xp stable in parallels?

Discussion in 'General Questions' started by jim_millington, Dec 30, 2006.

  1. jim_millington

    jim_millington Bit poster

    Messages:
    2
    I don't own a mac, thinking about it, I have alot of pc software I can't walk away from.

    I found out about parallels and this prog might be the deal maker about me jumping to Mac.

    Question, is win xp any more stable running on a mac than a pc. It doesn't make sense that it would but i couldn't find an answer by searching this forum.
     
  2. joem

    joem Forum Maven

    Messages:
    1,247
    XP is quite stable compared to previous versions (assuming all the latest updates), but stability depends critically on what you are doing with it. It is a malware magnet, of course, so if you don't protect it, you will acquire trojans, adware, etc, and it won't be stable. If you download and install every goodie that attracts your attention (or that of your kids), it will be unstable, but in a production environment, with reasonable precautions, it's very stable, and can run for months without a reboot. Win2k is less stable than XP, and I restart my Win2k servers about twice a year whether they seem to need it or not.

    The advantages to running XP under Parallels are that OSX is available while XP is running, and backups of VMs are trivially easy.
     
  3. Hugh Watkins

    Hugh Watkins Forum Maven

    Messages:
    943
    I virtually never see a blue screen of death with XP

    "application has quit unexpectedly - notify microsoft" is the worst

    I keep all my documents in the shared folders so that as clones come and go they are constant
    and I can see them in the mac OS too (I duplicate my virtual machine regularly as a back up)

    starting in July it took me 5 tries over 2 weeks to find out how to use Parallels and install an OEM WinXP correctly (malware and too much memory made it slow)

    Now I am sufficiently confident in this firm to use the latest Parallels beta (not like the first beta of MS IE 7 which I uninstalled after one day)

    I much prefer the MAC OS for graphics images photos email usenet webmastering blogging

    but WInXP still has some killer apps which have not been ported to the Mac
    and MS IE 7 is an essential testing tool for webmasters

    I am not a gamer so active X and displays is not an issue

    java is equally good on both OS

    I just love my TWO in ONE machine

    I have not had such fun since the ZX Spectrum (before the Mac circa 1985)

    enjoy

    Hugh W
     
    Last edited: Dec 30, 2006
  4. jim_millington

    jim_millington Bit poster

    Messages:
    2
    xp stable?

    thanks for the reply.

    Yes i have had the pleasure of rebooting, reformating, freezing, forever etc. Actually when it happens, I stop and think to myself it is a test to teach me patience. I take a deep breath and reboot. When i go to the next world I hope the need to reboot will be eliminated and I will truly experice "high" speed.

    So yes you certainly made me pause about my habit of instantly installing everything that i can find on the net. Malware etc. is the result. I guess I was wondering if xp was running thru OSX, OSX would somehow make my XP os become more stable and filter out the malware etc.
     

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