how much HD space does Vista take up?

[whyweigh5.0]

anyone know off hand?

[whyweigh5.0]

Im thinking of installing Parallels on my macbook and want to know if I have enough room to do it in the first place

[mattstick]

Depends on the version of Vista, I'd say you'll need at least 15-20GB.

[whyweigh5.0]

ouch
hmmm

I have a MyBook external HD.  Think I can install it onto that?

[mattstick]

No, I don't think that's possible.

[whyweigh5.0]

which is the better application? Boot Camp or Parallels?

[jephrey]

depends on what you want to do...  parallels is virtualization so it goes through a layer of software.  Although since now it's on the same chipsets (macs have intels) the conversion isn't too difficult and the speed of things won't suffer too much.  Boot Camp wins but not by a huge margin.

A benefit of parallels is that you can run vista in a window on your desktop, along-side Leopard.  You can switch back and forth.  It's like VNC but over a very fast connection.  Win for parallels.

Another parallels win is that you don't have to restart into the other OS.  Kind of goes along with my previous point, but not having to restart is huge.  Win for parallels.

If you're a gamer and want to take full advantage of what you have, you'll want to use boot camp.  I know gaming graphics on macs is a touchy subject, but as far as performance goes, I saw that the mac, while running boot camp, was the fastest Vista machine available (IIRC it was up against a few mainstream competitors).  I should also include other specialized software that is system intensive like cad or 3d modeling packages.  Win for Boot camp, Huge win if you use big software or games.

I think it's up to what you do...  Even for system intensive software, I would personally use Parallels because my frequency of use would be really weak and when I need it, it'll be for a single task and done.  I've been M$-free for about a month now and it's great

[Guyute]

anyone know off hand?

I believe the correct answer is a metric fuckload