Short Review of Apple Boot Camp (and Windows on Mac hardware)

I just bought one of those newly announced educational
iMacs.
I got a slightly souped up version with 1GB ram and 160GB
disk.
The main reason I bought it was to test its suitability as a
replacement
for a bunch of Windows PCs used in an instructional lab.

I'm happy to say that the Boot Camp procedure for
installing
Windows was flawless. Everything went exactly as Apple said
it
would. I'm using it with a Windows keyboard and mouse,
along
with an external Dell LCD monitor. So far I've seen nothing
unexpected.

There were a couple of minor issues:

1) If I use the brightness control to reduce the
brightness of the built-in monitor, anything other
that 100% sometimes results in flickering.

2) I'm not 100% sure what going on but it seems
like Windows takes much longer to settle down
after booting. In particular, for no reason I
could see it sometimes took a long time for Windows to
see my USB keyboard and mouse. It didn't
seem to matter if I was using the Apple keyboard/mouse
or my old Windows keyboard/mouse.

None of these are serious issues.

Apple clearly states "Even after installling the
Macintosh
Drivers CD, the Apple Remote Control (IR), Apple Wireless
(Bluetooth) keyboard or mouse, Apple USB Modem,
MacBook Pro's sudden motion sensor, MacBook Pro's
ambient light sensor, and built-in iSight camera
will not function correctly when running Windows."
so it looks like Apple still has some work to do.

Cordially,
-- 
Jon Forrest
forrestce.berkeley.edu
Computer Resources Manager
Civil and Environmental Engineering Dept.
305 Davis Hall
Univ. of Calif., Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720-1710
510-642-0904


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Jon:

You may have already heard of/seen it, but in case you
haven't:

I've been running Parallels (see http://www.parallels.com--
 
essentially VMWare for Mac OS X) on my Intel Mac, and have
been very  
happy with its performance and compatibility so far.  I
haven't seen  
the glitches you mention below.  The only glitch I've
noticed so far  
is that to get online if I want AirBears with Parallels, I
need to  
set the MAC address of the Parallels VM to match my wireless
card's  
MAC address.

Ian

On Jul 21, 2006, at 11:46 AM, Jon Forrest wrote:

> I just bought one of those newly announced educational
iMacs.
> I got a slightly souped up version with 1GB ram and
160GB disk.
> The main reason I bought it was to test its suitability
as a  
> replacement
> for a bunch of Windows PCs used in an instructional
lab.
>
> I'm happy to say that the Boot Camp procedure for
installing
> Windows was flawless. Everything went exactly as Apple
said it
> would. I'm using it with a Windows keyboard and mouse,
along
> with an external Dell LCD monitor. So far I've seen
nothing
> unexpected.
>
> There were a couple of minor issues:
>
> 1) If I use the brightness control to reduce the
> brightness of the built-in monitor, anything other
> that 100% sometimes results in flickering.
>
> 2) I'm not 100% sure what going on but it seems
> like Windows takes much longer to settle down
> after booting. In particular, for no reason I
> could see it sometimes took a long time for Windows to
> see my USB keyboard and mouse. It didn't
> seem to matter if I was using the Apple keyboard/mouse
> or my old Windows keyboard/mouse.
>
> None of these are serious issues.
>
> Apple clearly states "Even after installling the
Macintosh
> Drivers CD, the Apple Remote Control (IR), Apple
Wireless
> (Bluetooth) keyboard or mouse, Apple USB Modem,
> MacBook Pro's sudden motion sensor, MacBook Pro's
> ambient light sensor, and built-in iSight camera
> will not function correctly when running
Windows."
> so it looks like Apple still has some work to do.
>
> Cordially,
> -- 
> Jon Forrest
> forrestce.berkeley.edu
> Computer Resources Manager
> Civil and Environmental Engineering Dept.
> 305 Davis Hall
> Univ. of Calif., Berkeley
> Berkeley, CA 94720-1710
> 510-642-0904
>
>
>
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> The following was automatically added to this message
by the list  
> server:
>
> For information about Micronet, including subscribing
to
> or unsubscribing from its mailing list and finding out
> about upcoming meetings, please visit the Micronet Web
site:
> <http://micronet.be
rkeley.edu/>.


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