Which version of Vista to buy?

G

gsanders

Bit poster
Hi all,

Ok, I have no idea wihich version of Vista to buy. I have Windows XP home at the moment. What should I buy, and what are the issues? Was the news about Microsoft not wanting parallels and like software to run on Vista home a myth?

Thanks,

Graham
 
gsanders said:
Hi all,

Ok, I have no idea wihich version of Vista to buy. I have Windows XP home at the moment. What should I buy, and what are the issues? Was the news about Microsoft not wanting parallels and like software to run on Vista home a myth?

Thanks,

Graham
Click to expand...
It's not a myth. The EULA (end-user license agreement) for Vista Home (both Basic and Premium) explicitly state that you can't run them under virtualization.
 
Ok, So I need the business edition. Why do they do that, I wonder??? I think I know, but it is not very nice!!!

Graham
 
gsanders said:
Ok, So I need the business edition. Why do they do that, I wonder??? I think I know, but it is not very nice!!!
Click to expand...

Well, you don't really need Business. It's not possible for Microsoft to enforce the virtualization policy, so you could install Home Basic or Home Premium without issue.

Newegg.com has a great "edition locator" that will help you decided which edition of Vista is best for you. You can also get a good deal on OEM versions there.
 
depends on why you want Vista.
Personally under parallels I was very disapointed.
It is notably slower than XP.. the icandy didnt work as no 3D support yet
unless you have a specific need wait for SP1.. XP does the job has no compatibility issues , will run all the current software , has good drivers,
And then there is the price !
Uptake will not be from the retail store but from PC sales
I need it as I am in PC support.
So far I am noticing a bunch of stuff I will have to eal with IT wise for the next 6 months at least.
I am not looking forward to it frankly
 
gsanders said:
Hi all,

Ok, I have no idea wihich version of Vista to buy. I have Windows XP home at the moment. What should I buy, and what are the issues? Was the news about Microsoft not wanting parallels and like software to run on Vista home a myth?

Thanks,

Graham
Click to expand...

Yup, it's not a myth. Some people had interpreted the clause in the EULA as "not being to reuse a license on multiple machines," but Microsoft has came out and said that it means what it said, you can't use Vista Home in a virtual machine, period.

If you wish be compliance with the MS EULA, you need Vista Business. It has Shadow Copy, which is a worthwhile feature if you plan to do a lot of work on the Windows side.
 
I'm with "dm3". There is no reason to buy any version of Vista until such time as one of your "mission critical" applications will no longer run under expee. I have used W2K all along and just "upgraded" to expee (a week before the release of Vista!) because I needed to preview some web pages in the latest version of IE which will not run on W2K. I think it would be wise to keep this whole "windoze on a Mac" thing in it's proper prospective.

DD
 
gsanders said:
Hi all,

Ok, I have no idea wihich version of Vista to buy. I have Windows XP home at the moment. What should I buy, and what are the issues? Was the news about Microsoft not wanting parallels and like software to run on Vista home a myth?

Thanks,

Graham
Click to expand...

NONE! :D

Run XP with the apps you can't have in Mac OS X for as long as needed and save the money for replacement apps on Mac OS X, your next Mac, or Leopard!

I'am a developer on both platforms (Java, Web, Oracle) and do not intend to go to Vista soon - because i couldn't care less for an OS... :D

As soon as many of our customers change to Vista (it'll take a while - took some of them 3-4 years to XP) i have really no pressure.

For running windows apps in parallels XP seems perfectly fine for me. I have no intention to upgrade the windows apps i still have to use (because there is no Mac OS X counterpart) as long as they just work.
 
gsanders said:
Hi all,

Ok, I have no idea wihich version of Vista to buy. I have Windows XP home at the moment. What should I buy, and what are the issues? Was the news about Microsoft not wanting parallels and like software to run on Vista home a myth?

Thanks,

Graham
Click to expand...

“USE WITH VIRTUALIZATION TECHNOLOGIES. You may not use the software installed on the licensed device within a virtual (or otherwise emulated) hardware system,†reads the EULA.

That doesn’t preclude Vista Home editions from being installed on Macs running Boot Camp, however, since Boot Camp isn’t a virtualization or emulation technology — instead, it makes Windows run natively on the Mac. For now, however, Boot Camp is still in beta development, and still officially works only with Windows XP.

Meanwhile, the EULA included with Vista Enterprise and Ultimate editions allows that operating system software to be installed on virtual or emulated hardware systems.

“In short, this means that if you’re a user and you want to run Vista virtually, you MUST buy the highest end versions of Vista, or you’ll be in violation of the Microsoft EULA,â€

ajm
 
Bottom line?

Is the bottom line that Parallels will work with Vista Home Basic and Vista Home Deluxe and bootcamp (once it officially supports Vista) but ----

1. Will not be supported by MS
2. Will not be supported by parallels
3. Will be a violation of the EULA.

Or is Parallels going to not allow you to use the boot camp installed Vista if it is not the Business or Ultimate flavor?

Can someone shed some light on this?

Thanks,
Trebz
 
"Vista also incorporates Windows Defender, a security program that actively scans computers for "spyware, adware, and other potentially unwanted software". The agreement does not define any of these terms, leaving it to Microsoft to determine what constitutes unwanted software."

competing products come to mind.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6319845.stm
 
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Trebz said:
Is the bottom line that Parallels will work with Vista Home Basic and Vista Home Deluxe and bootcamp (once it officially supports Vista) but ----

1. Will not be supported by MS
2. Will not be supported by parallels
3. Will be a violation of the EULA.

Or is Parallels going to not allow you to use the boot camp installed Vista if it is not the Business or Ultimate flavor?

Can someone shed some light on this?

Thanks,
Trebz
Click to expand...


1) Correct, but really, what do they support?
2) Parallels will have to make that decision
3) IANAL, but seems unenforcable from a legal standpoint.

I assume the EULA statement to be mainly covering their asses when they start tightening down the activation BS and it starts braking systems.

Edit; After I wrote this I thought some more on it. Technicly Parallels is virtulization, not emulation. There is a huge difference here becasue the hardware of the system is handling the seporation of systems, apposed to a software layer emulating one.
 
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I think Microsoft issued some statement about Home Basic on virtual machines. Forgot exactly what it said; maybe it was only it works but isn't supported.

I'll continue to use XP. Vista uses tons more memory and the Vista only features aren't too necessary unless I was using it as my main OS.
 
In case anyone is interested here is the Windows XP vs. Vista: The Benchmark Rundown from Tom's Hardware.

It concludes:

Windows Vista clearly is not a great new performer when it comes to executing single applications at maximum speed. ...

Overall, applications performed as expected, or executed slightly slower than under Windows XP. ...

There are some programs that showed deeply disappointing performance. ...

We are disappointed that CPU-intensive applications such as video transcoding with XviD (DVD to XviD MPEG4) or the MainConcept H.264 Encoder performed 18% to nearly 24% slower in our standard benchmark scenarios. ...
​

With such a fine operating system as Mac OS I don't see why anyone would install Vista. I only use XP because I *have* to use Outlook, Excel and Powerpoint for my work. When the UB version of Office comes out next year I hope to go pure Mac OS. And I really wish there was good webcam support for Windows Messenger Live in Adium then its adios XP.

I don't see any value in AreoGlass since Mac OS already has graphics that are far superior.

And Mac OS - I understand well because its UNIX. XP has sooo many side hooks and funky intergrations that it makes the whole system unstable, and concurrency is such a problem it blocks for no good reason. Reading the report, I am not sure Vista has any significant kernel improvements over XP that benefit real world uses.

My humble opinion.

BTW. Parallels is the best investment I have made for my Mac! Thanks guys.
 
So my main concern is really that Parallels will not allow me to use the boot camp installed version of Vista Home Premium.

There would be no obvious reason that it wouldn't work (once boot camp officially supports vista), but I fear that they might not allow you to select it for use (greyed our menu, pop up message etc), if it is not the Ultimate or Business version.

I hope they don't go that route. I have no problem using it if it is unsupported. I will buy the product for my macbook if it indeed works with Vista Basic or Premium and bootcamp. However, I won't shell out $80 until I can verify it.

I think the EULA caveat is absurd on MS's part - as I will only be using the install in bootcamp, and on the same machine in Parallels if I want to use a windows app from time to time. I am not gaining any extra use of the install, as it is only being used on the same host.

If I can't use parallels to do this because it restricts it in the code, I won't buy Parallels (which would be a shame). I am currently using the trial and it is a great application.
 
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