Options for running Windows applications on Mac?

[Trixter]

There are three windows applications that I'm going to need to run on my hackintosh. Source Filmmaker via Steam is the main and most important, anything else is secondary. Others are FFXIV and FFXI. In the future there's a chance that I'll get some more games for Windows.


What are my options here for running them? I've heard of boot camp, parallels, and wine but I'm not sure the benefits or disadvantages of each one. Looking for the cheapest or most stable choice.

 

[Trixter]

Thoughts?

 

[loginfailed]

I don't really know the benefits or disadvantages of each one but I have had a positive experience with Parallels.

 

[xtwombly]

You've got two basic choices: use a virtual machine inside something like parallels, or install a bootable copy of windows ala bootcamp or simply having a separate installation. If you run in a virtual machine, you have the advantage of being able to launch your Windows apps while still in osx. The downside is that since it is a virtual machine, you may take a performance hit (especially if your software takes explicit advantage of your graphics hardware) since the device drivers do no communicate directly to the hardware. If you do a separate windows installation, then you have to physically reboot, plus a dual boot system takes a bit more work (very little if you put each os on its own drive). Advantage of course is that a native installation maximizes your performance.

 

[Trixter]

Tough choice, since I meet the recommended requirements of my programs... but since they're all game based a separate installation might work better. Win 7 is also only like $10 more on amazon than Parallels. I'll keep checking into that. Can I partition one drive and still have it work fine?

 

[xtwombly]

Tough choice, since I meet the recommended requirements of my programs... but since they're all game based a separate installation might work better. Win 7 is also only like $10 more on amazon than Parallels. I'll keep checking into that. Can I partition one drive and still have it work fine?

Realize that you will still need to buy a full blown Windows license to install in parallels. Parallels only provides the virtual machine environment, you still need to have the licensed os to install inside it. So the trade-off as I would see it is cost parallels vs cost of extra drive for the easiest dual boot, plus the cost of windows on top of both. If you opt to go to the trouble of multiple partitions on the same disk, one for win and one for osx, then the trade-off is that effort vs cost of parallels. No way around buying a license for win.