#274017 - 13/01/2006 17:04
Re: iMacs and "MacBook Pro"
[Re: DWallach]
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veteran
Registered: 21/03/2002
Posts: 1424
Loc: MA but Irish born
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Dan, what you are talking about sounds a lot like the "memory balloon driver" in VMware ESX. This comes into play when the memory requirements of all the VMs exceeds the available physical memory. ESX will inflate the balloon on the lower priority VMs forcing the guest OS in those VM to decide what pages to page out to their swap file.
I don't know if this driver exists in the other VMware products.
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#274018 - 13/01/2006 17:42
Re: iMacs and "MacBook Pro"
[Re: Phoenix42]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 30/04/2000
Posts: 3810
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Yup, that's it. I didn't realize it had found its way into their commercial products.
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#274019 - 14/01/2006 23:26
Re: iMacs and "MacBook Pro"
[Re: matthew_k]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 31/08/1999
Posts: 1649
Loc: San Carlos, CA
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I ordered the higher end MacBook Pro (hate the name, but what are you going to do) the day after the keynote. Should be a big improvement over my current 1ghz powerbook. I also took the opportunity to signup for Apple's Select Developer program since the hardware discount offered with it effectively made it free. I've got a ship date of "By Feb 15th" at this point.
-Mike
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#274020 - 21/02/2006 05:36
Re: iMacs and "MacBook Pro"
[Re: hybrid8]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/06/1999
Posts: 7868
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Quote:
Tom, when you get the new machine post here about its size.
Looks like someone was busy with their new arrival today. He posted several photos comparing it to the older 15 inch Powerbook. Mine should hopefully get to my reseller tomorrow, but with my luck they will call before I board a plane at around 5pm. Always my luck, seems I have to fly out of town to summon my Apple portables. My Powerbook came in while I was in New York with Rob R. in 2003.
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#274021 - 03/04/2006 12:47
Re: iMacs and "MacBook Pro"
[Re: matthew_k]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 27/06/1999
Posts: 7058
Loc: Pittsburgh, PA
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So, who's got their MacBook Pro? Mine's on order, but I'm a wee bit nervous about some of the Rev A problems people are reporting. Any comments from the peanut gallery?
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#274022 - 03/04/2006 17:36
Re: iMacs and "MacBook Pro"
[Re: tonyc]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 12/11/2001
Posts: 7738
Loc: Toronto, CANADA
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Yeah, people are reporting some apparently fixed issues with the latest revisions. I think there are some updated reports on Macintouch and XLR8YourMac. I'm waiting until the 17" model is released to decide between form factors for my next machine. At that point I think my new hire will get this 1.5GHz 15" PB for development.
Bruno
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#274023 - 03/04/2006 19:16
Re: iMacs and "MacBook Pro"
[Re: tonyc]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 31/08/1999
Posts: 1649
Loc: San Carlos, CA
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Quote:
So, who's got their MacBook Pro? Mine's on order, but I'm a wee bit nervous about some of the Rev A problems people are reporting. Any comments from the peanut gallery?
I've had mine for a while now. No problems at all so far, I was expecting a few early adopter issues, but they haven't hit me yet. It has been more solid (and generally faster) than my Rev A Dual G5 tower.
-Mike
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#274024 - 03/04/2006 19:20
Re: iMacs and "MacBook Pro"
[Re: tonyc]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 12/02/2002
Posts: 2298
Loc: Berkeley, California
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Quote:
Any comments from the peanut gallery?
I've been lusting after one ever since that post. I'd certainly get apple care for it if I were to take the plunge. The G4's are just so much slower compared to the new processors, and their battery life is even worse than the MBP.
The only thing holding me back (besides financial realities, and owning 3 PB G4 batteries and 4 PB G4 power cords) is that the killer app for this machine is VMWare, and there hasn't been a peep about it out of VMware except that it probably couldn't happen until after leopard.
Matthew
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#274025 - 04/04/2006 01:32
Re: iMacs and "MacBook Pro"
[Re: tonyc]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/06/1999
Posts: 7868
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I'm enjoying mine quite a bit. It's very speedy, much more so then the old Powerbook. I do have the whine others hear when it is on battery and idle, but it seems software might be able to fix this. Haven't tried under the newly released 10.4.6 yet, though I rarely notice it.
I had Windows dual booting on it the day I got mine, as the contest details came out then. I'm not doing much with it right now, but once video drivers come out, I'll use it for gaming. And once that happens, I'll also sell off the Dell brick XPS laptop.
Overall, well worth the money spent. I managed to sell the old Powerbook for $1500, so the upgrade cost came out to be around $1000. Not bad for what I got out of it.
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#274026 - 04/04/2006 15:20
Re: iMacs and "MacBook Pro"
[Re: matthew_k]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 27/06/1999
Posts: 7058
Loc: Pittsburgh, PA
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Quote:
The only thing holding me back (besides financial realities, and owning 3 PB G4 batteries and 4 PB G4 power cords) is that the killer app for this machine is VMWare, and there hasn't been a peep about it out of VMware except that it probably couldn't happen until after leopard.
Keep an eye on this in the meantime.
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#274027 - 04/04/2006 15:31
Re: iMacs and "MacBook Pro"
[Re: tonyc]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 12/02/2002
Posts: 2298
Loc: Berkeley, California
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Quote:
Keep an eye on this in the meantime.
Oooh. I certainly will. I've never heard of Parallels, anyone know how their product compares to vmware and virtualpc?
Matthew
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#274028 - 04/04/2006 15:36
Re: iMacs and "MacBook Pro"
[Re: tonyc]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14491
Loc: Canada
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Quote:
Keep an eye on this in the meantime.
Quote:
"VMware has started giving away VMware Workstation"
They really should review their articles for correctness..
Edited by mlord (04/04/2006 15:36)
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#274029 - 04/04/2006 15:39
Re: iMacs and "MacBook Pro"
[Re: mlord]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 12/02/2002
Posts: 2298
Loc: Berkeley, California
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My thoughts exactly when I read that...
Matthew
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#274030 - 06/04/2006 15:01
Re: iMacs and "MacBook Pro"
[Re: matthew_k]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 12/02/2002
Posts: 2298
Loc: Berkeley, California
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Sweet. I'm gonna have to get me one of those macbook pros now. Anyone want to buy a lovingly trated 15" powerbook? It's a beautiful machine. Matthew
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#274031 - 06/04/2006 17:41
Re: iMacs and "MacBook Pro"
[Re: matthew_k]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 12/02/2002
Posts: 2298
Loc: Berkeley, California
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The bad news is that the mac mini doesn't support intel's virtualization technology, so it's not as fast as the MBP/iMac. The good news is that nothing else supports intel's virtualization technology, so it still shouldn't be any slower then VMware on windows. I ordered my parents a duo mac mini as they've been asking for a new computer for a few months now and I've been resisting until something like this was available.
Matthew
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#274032 - 19/04/2006 15:38
Why, you ask? Why not!
[Re: matthew_k]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 27/06/1999
Posts: 7058
Loc: Pittsburgh, PA
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Got my Macbook Pro last week, and loving it to death. Been toying around with Parallels Workstation and I think it's going to make VMWare irrelevant on OS X. I was able to play MP3s and videos in WinAMP, and even run Winamp AVS fullscreen, about as fast as they run on my Athlon XP box at home. I don't need Windows that often, but when I do, it'll be nice to have.
On the other hand, maybe I'll just use it for silly things like this.
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#274033 - 19/04/2006 15:48
Re: Why, you ask? Why not!
[Re: tonyc]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14491
Loc: Canada
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Quote:
Got my Macbook Pro last week, and loving it to death. Been toying around with Parallels Workstation and I think it's going to make VMWare irrelevant on OS X
Mmm.. looks promising, but it's got a bit of a steep hill or five before it matches VMWare's capabilities. Mind ya, right now PW is the only game in town (beta) for OS X. But that'll change.
Cheers
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#274034 - 19/04/2006 17:07
Re: Why, you ask? Why not!
[Re: mlord]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 12/11/2001
Posts: 7738
Loc: Toronto, CANADA
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Since I'm not familiar with VMWare, and because I think Parallels' solution won't be the only option for long, what are these adantages you mentioned?
I think my needs are going to be pretty modest, but there are a few usability features that will really influence my opinion. I'd probably prefer to use the program with a Windows application set to full screen, so I could get as close as possible to haveing that missing application blend in with my desktop.
I'd love a solution that could run a Windows application within a window that offered a (real-time) resizable virtual desktop without all the Windows/Explorer stuff in/on it (so resizing the parent window would seamlessly resize the application window running inside it). Anything that would get me as close as possible to a plain application window on my Mac OS desktop for that hosted program.
Bruno
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#274035 - 19/04/2006 20:07
Re: Why, you ask? Why not!
[Re: hybrid8]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14491
Loc: Canada
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Quote:
Since I'm not familiar with VMWare, and because I think Parallels' solution won't be the only option for long, what are these adantages you mentioned?
Snapshot trees, for one. The ability to simply "resume" a virtual machine from some arbitrary saved state is priceless. Want to try out some new s/w? Snapshot the machine, download and install the new stuff, try it out -- oops spyware-ridden or just plain not suitable? Hit "revert" and it's all gone. Magic. Or, okay it's nice, then just suspend the machine there, take a snapshot of it to go back to someday, and then click on the previous snapshot to run other stuff on a separate branch. And so on. Huge feature set there.
Virtual networks and "teams" of VMs. start with one good VM. Clone it into three or four, and set up virtual network LANs between them in various combinations to test server scenarios (or just to partition real servers).
Resizeable desktops, autofit / fitnow for resolutions.
Plug and play USB devices in the VMs -- any physical USB device can be moved to/from the VM and host O/S. I have used this for a zillion things. EDIT: Eg. for the LogicPort analyser gizmo, who's software requires MS-Win.
Virtual memory, multi-CPUs per VM, etc..
All of the packages will eventually all do this stuff, but VMware has been doing it all for a long time on regular PC (Linux/Win) systems, so one would expect them to offer it for the Mac shortly.
Cheers
Edited by mlord (19/04/2006 20:09)
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#274036 - 19/04/2006 20:55
Re: Why, you ask? Why not!
[Re: mlord]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 27/06/1999
Posts: 7058
Loc: Pittsburgh, PA
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I'd say they're aiming at different user levels. The features you describe are mostly power user type things, and they come at VMWare's power user price. Parallels Workstation sets you back a whopping $50, about 1/4 the price of VMWare.
I'd say there's definitely enough room for both in the marketplace, and VMware better watch their asses on the more advanced stuff.
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#274037 - 19/04/2006 21:01
Re: Why, you ask? Why not!
[Re: tonyc]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14491
Loc: Canada
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Quote:
The features you describe are mostly power user type things
No, I don't think so.
The snapshot capability provides "instant-on" when starting a foreign app, say MS-Office or something. It's just there and running instantly, without having to wait for windows to boot. That feature is for *everybody*.
The USB device support is also for Joe Average as well as for "power users". Say you get a new digicam, but the software is windows-only. Just plug it in, and use it with windows running inside VMware. Piece-O-Cake.
Cheers
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#274038 - 19/04/2006 21:10
Re: Why, you ask? Why not!
[Re: tonyc]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
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Most, if not all, of those features are available in VMware Server, which sets you back a whopping $0, about one-infinitieth the price of Parallels Workstation.
_________________________
Bitt Faulk
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#274039 - 19/04/2006 23:06
Re: Why, you ask? Why not!
[Re: wfaulk]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 27/06/1999
Posts: 7058
Loc: Pittsburgh, PA
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Quote:
Most, if not all, of those features are available in VMware Server, which sets you back a whopping $0, about one-infinitieth the price of Parallels Workstation.
Hm, I can't seem to find the link to the OS X version.
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#274040 - 20/04/2006 02:28
Re: Why, you ask? Why not!
[Re: mlord]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/06/1999
Posts: 7868
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One big feature of VMWare that I would like for my MacBook is the ability to use a real hard disk partition for the guest OS instead of a virtual disk file. That way, I can boot Windows inside VMWare in OS X to do development in Visual Studio, or reboot into Windows XP and run a game, without needing two copies of Windows on the disk.
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#274041 - 20/04/2006 12:51
Re: Why, you ask? Why not!
[Re: tonyc]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
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You were already talking about VMware and comparing prices. I was just pointing out the same class of facts you were.
_________________________
Bitt Faulk
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#274042 - 20/04/2006 13:45
Re: Why, you ask? Why not!
[Re: wfaulk]
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veteran
Registered: 21/03/2002
Posts: 1424
Loc: MA but Irish born
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Note: VMware Server is beta software so preformance may lag and as with any beta it may be buggy. However once GA it will continue to cost $0.
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