windows 7 beta bootcamp

conchubhar1

1 - should i install the beta?

2 - where can i download it?

3 - is bootcamp hard to use? with a beta?

4 - again should i? its windows and a beta - and this is a shiny great macbook

anything else i should know - thanks

J-blk

conchubhar1 wrote: »

1 - should i install the beta?

It's not a beta anymore. The version available to customers is the RC1 (Release Candidate) version, which for all intents and purposes is exactly the same as the version that will release at retail later in the year. So it's pretty solid.

conchubhar1 wrote: »

2 - where can i download it?

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/download.aspx

You can only get product keys up to July 2009 so don't put it off too long - the RC1 will remain active once installed until June 1st, 2010. However, on March 1st, 2010 it will become nagware, restarting every couple of hours... So remember to remove it before then or replace it with the retail version which will be available by then...

conchubhar1 wrote: »

3 - is bootcamp hard to use? with a beta?

Bootcamp is very straightforward to use - fire it up and take a look at the options, it guides you through everything. The only difference with Windows 7 right now to any other version, is that Bootcamp does not yet have an option for it, so you have to tell it you're using Windows Vista 32/64-bit as appropriate... It works fine though.

conchubhar1 wrote: »

4 - again should i? its windows and a beta - and this is a shiny great macbook

That's up to you. Like I said, it's not a beta - it's an RC. So it's just as stable as the retail release (though Windows isn't too stable to begin with, but 7 is not Vista, which is good). And your shiny Macbook won't explode if you install it... If you think it sucks, you can easily remove the Windows installation and partition, again through Bootcamp.

However, most people install a "proven" version of Windows in Boot Camp for gaming/other applications that are not available on Mac OS X. With Windows 7, you don't really get that, so why bother installing it that way? If all you want is to take a look at the OS, why not install it in a VM, like VMware's Fusion, Parallels Desktop or the free VirtualBox? That will save you the hassle of rebooting, etc as well...

conchubhar1 wrote: »

anything else i should know

Nope .

conchubhar1

ah cool thanks

is vmware, virtual box and paralells free?


ill probaly install it fully - just to see if its worth upgrading my pc and os = a lot of money

so i want to give it fair ground to see if its good

conchubhar1

leopard can run 64bit windows 7 on a new-ish 2009 macbook?

J-blk

conchubhar1 wrote: »

is vmware, virtual box and paralells free?

No, only VirtualBox is free - Fusion and Parallels are about €70 I think (though there are good deals from time to time). I use Fusion and think it's worth every penny but I need to run a lot of systems in parallel, to test out code I write...

If you want to get a feel for how fast (or sluggish) Windows 7 is in real world usage though, I have to agree, installing it in Bootcamp instead of a VM is your best option.

conchubhar1 wrote: »

leopard can run 64bit windows 7 on a new-ish 2009 macbook?

It has nothing to do with the OS - all Core 2 Duo Macs (so pretty much all of them these days) can run the 64-bit edition and you should be using it if you have 4GB of RAM or more, as the 32-bit edition won't be able to "see" all your available memory...

drunkmonkey

What's Virtualbox like?

conchubhar1

thanks and yes i ditto what is virtualbox like

i only have 2gigs of ram so will 32bit do the job?

J-blk

drunkmonkey wrote: »

What's Virtualbox like?

It's surprisingly good for a free product though I feel it lacks some polish compared to Fusion (I've never used Parallels much to compare though).

For me, the deal breaker with VirtualBox is the way its' "bridged" network mode works over WiFi or rather doesn't work. I need both my Mac and my Windows VM to have separate IPs but on the same network so that they can access various servers on that same network... This works fine in both Fusion and Parallels using "bridged" networking, but on VirtualBox it only works with a wired connection... There is a known bug getting this to work with an AirPort apparently (though other network modes like NAT work fine).

Bear in mind that I haven't used VirtualBox in 4-5 months so this might have been fixed by now... And even if not, for most people, NAT in a VM is more than adequate - and is in fact the default mode in almost all VM products. I'd definitely recommend giving it a try before forking out any cash for Fusion or Parallels, as you may be perfectly happy with it.

conchubhar1 wrote: »

i only have 2gigs of ram so will 32bit do the job?

I'd still go ahead and install 64-bit TBH. Back in the days of XP, a lot of software was incompatible with the 64-bit edition but these days, I don't think it's much of an issue and on a modern Mac, the 64-bit version makes more sense, especially if you stick with it for the next few months and upgrade your RAM in the meantime...

conchubhar1

alri

i think ill try the 64 bit through bootcamp - to get the full experience and see if i could be arsed paying for a new pc with windows 7

thanks

conchubhar1

alri

i think ill try the 64 bit through bootcamp - to get the full experience and see if i could be arsed paying for a new pc with windows 7

thanks

ec18

i have a macbook from arpil last year. (The 2.4 Ghz, 2gb ram one) And I've been running the RC1 of windows 7 for the last months or so. Runs fine with VMware Fusion. Just have to set the vm machine be windows server 2008 64 bit to use it. I've had no problems so far.

conchubhar1

hhm, i might in the future buy vmware - but alas i am poor (not in a starving homeless sense obviously) now

so i might try it on bootcamp

J-blk

Maybe give VirtualBox a try as well - like I said, it's not a bad app at all, I just prefer Fusion. You can't argue with the price of VirtualBox though .

conchubhar1

indeed - for me its price of quality