Run WinOS (and FM) on a MAC OS X

[Barry Campbell]

I switched to a MacBook (one of the new Intel Mac laptops) about two months
ago, and have been using it ever since as my primary work machine.

I tried Boot Camp but didn't like having to reboot whenever I wanted to run
a Windows program, so I purchased and installed Parallels Desktop, and have
disk images set up that allow me to run Windows XP or Linux; both work fine.

And FileMaker 7.2 runs just fine on Windows XP in a Parallels Desktop
window. :-)

I *will* say that the performance of Office 2004 for Macintosh is slow on
the new Intel Macs, even with plenty of memory (I have 2GB of RAM in my
laptop.)  I actually get better results running Office 2003 in the Windows
XP virtual environment than I do running the Mac version of Office -- Mac
Office is not available as a universal binary yet, and runs via Rosetta.
And it draaaaaaaaags.

Other than the Office issues, actually, the MacBook is a terrific primary
machine for a technical writer, and once an Intel-native version of Office
is available for the Mac, it will be just about perfect. I *love*
OmniOutliner (outlining tool, obviously) and OmniGraffle (Visio equivalent,
but nicer.)

A few more thoughts on MacBooks and technical communications here
(gratuitous self-link):

http://campbell-online.com/blog/2006/07/02/geeking-out-with-a-new-laptop/

- bc

-- 
Barry Campbell <barry at campbell-online.com>
http://campbell-online.com