Philoking.comfrom Jason Burns’ perspective…

I decided to give Windows Vista Ultimate under OS X 10.5 Leopard’s Bootcamp option one more shot. This also includes integration with VMWare’s Fusion for my particular setup. The machine in question is a relatively new Macbook Pro laptop. It’s got a 2.2Ghz Core 2 Duo processor with 4 GB of Ram and a 120 GB hard disk. I had tried this once before with less than stellar results, but after reading about one of my contacts on Pownce trying it, I decided to use my spare time this Saturday to give it one more shot.

I started by deleting my current Windows Vista VMWare virtual machine and then began the process of setting up Bootcamp. Lucky for me this time went much smoother with the Bootcamp Assistant. It created the 32 GB Partition very quickly and before I knew it I was rebooted into Windows Vista’s installer and was on my way.

The Windows Vista installer, as in all of my previous experience is quick and simple. I don’t have metrics to back it up, but I am almost positive that Windows Vista Ultimate installs faster than Windows 95 did. That’s not too bad for an install that takes up a whopping 10 GB when it’s finished. All in all the install itself takes about 15 minutes.

I only wish that the updates were as fast. Right off the bat I had 44 updates to install. That process took about an hour to complete. Of course that is Internet speed dependant but I wouldn’t consider ours to be slow per the average.

The Apple Bootcamp installer went without fail this time. I was pretty sure that this was the exact reason I had troubles the first time. Oddly enough, the one really annoying problem I had before was that I could not get Vista to assign the laptop a Windows Experience Index score. This time it went without a hitch and I am humming along with a Windows Vista Experience Index of 4.5. The 4.5 is brought down by the hard disk performance specifically, with 3 GB of ram (don’t ask me why Vista won’t see all 4 GB) gave me a 5.1 on memory and the 256 MB GeForce graphics chimed in a speedy 5.9. Pretty respectable scores for a portable computer.

After I had set up the 3rd party applications and anti-virus software I wanted to use, I booted back into OS X to get it set back up in VMWare Fusion again. This wasn’t nearly as straight forward as it could be. Although I had removed the VM partition, the boot camp one was still right where it should be. The only problem was it was showing the old boot camp partition I had created and would not actually boot. There is a good tip here…

Removing the machine from the VMWare Virtual Machine Library is not enough, you have to also delete a Bootcamp file so that the machine will start fresh setting up the Bootcamp virtual machine again. That file is:

\Users\{yourid}\Library\Application Support\VMware Fusion\Virtual Machines\Boot Camp\%2Fdev%2Fdisk0\Boot Camp Partition

After you have deleted this file, close VMWare Fusion if it’s open, then re-open it. After a few seconds "Boot Camp partition" should appear in the Virtual Machine Library and you can start the setup again. It will boot Windows Vista (or whatever OS you have installed via Bootcamp) and then once it loads it will start installing the VMWare Tools for you. After this is complete you will be set!

Now that I have it set up this way I am quite pleased with the outcome. When I am running in Bootcamp I have a blazing fast Vista machine. When I am in OS X, I can easily read the OS files via the new Vista HD icon on my desktop (If you want to change the name of the Vista partition, simply change it in Windows and it will be changed in OS X) or I can open the machine via VMWare Fusion and use it. When in Fusion I lose Aero and there is an obvious performance loss, but I am writing this blog in Windows Live Writer via VMWare Fusion right now and it’s running along just fine.

A few last thoughts
Why Apple can’t get tap-to-click working in the Bootcamp OS makes no sense to me. The touchpad obviously supports it and every Windows laptop I have ever had supported it also so I know the OS does too. Multi touch obviously works because you can hold two fingers on the touchpad and click the button for a right-click.

I have to say this makes for quite the versatile machine. I can do pretty much anything I could ever need to with this laptop now. In case you didn’t back track through the links on this article, I started with running Windows XP in Parallels. I could not get Windows Vista to install in Parallels. I decided to switch to VMWare Fusion and I could not be happier with it.

I sure love my Macbook Pro, but a little known secret was that I really wanted the smaller Macbook. Given the difference in power and capability, I went with the Macbook Pro. Mostly for the Expresser slot for my cell modem and better video.

I have been pondering a purchase of an iMac for awhile now, but if this is what really drops at Macworld today, you can bet my trusty Macbook pro will be setting pretty in my office and this baby will be in my bag. Bring it on Jobs!

After reading this article on Macenstein this evening, I felt compelled to bang out a quick blog to add a little truth to the reality distortion field that is already reaching fever pitch more than 12 hours away from Steve Jobs’ keynote at Macworld tomorrow.

The article’s title "On Macworld Eve: Two more mails in Vista’s coffin," makes me want to ponder his points a little more. First let me be clear on a few facts

I am a Mac user. I love my Macbook Pro. I love my iPod, and I love OS X.

Now for the disclosure that will shock and cause your brain to hurt. I work for Microsoft. I use Windows Vista every day on a desktop and a laptop. I actually really like Windows Vista too. So with that said, let’s look at some reality and alternate points of view. For the sake of this article, I am going to pretend (actually I am not pretending, I do) use ProTools on a Mac. Let’s rewind to Mac OS X Panther and pretend that I am running a shiny PowerMac dual 2.0 Ghz tower with the latest version of Pro Tools on it. Again, it’s not really hypothetical, I was.

So OS X Tiger came out and I wanted it. The only problem is that ProTools wouldn’t work with OS X Tiger. Only Panther. Sound familiar?

Now let’s fast forward to last year, I ran out to get Leopard, installed it on a brand spankin’ new current 2.2Ghz Macbook Pro and bam, bluescreen. Time Machine ran like crap on a brand new dedicated hard disk. There were glitches abound.

Since when are these things unique to Microsoft? Now we read that there is a petition to keep Microsoft from giving up selling Windows XP. Here is the reality…

If you are using a new computer with current software, Windows Vista works just fine. If you are using an older computer, keep XP on it, it’s probably on it anyway.

Microsoft may very well extend the life of XP, that’s anyone’s guess. But the negativity is pointless. I say instead of giving Vista the finger, give Vista a chance. It’s actually pretty damned solid on good hardware.

UK Schools Ditching Windows?
Here is another take at bait and switch titling. Just because a school isn’t adopting Vista and Office 07 (which is common practice for corporations and educational institutions since Windows 2000 came out to replace NT4) doesn’t mean they are going all Mac or taking up the Linux bandwagon. It just means they aren’t making a commitment to Vista yet. This again, is common practice.

The point is that the tornado that is "hate Vista propaganda" is getting ridiculous. Ethical journalism has long left the building and people are now debating pure hyperbole and buzz. Nobody looks at the facts, the real compatibility and most of all most of the people writing the articles aren’t using it.

Get the facts, give it a shot, and don’t do it on your grandpa’s old commodore 64, use a reasonable system.