Unfortunately, though I tried to avoid it, I do have a need for both Microsoft software as well a Mac based software, both at work and at home. I am fortunate enough to run two different set ups for running windows on an Apple Mac machine. At work I have a VMWare environment known as VM Fusion running Windows XP and on my home MacBook I have Windows vista running on a partitioned part of the drive, set up using Apples Bootcamp which comes pre installed on the Mac. For both situations you will need a working copy of windows.
VMWare Fusion Environment
The VMWare environment essentially loads a program and within this program loads the Windows operating system. All programs such as Microsoft Office work as usual within the environment. Fusion also has a handy little feature known as Unity which hides the VMWare surround displaying you windows programs in much the same way as you mac software. If, for example you minimise Word it slinks down to the Dock and not the Windows taskbar. If you take the time to set up VMWare Fusion you can also conveniently save down your files to convenient places within the Mac system so as to avoid the need to drag and drop files between the operating systems. We have VMWare fully integrated on the company network which means full support from the IT department.
Bootcamp
Bootcamp is relatively easy to install, it happens in two stages. First, you partition the drive, then you install your windows operating system on the partition. The benefit of running the Windows OS separate to Mac OS you would think would be less of a drain on resources but I have to say that when I boot up in Vista the Apple Mac hardware reacts in a completely different way. The fan kicks in pretty early and the system gets hot. Granted the speed seems to be good but if I’m honest with the processors and ram I am operating with I don’t think I’d notice a difference in speed between my windows programs running in Bootcamp and the windows programs running in VMFusion, the downside being running two operating systems at the same time. The main disadvantage is the fact that the two are separate, you can create a drop box to pass files between the two setups as you can see the partitioned drive from each system but it means rebooting.
In summary, if you are prepared to folk out a little extra for a VMWare licence it is well work it. It just means a more seamless work flow between applications. If you want to copy and paste from a window in outlook to Photoshop you can do, if you want to drag and drop from your windows desktop to an application you can do. As a time saver and for ease of use I’d say VMWare Fusion is the winner.
OSX does not have the regular start menu you see in Windows. We navigate the file system and programs using the Finder. Finder is the equivalent of Windows Explorer, by double clicking on the Macintosh HD on the top right corner of the desktop you open a finder window. Here you will find all files and folders including all programs. By clicking on the apple in the top left corner you will see your recent documents and files. Programs are opened using the Dock across the bottom of the screen or in the application (Finder) folder.
To quickly launch your programs the Dock can be set up to include “shortcuts” or using Mac’s naming convention “aliases”. It is possible to drag and drop your applications from the application folder to the dock in order to create these aliases.
Close (Red) – Closing the window only closes the window and not the program. The program will still be running in the background. Programs that are running are shown with a highlighted with dot under the application icon on the dock.
The camera end of the firewire 400 lead. Although most cameras have USB connections the firewire lead allows for faster data transfers capable of real time playback on the computer as you view and capture footage.
