Ordered a Mac Pro!

[Razasharp]

Well I was going to hold off for a bit as my PC was pretty decent spec, but I was moving my desk around and it fell on its side and is now dead (well the mobo is).

So after much deliberation, I ordered a Mac Pro with an ati HD 4870

Windows has been annoying me lately hence I've been thinking about swapping over for a while, I know Vista (and W7) are actually quite nice (Vista never crashed on me once), but they still have weaknesses and I've always liked OS X (which is by no means flawless!) but overall I felt the time was right to live with OS X for a while.

I love Linux, but it doesn't love me! Whenever I've tried it I've always run into problems (such as wifi or graphics card drivers) and I just want an easy life in my old age :lol:

[ManagerJosh]

Dang! You have some deep pockets

[Floris]

Getting a mac pro means he will earn it back, no doubt.

Good purchase buddy, and have mega mucho fun with it. You will find it's a solid machine. And with Snow Leopard around the corner you will squeeze the most out of it and have years of fun with it. Just please ... it's a heavy machine .. don't drop it.

[Chimpie]

Just please ... it's an expensive machine .. don't drop it.

Fixed.

Have fun with your new purchase.

[Razasharp]

Thanks All! I can't wait to have a play! I even managed to get hold of a copy of snow leopard from the developers conference, but I haven't got any dual layer DVDs to burn it on! I only wanted to try it to see what it's like - I'm so impatient!

[Floris]

If you come from windows and want to keep using your paid for license. I recommend to go with VMWare Fusion 2, and install Windows and Snow Leopard, etc on there, and have a go with it without disrupting the installed system at all.

And then upgrade from leopard to snow leopard for $10

(there is a ' if you get a system after june 8 , you get snow leopard for $10 instead of $29 ' post somewhere on apple.com's official site)

It's worth the pre-order wait. That page even has a 'notify me' button to not screw you over.

Unfortn. I just woke up and can't find the link and have some PHP code to finish for this media company that's desiring a unified IPS2vB login system, so brewing coffee and trying not to be sick from this mini flu I am enjoying. So .. you might have to go search for it yourself.

[Razasharp]

Yeah the sales rep told me about the upgrade price - it's £7.95 here Bargain!

I think it's excellent mind, $29 upgrade fee for all Leopard users - it's what microsoft should do with Vista > W7 customers!

So is VMware better than the others? I've tried Virtualbox and thought it was ok but a bit slow :-/

[Floris]

If you "pre-order" Windows 7 as a Vista customer, the upgrade is $59, but after "X" days it is $99 for a year. After a year you pay the full price.

That's what I understood from their press conference call I participated. Though their audio wasn't perfect.

[Steve Machol]

So is VMware better than the others? I've tried Virtualbox and thought it was ok but a bit slow :-/

I have not used VMWare but my experience with Parallels has convinced me never to use them again. Their support is subpar. They do not even read your tickets and when they finally reply it's 1-2 days later. Getting help with anything could take weeks. I finally gave up on them.

[Razasharp]

Floris - I'll have to keep any eye out for that, thanks, although I haven't heard anything here yet. We've got most platforms on our test bench, but can always use browserlab if we ever need to. All our workstations are Macs.

Steve - thanks for the info! Have you tried virtualbox? For free it is pretty good - I had W7 beta on it and also tried an old copy of XP pro which seems to work well... but it does feel laggy. I want one so I can access all my emails from Windows Mail - as I had trouble converting them over to Mac last time I tried (but that was on a MBP tho - maybe it just wasn't up to the job - will try again with the MP when it arrives).

Alternatively I have a spare copy of my Vista OS on a hard drive I replaced, I might just slot that into the MP and unplug all other drives and see if it boots up :lol:

[Steve Machol]

The only thing I need Windows for anymore is for Quicken Home and Business. If Intuit ever makes a Mac version I will no longer have any use for Windows.

[Razasharp]

Ah the dreaded accounts :lol:

I don't think I'd feel comfortable running a copy via virtualisation for something important like that, why not just get another hard drive and put windows on it? I can't remb which Mac you have now - is it an iMac or MacBook?

Can you boot of a firewire drive? If so I'd look into installing windows on a separate firewire disk and hold down the ALT key on startup to boot off that - if you have an iMac. And if you have an MBP with an ExpressCard slot get an eSATA adapter and use a eSATA external HD for it. Not sure if it's possible but something worth looking into.

[Quillz]

So is VMware better than the others? I've tried Virtualbox and thought it was ok but a bit slow :-/

After using Parallels and VMware Fusion, I can say that VMware Fusion is the better product and well worth the $79.

[Razasharp]

Thanks Quillz, do you think it is 'stable' or just good enough for less important stuff?

[Floris]

VMWare Fusion 2 is worth the money, it is way too cheap. Testing my mac pro to replace my ubuntu and freebsd and windows box (so I can graveyard them and save money on space and energy) and they have been running quite stable for week+ now.