Entries Tagged 'OSX' ↓

There is a thread going on with Alexander Kazakov on my blog who asked me a question on how to use SQL Server in a VM from OSX using Ruby.  One change that you will need to make is the network settings for the Virtual Machine to allow the VM to be part of your local network.

The default is NAT.  Change it to Bridged (second selection).  Now the VM will be available from the host machine (OS X).  The VM will now be on your network, so make sure that its properly patched and all updates have been run.  This is really, really required if your using XP from a new install.  

This only works if your mac is on a switch or a router that is assigning an IP address. If your computer is connected directly to your DSL or Cable Modem your asking for trouble so make sure you have at least a router!!

In the past, we’ve tried so hard to first use Microsoft products when available to fit a need.  However lately, we’ve come to realize that there are just some products that are better and worth taking a look at.  One of them is VMware.  We’ve been using Microsoft Virtual Server for over two years now.  Microsoft Virtual Server has worked OK, but its not been the best experience.

Recently when we moved our servers over to a new hosting provider and got ourselves 3 new 64 bit Servers with 8 gigs of RAM on each of them, we decided to use VMware Instead. All I can say is WOW, what a difference.  The configuration and performance has been outstanding.  Our development branch down in Mexico has also recently upgraded their servers to VMware too and based on my conversations with them also they love it better and can’t imagine switching back.

This weekend I decided to give VMware Fusion for the Mac a shot on my iMac. In the past I’ve used Parallels and for the most part its been pretty good.  Last Month, one of my clients who happen to be using a Mac and run Windows in Virtualization mode suggested I give VMware Fusion a chance.  My iMac also has Boot camp installed and I’m running WIndows XP (Remember I switched back!).  VMWare has a great feature that I can use the native partition as a Virtual Image.  The performance has been excellent! I get the best of both worlds.  I can run in Virtual Mode while in OSX but still boot into Windows natively if I need to something like requires heavy use of the GPU.   It’s been extremely stable and I would suggest to anyone who is considering Virtualization on the Mac, to take a look at VMware Fusion instead of Parallels.

As many of you may have heard, Microsoft has released Safari for Windows. You maybe asking yourself why do I care! First if your a web developer that uses Windows XP or Vista as you primary  operating system, you should be excited!

Should you be excited that you’ll get to use a really good browser? Sure, but the primary reason I can think of is that you now have a browser that you can run on your machine that will allow you to test your web applications  for OS X! You no longer have to ask your Apple friend or creative department to do your testing.

Personally I use OS X all the time so this is not a big deal for me. However this is a big deal for the 40+ developers that work the company I run (with my other partners) and it should be for you also!

Think about it… you now have the same browser that 90% of all Apple users have and use on their computer. The other 10% is Firefox,  that you have  already covered. No sane Apple user still uses IE for the Mac. Safari now hold roughly 5% of the total web browser share and this number is going to increase due to the number of people who continue to jump to OS X (I had another friend who just asked me that he is thinking of switching himself and his mother to OS X).  Now that Safari is available for Windows, that number should continue to rise.

It’s a really good browser that is bound to gain acceptance because it’s backed by Apple. FireFox may have the geeks, but Apple has the branding to get people to use Safari if they have had enough of IE. You can bet the bank that Apple will distribute the browser with iTunes as they have been doing with Quicktime. They are getting millions downloading iTunes on Windows each month. If they start distributing Safari with iTunes, and market it correctly, you’re bound to see a huge percentage of users!

Either way you look at it, you’ll need to download it and test your web applications.  Heck you may even begin to use it as your own primary browser!

Wow! I never thought I would admit it but I really do like, no love, Windows Vista.  I’ve installed it on my desktop computer and it’s been for the most part a very good experience. However, I don’t recommend it for notebooks at the moment. The two notebooks I have tried it on, runs a bit sluggish. As long as you have a new machine, with at least 2 gigs of RAM and a decent graphics card, Vista is beautiful.  The last couple of weeks I’ve been working on my desktop and when I go to use my Macbook pro notebook, it feels a bit dated.  Maybe it’s the Aero theme that has me hooked or the new sleek UI but whatever it is I’m hooked. 

I did have some problems with the sound card drivers at first but I was able to get this resolved after digging through the forums.  The other real problem I had was with Visual Studio 2005 not running as smooth as it should.  This was resolved when I updated Visual Studio 2005 to Service Pack 1 and found a Vista update for Visual Studio 2005 sp1.  After updating VS2005, it’s been working pretty well!  

I did have to turn off the infamous “Cancel or Allow” dialogs! (If you’ve seen the new Apple commercial and have been using Vista, you know how true it is with dealing with that annoying dialog box.)  This “interruption” was driving me bonkers. So much so I hated the whole Vista experience at first. I was about 10 minutes into reinstalling Windows XP, when I found out I could turn this off (The Apple commercial stated this could be done! Thanks Apple!!) and things got a lot better from there.The Speech recognition in Vista is AMAZING!  I tried it out the other day and I’m truly impressed on how good it was. I won’t go into it here but it has come a long way! 

The other thing that may have had a positive influence is the new Office 2007.  At first I was extremly worried about what Microsoft did to Office with the new Ribbon feature, but after using it to write some documents at work, I could not believe that this was not thought of sooner! 

Well there you have it. A switcher that is not afraid to admit he likes something else beside OS X.  The good news is I’ll have a new version of OS X in the next month or so.  Hopefully I can fall back in love with my Apple again. I’m sure I will! 

Oh! I almost forgot! My Seven year old son was asking to use the computer and he noticed it was no longer running Windows XP.  He said to me “Is this a new Mac dad?” HAHA…That’s it!  I like Windows Vista because it looks so much like OS X!!  

I purchased a new 15 inch mac book pro from the Apple store this week and I must say I’m more than impressed with the performance! I have Windows running under Parallels Virtual Machine. Running Windows in a virtualization machine has exceeded my expectations.

In the past I’ve used Virtual PC for OS X and the performance was just OK. I really did not use VPC much because the performance was not what I was used to. If the speed is slowing me down (or the perception), I would rather get on another computer and do my work.

However, that is not the case with using Parallels on my new notebook. It’s as fast as running Windows XP on my P4 3.4 ghz desktop. I’m running Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 in VM and the performance is as good or better than my desktop.
I ‘m running a new beta version of Parallels that has improved many issues. They are coming up with more improvement very soon. One that caught my eye is that you’ll be able to run your games in the Virtual Machine and it will take advantage of your graphics card! Now that is impressive!

Based on my brother’s feedback with the amount of memory needed to run the VM and OS X at the same time, I went down Fry’s and bought an other Gig of RAM for $90! The Apple store wanted $300! That’s just nuts! (I’m sure its great memory but its not worth 3 times as much). With 2 Gigs of RAM, this machine is smoking fast!
Now when I am developing I can use Parallels and then with an alt+Enter key stroke, I can be back in OS X, checking email, viewing my RSS feeds and listening to music! (Well I can still listen to the OS X itunes when in the VM also) This is the best of both worlds!

I did use my external firewire drive to install the Virtual Machine. It does seem to be faster than running the VM from the internal hard drive. I’m not sure if this true, but it feels like it. I did this because it will avoid filling up my 100 gig hard drive. The other reason is when I replace my G5 desktop with the new Mac Pro, I can simply hook the external drive to that machine to work on it from home. I still perfer to use a desktop with a large monitor at home instead of a notebook.
I really don’t think Microsoft is going to get hurt by all the people switching to using Mac hardware. I think the company that is fearing these new computers is Dell.

Microsoft is stilling going to make money because people need Windows when they are using Bootcamp or Parallels, but Dell is going to lose people by the fact you can run Windows and OS X on the same machine. Plus Apple computers just look so much cooler!

I doubt there will ever be a time where I’ll have no need to use Windows. With the abilty to run both operating systems on the same machine, it made total sense to finally switch my notebook over to an Apple.

A few months ago my brother was at the Dell cart in the mall and made the bad choice of buying a new notebook. I warned him on the poor quality of Dells lately and how I and many people I know are having problems with Dell computers. I told him he should have bought a new Mac book pro instead. (now that they can run Windows XP via a direct boot or through an emulator)

Within a couple of weeks he was having all kinds of problems with the Dell. We would stop by the Apple store every couple of weeks and I kept rubbing it in that he should have purchased a new Mac book pro.

Last week he purchased the 17 inch Mac book pro. Within a couple of hours he was calling me to tell me how he was blown away by the features that came with his new computer and wish he had made the switch earlier.

He also purchased Parallels, a Windows Emulator for intel computers running OSX. Within a couple of hours he had Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 running. When I came over to see how it ran, I was really impressed! However things were a bit sluggish on the OSX side. The problem was he allocated 600 megs to the emulator and only 300 megs to OSX. I told him to get more memory and things should improve.

He called me today and said he put in an additional gig and he said everything is running the way it should. He allocated a gig to OSX and a gig to Parallels.

I know my next notebook will be a Mac. I still have to pay off this !#$%@ Dell that I hate because I still have a few months left in my lease. I count the days….