I have been meaning to sort out Parallels on the Mac mini and the iMac for some time now. The main reason that I haven’t is that I couldn’t actually see any reason why I would want to be able to use Windows XP on a Mac.
Sure, I have a few applications (Quicken, eWallet, ListPro and TaxCalc) that my wife still uses, and may well continue to do so for a while yet BUT with two Windows PC’s in the house it isn’t that much of a hassle to sit down at one from time to time.
BUT I am a geek right, and it isn’t about doing it because you need to use it. It is all about doing it because you can so this afternoon I sat down and installed Parallels on both the Mac mini and the iMac, and boy was it easy! Both Parallels and XP went on a dream, and they work really well. I have one ongoing issue that I can’t get rid of and that is with the size of my Console Window. It is fine on the iMac but too big on the Mac mini and I can’t get at the bottom right hand corner to resize it.
That slight inconvenience apart I am really impressed. It is a little weird to have Windows on the Mac and I still can’t really see me using it, but it was so smooth to instal – picked up the internet connection straight away for example. It was fun downloading the antivirus software and Firefox in the virtual window and it is super cool the way it revolves around to switch between full screen and console window mode.
I am still far from convinced that I will use it. My wife is moving the accounts over to a Mac version of Quicken but will archive the old accounts on her iMac so she will get some use from it, but I think I will just swivel my chair round and work on the Windows Desktop when I need to.