Questions for the Mac People

I recently purchased a 2011 13" i5 MBP. It's a really good computer and I'm enjoying it. I do have a few questions for those of you who use a Mac:

1. I've been using the built-in mail client. It does what I need it to do but is there a better client perhaps? On my past Windows box, I used Outlook 2010. With Outlook I couldn't sync my contacts with Gmail (I had to export them to a .csv file and then import to Google contacts). iContacts I don't have to as it will sync automatically. iCal I love as I don't have to use Google Calendar Sync. And with Lion coming out soon, it looks like the Mail client will be getting some improvements.

2. Windows. I'm torn as to what to do here. There are some Windows applications I use (mostly Adobe products). I can't switch the license to Windows because my wife still uses them as well (she is on a Windows laptop). Would I be better off utilizing Boot Camp and have a separate Windows partition I could boot in to? Or should I use Virtual Box/VM Ware payer, etc to have a virtual Windows environment? I've read that graphic intense applications really don't really run as well in a virtual environment as they do in their own dedicated. The heaviest graphics that I do is the editing of photos in Photoshop. I should also add that I'm still running 4gb of RAM - I'm not sure when I'll upgrade to 8gb.

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Comments

ConradJ

Sorry to be a nitpicker, but do you mean a 2011? The i5 wasn't available until 2009!

rwmidl

I meant 2011 (thanks for the catch - it's corrected).

kriscamaro68

Well you may want to use office 2011 as outlook finally has come to mac and they did away with entourage (thank goodness). Office 2011 for mac was made to be very similar to office 2010 for pc in function and looks.

As for windows. VMware Fusion works great on mac's but if you are going to edit photo's in raw or very high res jpegs that are multiple megs in size then I would use bootcamp. I use both on my mac laptop as I sometimes play games on the windows bootcamp side. I'll use the vm for more basic tasks that require windows.

If your goinng to buy memory for it down the road check newegg. That is where I buy my memory for my macs. I bought 16gb for my wifes Imac for around $250.

HTH

eMeS

rwmidl wrote: »

1. I've been using the built-in mail client. It does what I need it to do but is there a better client perhaps? On my past Windows box, I used Outlook 2010. With Outlook I couldn't sync my contacts with Gmail (I had to export them to a .csv file and then import to Google contacts). iContacts I don't have to as it will sync automatically. iCal I love as I don't have to use Google Calendar Sync. And with Lion coming out soon, it looks like the Mail client will be getting some improvements.

The new version of Outlook is excellent. This is what I use. The built in eMail client is not great IMO, and Entourage which was previously provided by Microsoft wasn't great either.

rwmidl wrote: »

2. Windows. I'm torn as to what to do here. There are some Windows applications I use (mostly Adobe products). I can't switch the license to Windows because my wife still uses them as well (she is on a Windows laptop). Would I be better off utilizing Boot Camp and have a separate Windows partition I could boot in to? Or should I use Virtual Box/VM Ware payer, etc to have a virtual Windows environment? I've read that graphic intense applications really don't really run as well in a virtual environment as they do in their own dedicated. The heaviest graphics that I do is the editing of photos in Photoshop. I should also add that I'm still running 4gb of RAM - I'm not sure when I'll upgrade to 8gb.

I use VMWare and am very happy with it. I've experimented with Boot Camp, but don't really have a big need for it when I can run in Unity mode from VMWare if necessary.

MS

rwmidl

MS - I'm guessing you are running VMWare Fusion?

eMeS

rwmidl wrote: »

MS - I'm guessing you are running VMWare Fusion?

Yes, I guess I could have been more specific. Honestly there's only 3 things I use Windows for at this point, two are IBM-related and the other is Project 2010.

Fusion does everything I need...

I'm running an MBP 17" i5 that I bought last September. I've got the max 8GB of RAM in mine.

As soon as the price drop a bit more, I'll install around a ~250GB SSD. As soon as a decent one drops below $400 that is...

MS

rwmidl

eMeS wrote: »

Yes, I guess I could have been more specific. Honestly there's only 3 things I use Windows for at this point, two are IBM-related and the other is Project 2010.

Fusion does everything I need...

I'm running an MBP 17" i5 that I bought last September. I've got the max 8GB of RAM in mine.

As soon as the price drop a bit more, I'll install around a ~250GB SSD. As soon as a decent one drops below $400 that is...

MS

As I mentioned, the only thing I really need Windows for is the Adobe suite. I'm up in the air on Office so far - I can get Office 2011 for $11 through work, but honestly I really don't use it that often. I may just use Office 2010 in the VM/BootCamp for those odd times I do need to use it.

I need to upgrade the RAM on mine to 8gb...

demonfurbie

rwmidl wrote: »

As I mentioned, the only thing I really need Windows for is the Adobe suite. I'm up in the air on Office so far - I can get Office 2011 for $11 through work, but honestly I really don't use it that often. I may just use Office 2010 in the VM/BootCamp for those odd times I do need to use it.

I need to upgrade the RAM on mine to 8gb...

for 11 id go ahead and get it

myedjo24

rwmidl wrote: »

There are some Windows applications I use (mostly Adobe products). I can't switch the license to Windows because my wife still uses them as well (she is on a Windows laptop).

Do you mean you can't switch the license (Adobe photoshop) to --Mac-- because your wife still uses (adobe photoshop) on her windows laptop?

I think the best solution would be to create an Image of the windows machine with all you fav applications and then use bootcamp to have the second partition on your mac book.

rwmidl

Ugh - I really have no train of thought today. Yes, I meant I can't switch from a Windows license to a Mac because my wife (who uses a Windows laptop) still uses them.

eMeS

rwmidl wrote: »

As I mentioned, the only thing I really need Windows for is the Adobe suite. I'm up in the air on Office so far - I can get Office 2011 for $11 through work, but honestly I really don't use it that often. I may just use Office 2010 in the VM/BootCamp for those odd times I do need to use it.

I need to upgrade the RAM on mine to 8gb...

I'd think that to run Photoshop usefully in an image you'd need to assign a significant amount of RAM to that image, so going to max RAM will likely be a good idea for you...

I'm not a big Adobe user, so I really can't add anything about the limitations of running it under VMWare vs. running it native on the Mac.

MS

rwmidl

You do. Even if I assign just a bare amount (2gb) of memory to the vm (leaving 2gb for the host OS) the whole thing just gets totally craptastic - and that is without Adobe installed. I think right now I'm going to run with Win7 in Bootcamp until I decide to no longer be cheap and upgrade to 8gb of memory!

demonfurbie

if you have a fast router you could always install vnc on both and vnc over to the pc running adobe and have it use its ram, unless your trying to run both of them at the same time.

rwmidl

demonfurbie wrote: »

if you have a fast router you could always install vnc on both and vnc over to the pc running adobe and have it use its ram, unless your trying to run both of them at the same time.

I've got wired Gig-E in the house (one of the smartest moves I made when we built!) but my "old" laptop I'm giving to my stepson so he can start using a computer.

Forsaken_GA

demonfurbie wrote: »

if you have a fast router you could always install vnc on both and vnc over to the pc running adobe and have it use its ram, unless your trying to run both of them at the same time.

I wouldn't bother with VNC, Macs have a perfectly good RDP client, and there's no sense in installing another remote desktop service when the OS has one built in.

demonfurbie

Forsaken_GA wrote: »

I wouldn't bother with VNC, Macs have a perfectly good RDP client, and there's no sense in installing another remote desktop service when the OS has one built in.

i know but it was a general idea

Qord

Why not give GIMP a try instead of photoshop? Might solve all your problems here.

EDIT: I realize that PS is not the only thing you use on a Windows platform, but there are comparable options for Mac's in the open source and freeware world.

tbgree00

I have had trouble syncing my gmail contacts with outlook 2011. I have it set to sync gmail with address book and then sync address book with outlook 2011. It's not a big deal, just a little annoying that I couldn't do that automatically. I actually just started a trial of mobileme and love it, I'm just hoping for an announcement of a price break because I'm not sure it's worth 100 dollars for stuff you can get cheaper or free elsewhere.

I'm pretty happy with installing windows in bootcamp and then using VMware Fusion to launch the bootcamp partition as a virtual machine. I get the flexability of a VM, where I use it 99% of the time and the power of a dedicated machine when I need it (only for games and rarely of that). If I could get a version of OneNote and VSphere Client for mac I wouldn't need the VM at all.

I'm now just trying to convince the wife/CFO that I need a macbook air for studying and work. It's not going so hot.

rwmidl

That's one thing I do like about iMail/Mac Mail/iContacts is that it syncs nicely with Gmail. With Outlook 2010 I couldn't sync my contacts with Gmail (as mentioned earlier, had to export to a csv file then import).

I ended up setting up a Windows Boot Camp partition and it's working fine. Once I get around to upgrading the RAM I'll probably go the route you mentioned - boot the Windows partition via a VM.

I think our next purchase might be an iPad. My only issue with it is we will use it as a "family" iPad - so we won't utilize mail, etc. It would be really nice for Apple to redesign IOS so you could have multiple profiles. But that's a whole other discussion..