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Crossover Mac Works!

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Sean_Reid

Guest
Thanks for the feedback all. I think I can get Leopard for free or for $10 or so since the computer was only bought yesterday. I'll get it.

Cheers,

Sean
 

etrigan63

Active member
Sean,

The problem I have with both Parallels and Fusion is that you still need to have a copy of XP with all of the associated bloat. Plus, if something happens and you have to load it again, you have to deal with MS to re-activate the software. I've already had issues with this and with all of the rampant piracy, MS is loathe to believe those of us who do actually buy their products, so you are treated as a crook most of the time trying to get the product re-activated. Even with the latest version of Parallels, I found that it wasn't as smooth an integration as I would have liked.

A question for those of you using Crossover: How does the MS product activation go? Any problems?
What I do with my VM's is after I have loaded, activated and configured it, I shut it down and zip up the entire VM and store it on a server. Anything ever gets messed up, I just unzip the VM and overlay. Needless to say, data cannot be stored on this VM (I usually make them fairly small and have the host software break the virtual disk into 2GB chunks) but it gets the job done and you don't have to reactivate if you overlay.
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Suggested Configuration

PC with a Pentium 1 GHz or higher processor (or compatible)
Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows 2003, 64-Bit Windows, Windows Vista or Windows Vista 64 (IMatch 3.6 and higher)
512 MB of RAM
Hard disk space: 60 MB for the IMatch software and accompanying files. At least one extra gigabyte for storing your databases
1024 x 768 screen resolution or better
True Color Graphics adapter

Maybe work with Crossover
 

woodyspedden

New member
I actually like Leopard a lot. It is a good upgrade overall.
I agree for the most part Guy. However it is going to be a while until all the manufacturers get drivers etc up to speed. Alien Skin Exposure has some issues as do many other programs that we photographers use. Sad to say that the Microsoft and Apple are now behaving the same way..........in their need to get a new OS out in the market place they don't give the third party supporters sufficient time to get the apps properly running under the new system. So we all end up losing capability for some period of time. That's the way it is. So I am running Leopard on my 17" Mac Book Pro but still have Tiger on my Intel Mac Pro and will continue to do so until the apps are updated.

Woody
 
H

hiro

Guest
I've been tempted to try Crossover, having run Parallels for some time and finally giving up on it, but Crossover doesn't seem to support many of the Windows apps I'd run (Office 2007, Visio 2007, Project 2007).
Do you actually need MS Office? Unless perhaps you use the Access database you could probably just use Open Office since it handles Word and Excel files just fine. Personally I prefer it to MS Office, I've never really liked either Excel or Word, Excel in particular has some annoying quirks that I simply can't get used to after using other spreadsheets for years. (Anyhow, if you need it, isn't Excel available as a native Mac application? I'm not familiar with current Mac software but Excel used to be a Mac application years before it was ported to Windows.)
 

Guy Mancuso

Administrator, Instructor
Mac Office 2008, 149 dollars right now. I been using office for Mac since i bought my Mac in 06 works great . I use Entourage as my e-mail program and also Powerpoint for client stuff . Works a peach
 

TRSmith

Subscriber Member
I've been using MS Office for MAC for years (10?). It works great and is essential for me since my clients all use it. Opening/editing/saving files between platforms is a must for me. Every corporate client I have uses the Office suite.
 

Bob

Administrator
Staff member
I gave up on the MS suite when I tossed my PCs.
I use iWork or open office and have not looked back.
-bob
 

simonclivehughes

Active member
I have MS Office 2004 for Mac, but I like to keep current with the versions of Office that I use on my work PC. I'll be getting a copy of Office 2008 for Mac, but a huge disadvantage is that it no longer supports Visual Basic for Apps (VBA). I authored an e-book and associated Excel software (free via my website) for broadband engineering that makes some use of VBA, so I need both Word and Excel to keep it updated. From what I see, Word (Mac 2008) will be a nice step up, but for Excel, I'll just keep using the 2004 Mac version. Also a potential pitfall is that MS "lose" capability between upgrades... for example you need to watch backwards file compatibility with the new versions.

If I could run Office (Windows) 2007 on the Mac easily (and yes, I have Parallels but have abandoned it) I would be happy. This was the thrust of my question about Crossover with regard to activation of the individual apps (not XP/Vista activation). At this point however, it's moot as Crossover does not support any current MS apps.

My main issue beyond the above though, is that I'd like to be able to run MS Visio and Project on my Mac as I use these extensively for work. I have, or have tried a few of the Mac counterparts, such as OmniGraffle, OmniPlan, Project X and Merlin, but none are a good enough alternative (yet).

BTW, I would not bother using PowerPoint with the capabilities that Keynote gives you.

Cheers,
 

jonoslack

Active member
Sean,

Actually, I was referring to the activation of, for example, Office, rather that Windows itself. Unfortunately, the Crossover site specifically say "Known not to work" for the programs I want to run... bummer!

I'll echo Maggie, Time Machine is more than enough reason to upgrade. It's the easiest, most well thought out backup I've seen yet. With my recent HD crash and the upgrade to the 320GB HDD, I was back up and running no no time at all. Highly recommended!
Simon - I also gave up on Parallels, but I've now got fusion working really well. I created a VM with all the software I needed (running an OEM version of XP) - having got everything enabled and activated (and yes, I did have to ring for some of them, and they do treat you like a criminal, but I've found that charm and a good sense of humour wins the day every time).

Having created the basic VM, I've made a copy of it, all fresh and lovely, and I ONLY use that version if I need something new installed (which is rarely).

It's great for backup purposes, and for visiting clients I can just copy the working VM to my laptop.

Like you, I'd prefer to use my macs for everything, but much of my income comes from writing windows applications - this method works really well, and it also is great for backing up. (I keep the VM small, and have all the data on either external drives or shared folders).

I've got a 160gb Ipod, and I can back up the virtual machine to it in less than 15 minutes. I also keep a copy of VMFusion installation on the ipod. This means that if my laptop dies on a trip I can simply get hold of another machine and be up and running in less than an hour.

When I get home the VM comes off the laptop and back on to my desktop mac.
I hope that helps
 
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meilicke

Guest
Simon and Jono, why did you drop Parallels? One advantage it has over VMWare that I like is support for dual screens in coherence mode.

-Scott
 

simonclivehughes

Active member
For me, the main two reasons were I didn't think it was stable enough (XP is bad enough without compounding further instability on top), and it just took up too much disk space. I was hoping that Crossover would be a much "lighter" solution.

I found also that there were inconsistencies with running peripherals under Parallels too.
 

Daniel

New member
While we're sort of on the topic, is there any compelling reason for me to change to Leopard?

Cheers,

Sean
i think not just yet. at least this is what i'm suggesting to my brother.

i believe that apple rushed 10.5 out with plenty of loose ends unattended. 10.5.1 took care of some. apple just released 10.5.2, and i suggested to my brother that at this version it would probably be safe for him to make the move because many of the loose ends should've been taken care off by apple.

it's still new, so it's too soon to say. however, 10.5.2 is already exhibiting a problem with WIFI. since updating to 10.5.2, my WIFI upload speed has dropped very dramatically; that is from 4000 down to 600. however, when connected via ethernet, the speed returns to what it should be. i have a powerbook that's still on 10.4.11. it doesn't have this problem. so far, this is the only problem i've encountered with the latest release.

i hope this was helpful.

-dan
 
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Sean_Reid

Guest
Hi Dan,

It was helpful, thank you. At this point, however, my Mac Pro came with Leopard and I've installed Leopard on my MacBook Pro. So far, no problems at all that I'm aware of. I fuss more with Fusion than with anything, so far, in the Apple OS.

BTW, as I write this I'm using my new 23" Cinema display and so far its wonderful.

Cheers,

Sean
 
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