Macs, Virtualization, and Genealogy Software

RandomGenealogy.com has written up a fairly extensive overview of the new Intel-based MacBooks/MacBook Pros, and how they could be of use to those genealogists wanting to switch to Macs, but still hold onto some of their Windows software until they have any and all migration issues sorted out.

You have to understand, this is head and shoulders above previous “Windows on a Mac” software – in this case, Windows has direct access to the Intel hardware and can run very fast. He discusses both options – completly booting Windows by itself with Boot Camp (there probably is no Windows genealogy software that would ever need to have Windows booted by itself), and using a new (and it looks like the only) piece of virtualisation software available – Parallels Desktop. It’s running Windows in a window under Mac OS X (although you can switch to full-screen, you are still running under Mac OS X). It’s not just for Windows either – it’ll handle DOS and other applications written to run on Intel (and AMD) hardware.

It’s interesting, and reasonably priced – if you know of anybody thinking about switching to a Mac, this might be the article to email them.

The article – RandomGenealogy.com