Windows 7 on a Mac — Caught on Video
I told you about my painless installation of Windows 7 on the Mac. This was using Parallels Desktop on the Mac to install Windows 7 in a virtual machine. I get asked how well Windows runs in a virtual machine on the 13-inch MacBook and the easiest way to demonstrate that is with a video. In this video I have created two Spaces in OS X, one running native OS X and the other Windows 7 in a full screen. I am toggling between the two either via Exposé or via the Option– ← key combination. This screen capture was done through the screen recording feature of QuickTime on the MacBook. Enjoy.
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Why is everything so slow?
“Why is everything so slow?”
Because it’s Windows!
… on a Mac.
James – Is it just me, or is there no audio??
No audio, I had it turned off for this.
I don’t want to be overly critical but “Windows 7 running in a virtual machine” does not equal “Windows 7 on a Mac”..
The virtual machine Windows 7 sees is completely abstracted from the underlying operating system and hardware of the host machine.
e.g. Install Windows 7 in a product like VMWare on a pc running Windows XP, then move it to VMWare Fusion on a mac running OSX, then move it to VMware on a Linux box.. Guess what? The virtual machine is none the wiser.. Why? Because the “hardware” exposed by the virtual machine to Windows hasn’t changed.
Truly, natively running Windows 7 on a mac is a different kettle of fish – you don’t have a virtual machine to shield you from the hardware – driver support is the issue.
That then would be an advantage with a virtual machine.
James,
What does the battery meter on the Mac say with Window 7 in Parallels and the Mac OSX running at the same time?
I’ll have to check it out further. I only got it installed yesterday and haven’t used it on battery yet. I suspect that both OSes running at once will hit the battery pretty hard, though.
I’ve got W7 Ultimate running on Fusion 2 VM. The battery accurately reflects the same state of my Macbook battery meter as far as I can tell. I haven’t field tested it yet to see what it does to the battery life though (it never occurred to me that it would/should even take a hit on life).
One thing I can say (13″ unibody Macbook 2.4/4GB – 1GB dedicated to VM) is that there was a world of difference in performance for me going from Leopard to Snow Leopard. Things are MUCH faster, and minimal lag… Although I primarily work in OSX, I actually keep the VM open now.