Why robust USB support is important to me
I do astronomy as a serious hobby using Apple hardware for a desktop star guide to know where to aim my Questar telescope as well as interfacing to SBIG astro imaging equipment. I tried Boot Camp and backed off.
My problem with the Boot Camp approach was that I could either run
Windows or OS X, not both at the same time. So with Boot Camp you
are spared the cost of buying two computers,but you can only run one
OS at a time.
I rely on Equinox as my "online" star map when I use my Questar and
as my "go to" interface when i use my Meade LX 200. So if I moved to
Boot Camp I'd lose Equinox. I'm sure there are plenty of fine
alternatives to Equinox, but that is the application that works for
the way I like to do astronomy in the field and Equinox is a Mac only
application. I also prefer Apple laptop hardware to what is
available in the greater PC market to get the quality, low weight,
reliability, support and repairs at a nearby Apple Store, etc. So I
start with Equinox running on Apple hardware under OS X and look to
find other applications that will take care of the imaging needs.
The author of Equinox is well into developing Equinox Image, so it is
a matter of time before an application that does the imaging chores
running under OS X/Intel will be available. ( The way the weather
has been here in the Washington DC area, Equinox Image may be
released before we get a good viewing night!) After the images are
captured, Aperture is my application of choice for storing and
tagging and retrieving images and Photoshop is my application of
choice for the "digital darkroom" processes. So the post image
capture effort under OS X is well covered with professional grade,
high performant applications. The missing applications for OS X are
the astro imaging applications.
My hope is that Parallels will get their virtual
machine product working under OS X to the point that I can run
Windows XP a a virtual system under OS X. Parallels has already
released "Parallels Desktop" and this initial release is impressive!
I use it every day at work to access web sites that are tightly
coupled to Internet Explorer running under XP and to use a handful of
Windows specific applications, namely VISIO and ACCESS. XP under
Parallels Desktop is the fastest laptop based Windows XP system I've
ever used. The current problem with Parallels Desktop is USB
support, in particular USB 2.0 support. The astro imaging applications I want to use need USB 2.0 support to get to the imaging cameras. If the developers at
Parallels can solve the USB interface problem, then there won't be an
issue anymore. Then those of us that want to stay on Apple Hardware can run OS
X and OS X applications as well as Windows XP (or Vista when it
releases) under Parallels Desktop at the same time.
So the solution that will cover my needs for having both operating systes available on
one 5.5 lb piece of Apple hardware hopefully is near, it is just a matter of USB 2.0 support for Windows XP via Parallels Desktop.