The Glade 4.0

So I need to have access to some of my commonly used windows only programs on my macs (I'm split between systems at the moment). While I get the general gist of using a VM to run Windows, I'd like some suggestions and recommendations on the details.

First- VMWare Fusion or Parallels? I can get VMWare free through my school, but if Parallels is a lot better, I'd be willing to pay for it.

Second- best version of Windows, and where to get it? Seems like a lot of the cost of setting up a VM is in the cost of the OS license- something like $200 per computer for Win7, from what I can tell. Am I just missing something here?

Last- any other recommendations?

Program I need to run (primarily) is a data analysis program, not a lot of power required so it should run fine in a VM. Been just doing all my analysis on my work PC, but I'm needing to do some workup on the road lately as well. And my work PC will probably get replaced by an iMac or a MacPro in the next year or so anyway, so I might as well learn the setup now.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

VMWare Fusion has always worked better than Parallels for me. Not sure which windows to recommend, I've had an OEM copy of Win 7 pro for a while now.

Question: Your work is switching to Mac? What is the rationale or is that your choice?

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Rationale is twofold: My boss uses a mac, and we frequently write papers as a collaboration. The office versions don't sync up as well as they could, and it frequently has "issues" going back and forth between them.

Secondly, pen-drive rootkits are an epidemic around here, and there's only so much I can do to protect my computer from them. Most of the time my antivirus catches it, but not frequently.

Thirdly, other than one key piece, we have more licenses for Mac software than windows. And several other commonly used pieces are OSX only, or only have very low-functionality windows ports.

And while I can install Win7 (or virtualize it) on a Mac, I can't do the same with OSX on a PC.

So when my current work PC dies (probably won't be too long), I'll be replacing it with a Mac.

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

If you are running a dual environment you'll still have the rootkit problem. If you want to avoid this issue load up Windows 98 Windows 7, Vista, XP all have the same vulnerability but it's easier to clean up in 7.

Do you work for the Government? I know some NASA branches have been using Mac as of late.

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Only if he happens to leave his virtualization running when he's away from his desk, and he could always disable the windows machine from reading external devices through the VM options.

Or you could just Information Security audit of your departments pen drives and force them to comply with Federal Regulations (for the type of information and employer you have) for precisely that reason ...

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I'm sure Nephyrs can only make suggestions and people making stupid decisions is out of his control.

That's the main reason I want to use a virtualization rather than a boot camp. Then I can open it when I want to run something, and safely close it out when I don't.

Currently, I just use my mac to reformat my jump drives after every time I use a shared computer. I wouldn't put one in while I was running windows in a VM, but rather would open them, pull files off, and reformat.

Our IS/IT guys won't be much help. They're the same geniuses that decided the best way to stop viruses was to cut off ethernet connections to (most) shared computers. But they didn't follow that up with update virus definitions any other way. So all the computers have antivirus software, but haven't had it updated in 5 or 6 years, because "they can't get viruses if we don't let people get online".

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

Why isn't running OSX in a VM an option again?

And, wow. Those are definitely some IT geniuses. At least tell me you guys are running AV on your OSX machines, too?

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Because OSX is his main operating system, and he doesn't want to run it in a VM. Windows is secondary here, and you can't install OSX on non-official hardware without buying very specific builds and going through very specific headaches.

It's not so much that OSX is my main, as that it kind of has to be. You can't legally install OSX on a non-Mac computer, and I doubt wiping a Mac and installing Windows as a primary and virtualizing OSX would make much sense.

And even the legal issues aside, as Lenas mentioned, the technical headaches of OSX on a hackintosh are huge, even for people who know the OS much better than I do, and the almost never work "quite right", more like "mostly right".

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Darksiege: You are not a god damned vulcan homie.

Fusion. Parallels is becoming a sleazy company, the products seem to leapfrog one another feature wise, so I'd go based on the firm.