Windows versions of Mac programs

I know I am going to get flamed for this question, but I am trying to understand how some people are using Parallels and why.

I see so many posts about people having issues with Windows versions of programs for which there are Mac versions. Some I understand, you've paid good money for a Windows program, why pay again for the Mac version.

But I see people asking about Safari for Windows, iTunes for Windows, VLC for Windows, WoW's window version, Google Earth, the list goes on.

Why aren't people using these programs native within OS X itself?

 

For me I use it for a couple of reasons

The VPN software provided by the company I work for is windows only, so I use a parallel session to run the VPN and connect back to my office desktop from home

And the other reason, is development using either Delphi Tools or Visual Studio tools.

One of my virtual linux machine runs an Oracle database server which I use from my development VMs once in a while. And since its in a VM located on an external disk, I don't need to keep that big database on my laptop all the time.

The few games I run either run from my old XP desktop or from the OS X version.

Web, Mail, photo management, DVD creation, image editing and music composing is all done from the OS X version.

 

I use Parallels for Family Tree Maker and for Windows Live messenger


a Flickr uploader utility which is better then the mac version

the images drag and drop from an external Fire Wire HD
all email and web stuff Ido on the Mac using Firefox

on Windows I use MS IE 7 for banks because of their security systems are not Mac compatable

MS IE 7 is a tool for webmasters evenif I prefer Firefox
I have the aging MS Office on the MAc becasue it was cheap

but if I upgraded I would get Sun Office on Windows

Hugh W

 

I am using Microsoft Office for Mac, but I am not sure it is the right choice because it is Rosetta code, and it crashes more often than Parallels.

I am using the Windows version of Quicken, because there is not a credible product for Mac for Windows users to convert to.

 

For what it's worth, in my setup at least, neither MS Office 2004 for Mac nor Parallels 2.5 ever crashes.

David

MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo 2.33 GHz, 3 GB RAM
OS X 10.4.10
Parallels 2.5 (build 3214)

 

Presumably, you are ruling out OpenOffice.org on OSX because it runs in X11 (which does make it a bit clunky and non-Mac-like).

I take it you know about NeoOffice http://www.neooffice.org - which is a largely "Aquafiied" port of OpenOffice. If you tried the older NeoOffice/J incarnation (and are still waiting for it to start up ) then its worth another look, especially if you've upgraded to a nippier Intel Mac since.

Also, Sun recently threw a few more pennies at the "official" OpenOffice Aqua port - there's only a "use at your own risk" version available so far - but there are signs of progress.

Back to the original topic: even moving a file bewteen Mac and Windows versions of the same program (*cough* Microsoft) isn't always 100% reliable, so its useful to be able to check documents on both platforms, even if you work mainly on OSX.

Also, some people like doing their web browsing and filesharing in a virtual machine "sandbox" - catch something nasty and you can just nuke the virtual machine. I've got "RealPlayer" installed on a Windows VM so I don't have to put up with all the nagware on my main machine. Someday, Apple will have to sort out their licensing hangups to allow people to run OSX VMs, but its moot at the moment because the VM products are only just reaching the stage where they could have a respectable stab at running it.