Thread: PC enviroment for Macs?

Alright doods, I created a software program for PCs and I have a Mac. SOOOOO, I want to be able to do some extensive testing with the program, and I am looking for a PC like environment I can load on my mac to do so. I would prefer FREE, as this is the only thing that I would be using it for. Google search is not helping with the free part of this...

I ended up moving in the middle of the sticks so I don't know anyone around here who I can borrow a PC from.


Thanks

There's actually an Apple utility allowing you to repartition the hard drive and facilitate a Windows installation, enabling you to boot from two operating systems. This is just one article - there are many if you use search terms like 'dual boot' or search directly for 'mac boot camp'.

http://www.winsupersite.com/article/...t-storm-135952

I have Parallels. Not free, but not expensive either. Works great.

Originally Posted by Supra98

I have Parallels. Not free, but not expensive either. Works great.

Parallels is fantastic and if you continue to develop I would greatly suggest this. Alternatively, is your program capable of running on Linux? If so, you may consider running a dual environment with Ubuntu.

I run boot camp on my MBP w/ Win 7 Ultimate x64 and it's prefect for me... no compatibility issues whatsoever (since you are running a legit copy of Windows the way it was intended) and at full speed (emulators or virtual environments such as Parallels work great but also incur a performance hit). Depends on how critical understanding speed, etc is to you as a developer.

Boot camp or parallels are great choices for this.

Spend the cash to get parallels, pretty useful. If you dont mind rebooting to get into PC-mode, go the free route of boot camp (still need to buy windows though)

Parallel or VMware

Boot camp would be a bit too much of a hassle for a project like you have. Plus if you kill Windows on the virtual machine, you can create a new virtual machine, as opposed to tanking a HD partition.

Originally Posted by David@MR

Parallel or VMware

Boot camp would be a bit too much of a hassle for a project like you have. Plus if you kill Windows on the virtual machine, you can create a new virtual machine, as opposed to tanking a HD partition.

But these virtual machines don't necessarily provide a true PC environment as I understand it. At the end of the day they are emulators, aka not perfect. As such, wouldn't this be the wrong choice for someone running testing? I liken this to a science experiment and you would want your control environment as clean and close to real world as possible for accuracy sake. Maybe LIGHTWEIGHT can provide more info?

Originally Posted by Race Minded

But these virtual machines don't necessarily provide a true PC environment as I understand it. At the end of the day they are emulators, aka not perfect. As such, wouldn't this be the wrong choice for someone running testing? I liken this to a science experiment and you would want your control environment as clean and close to real world as possible for accuracy sake. Maybe LIGHTWEIGHT can provide more info?

By definition, a VM is the perfect control environment with complete hardware isolation. It removes the variance of PC hardware from the equation. Then do in-situ Windows machine testing.