Mike Chaney's Tech Corner

I'm considering the purchase of a Mac Pro. Being new to Mac I read on your site to run Qimage I need Virtual PC or Parallels. Does that mean I have to install a windows OS on the Mac to use Virtual PC or Parallels?

The new Intel based Macs have Parallels so you don't need Virtual PC.  You'd only need to install a Windows OS on the PC side of the house.  But yes, ultimately you'll need a copy of Windows to install.

Mike

Darn, I was hoping to leave windows. :(

Parallels works very well. I have it with XP on my mac pro and have had no grief at all. There are a few bits of software that just aren't available on mac and this is a simple way to get around that problem.

When I was running a linux box before I went to the mac I used wine for a number of PC programs that I wanted access to and it worked with some and it didn't with others. There is a commercial version of that available for the intel macs but I don't recall its name. I suspect though that it would gag on qimage.

I ran Qimage under Wine on Ubuntu and it performed speedwise better than on Windows.  The only problem is that other Windows based software necessary for my workflow would not work.  If that were not the case, I would move my workflow to Ubuntu in a heartbeat!

David

I did too with A couple of flavors of linux but that was quite some years ago. QImage was a fair bit simpler then and Mike hadn't added most of the bells and whistles that the current version has. Still, I have a linux box in my basement and it might be fun to see if the latest Qimage will run. I haven't updated the linux package in some time but that shouldn't be too much of a problem. If that flys then maybe a look at the mac version might be worth a try.

Thee is a group working on wine for the intel mac but I have no idea of how far along that project is. The commercial version is by Codeweavers and is called Crossover.

Not that it's a major difference, but I thought that the new Macs came with Boot Camp, Parallels is a programme you have to purchase.



Tony

I have had both Parallels and VMWare's Fusion. In my experience, Fusion is far better with far fewer issues, never had MS BSOD since Fusion install, and have avoided the Boot Camp side of life. Qimage works fine with Fusion as well, as that is the point of this thread... and, FWIW, you have to purchase either one and have a copy of MS Windoze as well. :(

Bootcamp works just fine BUT with it you can boot up in either OSX or in Windows. With VMware or Parallels you run windows within the OSX envelope and can switch into and out of windows on the fly. Doesn't work any better but it is far more convenient. True, It is more expensive.

Fusion is our company standard for people who use Macs. As an employee we can select from A Thinkpad or Mac Pro. If you choose a Mac, then the company image will have Fusion and XP installed. Glad to see Qimage is supported under emulation. This was the only thing that was keeping me from switching over to the Mac for home use. Well that and the cost of the Mac I want :-D

An update on running QImage on a Mac:

QImage runs well in Windows (2000 in my case) running as a guest in Oracle's VirtualBox (free) on Mac OS X (10.6.3).

Peter