OSX and Bootcamp question

[geordisjd]

Originally Posted by acosmichippo

are you only going to be using parallels?

if so, you have much more versatility, because a separate partition is not needed.

sounds like a sweet machine, btw.

For me, Parallels is good enough. I just need it for a few tasks, and it performs faithfully (office scheduling and hospital access).

I'm not limited to any number of GB's. It expands as it is needed. And I have a lot of room for expansion.

Past that, all I need is a Mac .

[acosmichippo]

i may have worded that poorly, but that's pretty much what i was saying. If you stick with parallels, you won't have to worry about being limited to a partition.

[SpongebObiWan]

Originally Posted by acosmichippo

are you only going to be using parallels?

if so, you have much more versatility, because a separate partition is not needed.

sounds like a sweet machine, btw.

Thanks, I'm really quite excited. Anyway, I'm really a noob about Mac's so I'm not sure I understand what you're asking: "are you only going to be using parallels?" Are you saying that if I use Parallels, I will not even need to create a separate partition for my WindowsXP operating system and all my other Windows programs that I want to run on the iMac? If so, I didn't even realize that. In that case, I guess you are saying that I have no limitation to how much disk space I will need for Windows programs, etc, and don't need to even worry about whether or not I use FAT32 or not? Correct me if I am wrong, and forgive my complete ignorance about this.

EDIT: Ugh!! Sorry. I didn't read the rest of the posts relating to this AFTER your post to me, UNTIL I had posted the above. I think my question was already answered. Thanks so much. I am tracking the shipment of my iMac about every hour or so..hahaha..and it looks like it will arrive by Friday.

[acosmichippo]

that's exactly right.

what programs are you needing to run in windows? If they're relatively undemanding, Parallels will be fine for you.

[SpongebObiWan]

Originally Posted by acosmichippo

that's exactly right.

what programs are you needing to run in windows? If they're relatively undemanding, Parallels will be fine for you.

Some of them are Yahoo chat clients that I use for chat (OTHER then Messenger. I know there is a Mac Yahoo Messenger) and other related chat programs. That's just the first thing that came to mind that I know I won't be able to find a Mac version for. I also live and die by MS Outlook, and I was considering that I really needed that on my iMac. I know there is a Mac version of Office, but it doesn't have Outlook that I can see. However, having said that, and after what little research I have been doing, I might not even need Outlook after all. I might be much better off using the programs that come with OS X and merely migrating my data into those programs. I will have to take it step by step as I begin to set this up and see exactly what I will need in the way of Windows programs.

Who knows? Maybe I'm going to be pleasantly surprised and discover that some of the programs I run on Windows, I will actually be able to run on OS X. As I said, I know hardly anything about Mac's and OS X. My "learning curve" awaits me.

[acosmichippo]

sounds like parallels will be just fine.

The mac Office has "Entourage" instead of Outlook. I'm not sure exactly what the differences are, though. The Mac Mail is more than adequate for my needs.

[SpongebObiWan]

Originally Posted by acosmichippo

sounds like parallels will be just fine.

The mac Office has "Entourage" instead of Outlook. I'm not sure exactly what the differences are, though. The Mac Mail is more than adequate for my needs.

Well, if I can migrate all my contact info and all my old e-mails into whatever OS X has to offer, I can live with that. My past e-mails are my lifeline to just about everything I do. I keep Outlook open as I am constantly going in there looking for some information from the past few years to do something I need to do in the present.

[acosmichippo]

in that case, new macs come with a trial version of Office, which i'm pretty sure includes Entourage. So give Mail and Entourage a try, and if neither works for you, then there's always Outlook.

[SpongebObiWan]

Thanks so much. One other question just occurred to me. Since I know have my PC set up with iTunes and my iPhone, how will I be able to set up my iMac to be the primary iTunes "recipient?" for my iPhone instead of my PC, without losing anything on my iPhone. I am concerned that once I connect my iPhone to my new iMac and start up iTunes, it will give me that message that this is not the computer my iPhone is set up on, and if I attempt to sync, I will lose the stuff on my iPhone.

[acosmichippo]

right. If you sync your iPhone with your iMac, you will lose all media (videos, music, etc). Your contacts, though, can be merged onto your iMac. When you sync, you'll get a popup message asking you if you want to overwrite the contacts of your iPhone with those on the computer , or merge the iphone contacts with the iMac contacts. If you choose "Merge", the contacts from your iPhone will be synced to Mail by default. After the initial sync, you can choose another mail client to sync with (like entourage).

So, music and movies you will have to transfer directly from your old computer, but contacts (and pictures, i think) will transfer fine.