Windows Emulator for a Mac (OSX)

[C.J]

I've a client who needs to run a software on his Mac (Minitab) in order to enrol in one of our courses (Six Sigma).

Minitab isn't compatiable with Mac, so I assume there's some kind of emulator he can use?

He's running OSX, that's all I know.

What's the best/easiest/free software?

 

[Tom]

You'd need a copy of windows.

 

[The Boosh!]

You'd need a copy of windows.

Then you would need to decide how you want to install it.

I'm using parrallels but want to do it via bootcamp when I have attained a legal version of windows.

 

[C.J]

You'd need a copy of windows.

I'll tell him that.

Then you would need to decide how you want to install it.

I'm using parrallels but want to do it via bootcamp when I have attained a legal version of windows.

I need to know if it's something I can pass on, in the simplest form, to a client.

 

[DMS]

Use Boot Camp to install Windows on a separate partition on on the Mac. You'll then have 3 options:

- Boot natively into Windows
- Use VMWare Fusion to run Windows as a virtual machine from within Mac OS
- Use Parallels Desktop to run Windows as a virtual machine from within Mac OS

The above assumes it's an Intel Mac BTW.

 

[Tom]

http://www.virtualbox.org/

Is the cheapest.

 

[The Boosh!]

You have to pay for parrallels which effectively runs windows within OSX. Integrates really well actually, but doesn't perform very well (takes up a lot of ram etc when in use).

The easiest/free way to do it is boot camp.

Open it up in OSX (already installed, search for it in spotlight), install windows via that.

Then the mac is switched on it asks you what operating system you want to run.

 

[DMS]

I've never used Virtualbox myself. Any good?
I'm just running a dodgy copy of VMWare Fusion at the moment. Seems to work just fine.

 

[Christopher]

Boot Camp + a copy of XP.

 

[DMS]

You have to pay for parrallels which effectively runs windows within OSX. Integrates really well actually, but doesn't perform very well (takes up a lot of ram etc when in use).

The easiest/free way to do it is boot camp.

Open it up in OSX (already installed, search for it in spotlight), install windows via that.

Then the mac is switched on it asks you what operating system you want to run.

Boot Camp can be found under Applications > Utilities > Boot Camp Assistant.
It doesn't actually ask you which OS you want to boot into. You have to hold the Alt key down for it to ask (or am I doing something wrong?!)

 

[sn00p]

Always install natively using bootcamp, for the simple reason that Fusion (and I presume parallels) can boot the bootcamp partition as well. Best of both worlds, convenience of a virtual machine and the ability to run native all in the same installation.

There's also virtualbox which is a free virtual machine hosting if you don't fancy paying for VMware or Parallels. AFAIK you can't do the bootcamp trick in this though.

 

[The Boosh!]

Boot Camp can be found under Applications > Utilities > Boot Camp Assistant.
It doesn't actually ask you which OS you want to boot into. You have to hold the Alt key down for it to ask (or am I doing something wrong?!)

Not sure mate as i'm running parrallels but have been looking to move to boot campt. don't know the specifics so I assume you are correct!

 

[DMS]

Apple's official Boot Camp documentation does instruct you to hold the Alt key to get the boot selection screen so I assume that's correct.
Otherwise it'll just boot into the last OS you used automatically. Useful if you hardly ever use one OS or the other.

 

[C.J]

Thanks for the replies!

I've gone back to him with VirtualBox, see what he says.

 

[Craigus]

We run virtual box at work, it's crap.