Comments on: Parallels virtualization: great for productivity, bad for mobility

By: Rick

Rick — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 06:45:09 +0000

I agree on the battery life with Parallels.
Have you tried VMWare Fusion?
I run it with Vista and it is much easier on the battery than parallels. Not as good as OSX alone, but still better.
Also another tip on Vista. A Vista upgrade is a total dog. A clean install is much faster.
Try it!

By: Dave Zatz

Dave Zatz — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 10:33:12 +0000

Confirmed! Battery life indicator drops big time when my XP virtual machine is running (and as I said, heat goes up). Honestly, I only use it for Outlook (regularly) and IE (occasionally).

By: Mike Cane

Mike Cane — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 07:54:17 +0000

Rubbing my hands in glee!

This is all great info! Keep it coming!

By: Bob

Bob — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 22:20:24 +0000

Might be fun to compare straight battery life with XP and Vista booted standalone on that machine, taking OS X and Parallels out of the equation.

By: ebernet

ebernet — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 21:50:35 +0000

If the point is needing to run a couple of apps, I recommend two things:

1. Run XP and NOT Vista
2. Do not use a Bootcamp partition for Parallels, and instead use a Virtual HD. Like that you can suspend Windows when not in use, and not have to stress the hard disk booting it up each time you do need to use it. You bought a Mac to have a Mac -no need to make it a Windows powerhouse. When you want a Windows powerhouse, reboot in Windows - and wait until APple goes final with Bootcamp and provides energy saving drivers for Vista (like they have for XP)

By: Dave Zatz

Dave Zatz — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 16:19:53 +0000

Hmm... I haven't done any measurement of battery life in and out of Parallels. Though I have noticed the MBP definitely runs hotter when it's running. I wonder if XP uses less resources than Vista in a VM? I do have a Vista VM, but I mostly use XP. I don't have a good reason, other than XP is faster.

By: Mike Cane

Mike Cane — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 13:55:51 +0000

I'm glad you're finally writing about the MacBook (you got a Pro?!!?). I didn't know this about running Vista on it. Are you really getting about 3.5 hrs of battery life in native OS X mode? Why did you pick that particular Mac browser?

Reference: OS X Web Browsers
http://mikecane.wordpress.com/2007/03/09/reference-os-x-web-browsers/

Given that Apple is rumored to come out with *MultiTouch* units later this year, I'm thinking I should skip these current MBs and go with a Samsung Q til later this year.