computer nerd happy? Give him three (or more) operating systems to play with at once on the same machine. But seriously, virtualization software is a real boon for web developers with an interest in cross-platform testing their designs.
Boot Camp is great and the undoubtedly the best choice for playing PC games or where "total immersion" is required (e.g. without the distractions of Mac Mail, NetNewsWire, etc.)
When I'm tweaking my CSS I'll have Transmit (my FTP client) open, and edit my code "live" with BBEdit (a text/ HTML editor). I then refresh Safari and Firefox to check the changes. But rebooting the Mac into Windows just to do the same in Internet Explorer, then rebooting into Mac to re-edit (repeatedly) is no fun. Parallels Desktop for Mac lets me test the effect of the changes in Windows (without rebooting) as easily as I can with the Mac browsers. The same can be said of Ubuntu: 3 operating systems running simultaneously on the same machine sharing the same hardware and broadband connection, all with decent performance:
Download a full-size screen capture showing bioneural.net open in Safari, Firefox (Mac), Internet Explorer 6, and Firefox (Ubuntu). The image is a 940 KB .png file.
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I'm running Ubuntu on an old, noisy G4 PowerMac. You're making me want to go and buy a new Intel Mac (having not that long ago bought a G5 iMac) just for the pleasure of virtualization. What's the performance of Ubuntu like running on Parallels?
Hi .... I am trying to get the Did you pass math Plugin to work with K2 The plugin gets activated but I cant see the question any where near the comment box.
Thanks
Ken, I've not taxed it (only Firefox etc) but Ubuntu certainly feels as snappy as it did (at least) on my PIII Dell. Likewise, Windows XP runs very satisfactorily too.
Bluesaze, I see you got it working (sorry I couldn't respond sooner, I've been abroad). For the benefit of others, what was the problem?
I donno I switched over to the http://www.openswitch.org/ template it started working. :)
Bruce, I've joined the Intel Mac ranks and bought a Mac Mini 1.6 Core Duo. The wife finally consented (wasn't all that hard) and it's our home theater computer. It's really sweet!
I love how it consolidates a bunch of our entertainment sources into one: iTunes, photos, streaming radio, DVDs, torrent downloads, HDTV recordings (using the Elgato EyeTV 500). I'm loving the Front Row experience so far.
I thought about installing Bootcamp for the occasional PC game, but who am I kidding? I haven't played a PC game in over 2 years now. God, that makes me sound old! Instead, I'm getting into emulators again. I've got Nestopia and a slew of Metroid mods. Wow, now that's some old school fun!
Great Rob! I'd always thought my mini would suffer the same fate in it's retirement, connected to the TV with an EyeTV tuner attached—so I'm pleased to hear you're happy with such a setup. I haven't really found a use for Front Row as I'm often working on the Mac, but can see that it would come into its own if I had a library of recordings to browse via the TV (probably wouldn't use it for music or showing photos 'tho). How are you doing the streaming radio; iTunes or radio SHARK?
On the game front you'd need one at least 2 years old to play on the mini anyway: the built-in graphics aren't good for much. Tomb Raider, for example, sometimes gets painfully slow under Bootcamp even with many of the effects turned off. Parallels is a great alternative for when you must run Windows for things other than games.
P.S. Don't call your dearest "The wife"; it's our 10th anniversary this year and I've only ever done that once ;-)
I'm just using iTunes for radio. I have our local stations along with some cool indie stations from across the country in a playlist. Front Row sees all playlists.
Thank goodness I'm not a gamer. Good advice about my spousal name calling. I will take it to heart. :o
Rob, this just in from EntertainMac (via Lifehacker):
Internet Radio in Front Row
Yep, this is what I'm doing, except I didn't bother with a smart playlist. Mine's dumb. ;)