NotebookForums.com › Forums › Notebook Manufacturers › Apple Forums › Apple Notebooks › Virtual PC - how bad is it REALLY?
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Virtual PC - how bad is it REALLY?

post #1 of 16
5/31/05 at 11:35pm
Thread Starter 
Hi,

I'm still doing some final research on this PC to Mac switch, and I have a question about Virtual PC. I've heard horror stories about it -- slow as crap, can't run any worthwhile software, blah, blah, blah -- but I'm wondering how bad it REALLY is.

Anyone know how slow/poor the following programs will run on Virtual PC with a new Powerbook 15 with 1 meg of ram:

* MS FrontPage
* CorelDRAW 7

I've got other lesser known "PC only" software that I *must* be able to run, every day, but most people haven't heard of that software. So, if I can find out how the above software will do on VPC it will give me a pretty good idea of how the lesser known stuff will do.

Any other comments about Virtual PC would be appreciated as well.

Thanks...
Reply
Reply
post #2 of 16
5/31/05 at 11:52pm
nothing that eats up cpu power in raw mode and nothing that needs fancy graphics (ie...runs just fine with 64mb ram and shared gpu) should be ok for VirtualPC...don't quote me on this...just speculation.
Reply
Reply
post #3 of 16
6/1/05 at 12:36am
As great as it would be to have another Mac user enter the fold, Netspots, it doesn't seem like a Mac would be the best solution for you.

If you're still committed to wanting to get a Mac, you could always get Virtual PC for Windows. The performance should be about the same and it would give you a good idea about how well your programmes would work inside of it.

Unfortunately I don't think you'd be satisfied with it, and in your case a PC would probably be the best option.
Reply
Reply
post #4 of 16
6/1/05 at 12:56am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kakaze
As great as it would be to have another Mac user enter the fold, Netspots, it doesn't seem like a Mac would be the best solution for you.

If you're still committed to wanting to get a Mac, you could always get Virtual PC for Windows. The performance should be about the same and it would give you a good idea about how well your programmes would work inside of it.

Unfortunately I don't think you'd be satisfied with it, and in your case a PC would probably be the best option.
Hmmm... so Virtual PC really *is* that bad, huh?

In that case, I'm kinda stumped about the whole Mac thing. With the thousands upon thousands of non-Mac software out there, how could it be possible that you Mac users don't need to use ANY of them?
Reply
Reply
post #5 of 16
6/1/05 at 2:14am
Well, most of those thousands of software are really just useless stuff that can be performed with other apps. If a purpose needs to be served, there's a way to do it on a Mac. Personally, I haven't ran into any software problem that I couldn't get done on a Mac. It can be daunting trying to just attack it head on, but I find that once I'm in the Mac-environment, I just find a way to get whatever done. Typically, this involves freeware or shareware apps that get the work done, and usually in a better fashion.

From my experience with PCs, freeware stuff usually isn't that great. That can't be said about Mac freeware. Half of my apps are small things I've downloaded that only do one function, but they do it very well.
Reply
Reply
post #6 of 16
6/1/05 at 3:04am
Dump the Corel Draw and get Adobe CS2 for Mac. As for front page, i have no clue what that progrom does however it does not sound like a system hog.
Reply
Reply
post #7 of 16
6/1/05 at 3:14am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by michnovichno
Dump the Corel Draw and get Adobe CS2 for Mac.
Do you mean Photoshop? If so, it is totally different than CorelDRAW.

Quote:
Originally Posted by michnovichno
As for front page, i have no clue what that progrom does however it does not sound like a system hog.
If you have no clue what FrontPage is, how do you know it's not a system hog?
Reply
Reply
post #8 of 16
6/1/05 at 4:25am
Quote:
Originally Posted by netspots
Hmmm... so Virtual PC really *is* that bad, huh?
"Bad" is hard to quantify. Considering what it's doing, Virtual PC is a remarkable achievement, but software pretending to be hardware running other software is slow and thus not really practical for anything beyond simple tasks. Anything that would push your computing resources isn't going to be a happy experience in Virtual PC because it'll just take too long.

Quote:
In that case, I'm kinda stumped about the whole Mac thing. With the thousands upon thousands of non-Mac software out there, how could it be possible that you Mac users don't need to use ANY of them?
The more pertinent question is, if us Mac users really had a constant need for software not available on our platform, how could we stay Mac users?

The reason we go through the effort and pay the extra money for Macs is because they not only can do everything we need, we feel they do it better. The fact there's lots of software out there with no specific Macintosh counterpart doesn't mean anything other than that there's a lot of non-Mac software. Just because there's a lot of it doesn't mean you necessarily need a single piece of it. Heck, I don't even need much of the thousands of pieces of Mac software out there. Brief census of my hard drive reveals I have about 165 applications total, 27 in my dock, 6 currently running and and in an overall sense, probably only about 10 that I open up and more than once a week.

I don't know about you, netspots, but the boom of personal computing didn't change the fact that I still only have 24 hours in my day, 7 days in my week, and 365 days in my non-leap years. I don't steadily find a need for more and more pieces of software as time wears on. I only have so much time to do different things, and only so many of them involve my computers.
Reply
Reply
post #9 of 16
6/1/05 at 4:50am
Quote:
Originally Posted by netspots
I've got other lesser known "PC only" software that I *must* be able to run, every day, but most people haven't heard of that software. So, if I can find out how the above software will do on VPC it will give me a pretty good idea of how the lesser known stuff will do.
In a more directly constructive vein, I again must agree with Kakaze. The question any computer user with specific needs has to ask is:

"Will this computer do what I need and will it do it well?"

My own interpretation of that is, the must-have programs for your daily tasks should be solid, stable and native. CorelDraw and Frontpage could be replaced with mainstream alternatives that are OSX native. Your special software though, is another matter. Even if there are functional equivalents for OSX, your own admission of being afraid of change and learning new software is a serious kibosh on that.

So, while my reservoirs of rage from the days I've spent fighting with my friends' Windows machines to beat them into shape bristle at the notion, it might be best if you stuck with the platform you're on. Lousy or not, it seems to be what'll let you comfortably do your work. It's the devil you know.

If you still want to consider switching, you'll have to be a bit more adventurous about the notion of changing tools.
Reply
Reply
post #10 of 16
6/1/05 at 1:49pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Leighgion
In a more directly constructive vein, I again must agree with Kakaze. The question any computer user with specific needs has to ask is:

"Will this computer do what I need and will it do it well?"

My own interpretation of that is, the must-have programs for your daily tasks should be solid, stable and native. CorelDraw and Frontpage could be replaced with mainstream alternatives that are OSX native. Your special software though, is another matter. Even if there are functional equivalents for OSX, your own admission of being afraid of change and learning new software is a serious kibosh on that.

So, while my reservoirs of rage from the days I've spent fighting with my friends' Windows machines to beat them into shape bristle at the notion, it might be best if you stuck with the platform you're on. Lousy or not, it seems to be what'll let you comfortably do your work. It's the devil you know.

If you still want to consider switching, you'll have to be a bit more adventurous about the notion of changing tools.
I appreciate the comments (really), but I'm not 100% sure you guys get what I'm saying (or feeling).

Concerning CorelDraw and Frontpage: sure, I could learn how to use new software... but it's not simply a matter of being adventurous. It takes time. Unfortunately, my business won't stand still while I learn how to use new software. But yes, I understand that there *is* alternate software out there in this case... it's just that it will slow me down (or stop me) for a while.

Concerning the "special" software: there are a few pieces of software I use that are not made for the Mac, and there is not a Mac alternate/replacement for it. Here's just one example: I use "Watch My Domains Professional" to manage my domain names. (you can see it at http://www.domainpunch.com/products/wmdpro/). Without this software I'd be at a huge loss. There are similar products out there -- but they are all PC only.

Anyway... I guess that I was looking for a way to get a Mac because I liked what I saw. But you guys GOTTA understand that there really is certain software out there that is ONLY for the PC, and there is NOT a Mac equivalent. Sad, perhaps... but true.

So yep, you're right. For those of us (like me) that *must* be able to run PC only software, I guess we have no choice but to stay with a PC. And I can list at least a dozen people that I know that are in the same boat as me. They'd like to try a Mac, but can't give up using the PC. And having 2 computers is not a feasible option for many of us.

To be honest, it surprizes me that Apple hasn't come up with a super-duper Virtual PC. I know for a fact that it would bring lots and lots of PC users over to the Mac side. Oh well...
Reply
Reply
post #11 of 16
6/1/05 at 4:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by netspots
To be honest, it surprizes me that Apple hasn't come up with a super-duper Virtual PC. I know for a fact that it would bring lots and lots of PC users over to the Mac side. Oh well...
Not that easy. It's a minor miracle they got it to run at all seeing that it has to virtually emulate another computer while having to solve issues between fundamentally different hardware all on the fly. Even it was, being able to run windows software is not a good idea. IBM released an operating system called OS/2 a while back. Since it could run everything windows could and as a result nobody bothered to program for it.
Reply
Reply
post #12 of 16
6/1/05 at 5:04pm
CorelDRAW 7 is pretty old (I think they're up to 12 right now). As such, Virtual PC for Mac should be able to handle it properly.

You won't be looking at a speed demon, but overall, it should be smooth enough for daily use, I think.

Mind you, I don't have a Mac, nor have I really pushed VPC/Mac, but from observations, it doesn't seem *that* slow. Of course, it also assumes you run all the proper Additions within the virtual machine.

If you have the exact specs of the PowerBook, I could try to find more performace data.
Reply
Reply
post #13 of 16
6/1/05 at 6:42pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by netspots
I appreciate the comments (really), but I'm not 100% sure you guys get what I'm saying (or feeling).

Concerning CorelDraw and Frontpage: sure, I could learn how to use new software... but it's not simply a matter of being adventurous. It takes time. Unfortunately, my business won't stand still while I learn how to use new software. But yes, I understand that there *is* alternate software out there in this case... it's just that it will slow me down (or stop me) for a while.

Concerning the "special" software: there are a few pieces of software I use that are not made for the Mac, and there is not a Mac alternate/replacement for it. Here's just one example: I use "Watch My Domains Professional" to manage my domain names. (you can see it at http://www.domainpunch.com/products/wmdpro/). Without this software I'd be at a huge loss. There are similar products out there -- but they are all PC only.

Anyway... I guess that I was looking for a way to get a Mac because I liked what I saw. But you guys GOTTA understand that there really is certain software out there that is ONLY for the PC, and there is NOT a Mac equivalent. Sad, perhaps... but true.

So yep, you're right. For those of us (like me) that *must* be able to run PC only software, I guess we have no choice but to stay with a PC. And I can list at least a dozen people that I know that are in the same boat as me. They'd like to try a Mac, but can't give up using the PC. And having 2 computers is not a feasible option for many of us.

To be honest, it surprizes me that Apple hasn't come up with a super-duper Virtual PC. I know for a fact that it would bring lots and lots of PC users over to the Mac side. Oh well...
We do get what you're saying Netspots, and we've pretty much come to the conclusion that a Mac isn't for you at this particular time in your life based on your needs.

It's unfortunate that we can't give definitive answers to a lot of your questions, such as those about Virtual PC. Your software might run quite well in VPC, and it might not, and unfortunately it doesn't seem like anyone here uses your software so there's no way to give you any answer about how it will work.

And while there probably is some Windows software out there without a Mac version or equivalent, the majority of it does have a Mac version or Equivalent. Take your Domain name software; a quick google brought me to this: http://www.domainpunch.com/products/macdna/ and this: http://www.seo-scoop.com/sitemanager.cfm

They both seem to be able to manage domains and search them...as to how indepth their capabilities are I have no idea, but it's a start.
Reply
Reply
post #14 of 16
6/2/05 at 1:14am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kakaze
We do get what you're saying Netspots, and we've pretty much come to the conclusion that a Mac isn't for you at this particular time in your life based on your needs.
Yep, I've pretty much come to the same conclusion.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Kakaze
Take your Domain name software; a quick google brought me to this: http://www.domainpunch.com/products/macdna/ and this: http://www.seo-scoop.com/sitemanager.cfm

They both seem to be able to manage domains and search them...as to how indepth their capabilities are I have no idea, but it's a start
Thanks for looking, I appreciate that... but this software does not perform the same functions as the other software I use -- so it can't replace it. But again, thanks.
Reply
Reply
post #15 of 16
6/2/05 at 2:16am
Well, maybe one day you can get a Mac.
Reply
Reply
post #16 of 16
6/2/05 at 3:22am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kakaze
Well, maybe one day you can get a Mac.
Yep... maybe.
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Apple Notebooks
NotebookForums.com › Forums › Notebook Manufacturers › Apple Forums › Apple Notebooks › Virtual PC - how bad is it REALLY?