MacBook Pro and Windows Programs

[hoppy]

By replaceable, I mean being able to swap the battery over as they get flat. I had 2 batteries with my 13" Macbook and each of those batteries would last longer than the MBP.

The smaller screen and slower processor are less hungry and give better life out of a lower capacity battery.

[Sailagain]

http://www.hypershop.com/HyperJuice-...e-USB-s/91.htm


This vendor will allow you to charge you MacBook Pro from you boats DC power source. No need for an inverter

Cool?


Just do a google search for things you need - they may be out there

[colemj]

Originally Posted by MSB44

Mark,

Thanks for the feedback...so what nav and other programs are you running on your Mac?

Bob

I run Coastal Explorer mainly, but also have Nobeltec VNS, Maxsea, OpenCPN and SeaClear. It is also used for Airmail, Quicken making charts using GE2BSB and a few other programs.

Mark

[colemj]

Originally Posted by hoppy

Worst of all, you can't simply get a car adapter and run of the boats 12v, you have to get a pure sine wave inverter.

This is true, and I've never understood the reason. I went into an Apple store, asked one of the geniuses there for a broken power adapter and he went into the back and got me one. I cut off the cord, connected it to a DC-DC converter I got for $8 on Amazon and have been happily running my Mac off the house batteries ever since.

Mark

[MSB44]

Mark (colemj),

So it seems the key for you is everything Windows platform is WinXP not Win7? And the Quicken you are running is what version?

Thanks for sharing details.

Bob

[colemj]

Yes, WinXPpro. I haven't tried Win7. Quicken is whatever the latest windows release is. We had to upgrade it because quicken changed the way it pulls down bank data and dropped support for the old way. No reason for it, and the banks don't like it at all because they also have to pay to change their software also. Intuit is an evil company that does this every couple of years to force its entire installed base into upgrading. Microsoft has nothing on the evilness of Intuit. Unfortunately, there isn't much competition to choose from in this area.

Mark

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by hoppy

By replaceable, I mean being able to swap the battery over as they get flat. I had 2 batteries with my 13" Macbook and each of those batteries would last longer than the MBP.

The smaller screen and slower processor are less hungry and give better life out of a lower capacity battery.

We get 7-8 hours out of MacBook Pro 15" battery (2 years old) so there's definitely something wrong with your unit. Did you run the Apple Hardware Test or System Information? Does it pass your battery? Like I wrote before, when running under Windows you can get battery trouble but only when you reboot to Windows under bootcamp, not when running as a virtual machine.

cheers,
Nick.

[twistedtree]

Originally Posted by MSB44

I'm tired of screen lockups, background programs telling me they had to shut down and are no longer working, spending hours on the phone with Microsoft support techs...however, nothing seems to be error free, so "before" I make such a major commitment to change, figure I should find out what I'm in store for...I may just retire my 4 year old Thinkpad and get a new one with Win 7.

After you switch, you will wonder why you put up with Windows as long as you did. The Mac isn't perfect my any means, but I'd say it has problems less than 5% of the time where under Windows anytime
I tried something new I had less than 50% chance of it working and not breaking something else. Instead of fighting with my computer all the time, it's now working for me which is how it should be.

As for Windows programs, I've been pretty happy with VMWare Fusion adn have successfully run Coastal Explorer and MaxSea Time Zero. The only complaint I have is that Fusion sucks down the battery power, and MaxSea running on VMWare Fusion sucks it down even worse. I've found the trick is to pause Fusion anytime you are not actively using a windows program. Pause and resume are pretty quick so it's a minimal hassle.

[Chipg]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

The Virtual Machine software of both VMware and Parallels came a long way and both are worthy to give another try. It'll work with anything now I think.

Yesterday Parallels 7 had a free upgrade/bug fixes etc. I have downloaded and installed it but since I never ran across any previous issues using it I can;t say what it fixed, their website probably lists the fixes.

Also to the others if you go the bootcamp only route and will be switching between OSX and Windows a lot a solid state drive is great for speed, it takes my windows 7 about 8 seconds to boot up.

I also read a performance report where windows ran faster on apple computers than the PC brands with the same specs.

For me the best of both worlds is Parallels 7 with OSX Lion and Windows 7, I can run them both at the same time if I want through Parallels 7 or just one or the other through bootcamp.

I'm on a new 2011 13" i7 MacBook Air and love it, it is the best computer I have ever owned, I plug it into the large 27" monitor when at home and have extreme portability when on the go.

[maytrix]

Originally Posted by twistedtree

After you switch, you will wonder why you put up with Windows as long as you did. The Mac isn't perfect my any means, but I'd say it has problems less than 5% of the time where under Windows anytime

I think many problems are often caused by the user. The only downside to windows is that it is probably easier for a user to create problems.

I'm an IT consultant and use windows on all my systems and use them quite heavily and don't have the issues so many seem to have. My wife also uses it and aside from not knowing how to do something has no issues either.

The problems I see are caused by a few things.

1) User Error
2) An old computer with lots and lots of old software and other junk that is no longer needed.
3) A computer that was infected with malware or a virus and was "cleaned". No matter what anyone says, once infected, there is no way to guarantee any cleaning truly cleans it 100%. Only guarantee is if its formatted and reinstalled from scratch.
4) A program that was written poorly and affects the stability of the system -- usually such a program will run all the time or interface with other devices.

XP was good in its day. Vista was a dog and now Windows 7 is a huge improvement over both as far as stability and performance. The Mac is good as well, I do use it from time to time, but find windows suits my software needs much better. I can't really speak to Mac issues since I don't use them nearly as frequently, but they do exist, as do viruses and malware.

Bottom line - either will work well for you, its far more of a personal choice. My only real complaint with Apple is the cost of their laptops compared to windows. I'd rather have a $500 laptop on my boat and have to replace that than $1000 Mac.

[fgd3]

Originally Posted by hoppy

Worst of all, you can't simply get a car adapter and run of the boats 12v, you have to get a pure sine wave inverter.

I have used any number of modified sine wave inverters to run my Windows laptops with no problem. I know Macs are different but I'd like to know more about this issue. Have you actually tried a modified sine wave inverter unsuccessfully or is this just something people have told you? What happened when you tried using a modified sine wave inverter--how did it fail?

Fabbian

[MSB44]

[QUOTE=Chipg;821727]Yesterday Parallels 7 had a free upgrade/bug fixes etc. I have downloaded and installed it but since I never ran across any previous issues using it I can;t say what it fixed, their website probably lists the fixes.

Chipg,

What windows programs are you running on the Macbook Air?

Bob

[MSB44]

[QUOTE=maytrix;821731]I think many problems are often caused by the user. The only downside to windows is that it is probably easier for a user to create problems.

Maytrix,

I understand your point and when I purchased my current Thinkpad 4 years ago, I was also thinking about switching to a Mac, but decided that since most of my programs were Windows only, I'd stay the course.

I encountered some issues in XP and Vista is definitely a "dog". I only run a handful of programs, keep them up to date, do all my "updates" for both Microsoft and Lenovo, update drivers, etc. I still find strange things happen. Maybe it is just me, but after browsing on the various Windows forums, I don't feel alone. My PC's have never been infected with virus or malware.

So it goes...

Bob

[s/v Jedi]

Bob,

What a bunch of us is trying to tell you is that you don't have to worry about some Windows programs not working on a Mac, because ALL programs work just like on any other Windows laptop... as long as you use bootcamp. There's no difference at that point with any other Windows laptop.

There can theoretically be a problem when you try to run a program using a virtual machine with Windows under MacOS. But other than high end Windows games, I can't give you an example of what program doesn't run in that scenario either. All navigation software and other programs that cruisers use will work on any current model Mac.

ciao!
Nick.

[MSB44]

Nick,

Thanks for the feedback. That is certainly the sentiment I am getting...the programs work and there are few issues. I was aware that Bootcamp worked as you are running a Windows environment. I was more interested in the Parallels/VM Fusion issues since it is a "virtual" environment and it seems as if there are relatively few issues.

On your Time Capsule setup, is this powered from your boat batteries or from an inverter?

Thanks again,

Bob