increase my Mac-fu?

April 7, 2006 10:13 AM

Boot Camp for new MacBook Pro - will it work with Windows 2000 pro, or only XP?

I do own a full install of W2K pro. I just bought a 2ghz MacBook Pro to replace my 3 craptacular PCs (2 desktops & laptop, all +5 yrs old). I don't really want to have to purchase a full version of XP.

The main reason I bought this thing was for the possibility to run dual OS to ease the transition of all my productivity and photography software from my PCs to Mac... and hopefully merge ALL my daily tasks, work, school, photography stuff, etc. onto ONE machine that can handle it.

Any way to do this gracefully without Windows XP? I can't seem to find the answer to this, tho I'm certain it's been asked.

posted by lonefrontranger to Computers & Internet (17 answers total)

Best answer: Boot Camp works only with Windows XP with Service Pack 2. But you can use Parallels' free-beta virtual PC software to run pretty much any Intel-based OS.
posted by nicwolff at 10:21 AM on April 7, 2006

I haven't tried it, but from what I've read (samples), just XP -- and it has to be a later copy that includes SP2 (the more recent service pack upgrade), because it's either very tricky or impossible to upgrade to SP2 from within Boot Camp.
posted by theredpen at 10:26 AM on April 7, 2006

people have gotten Ubuntu Linux to boot using Boot Camp. that said, Linux bootloaders tend to be far more versatile than the one Microsoft uses, so Win2k may not work. seconding the Parallels option - in this case, it may be helpful as you'll be able to kinda get comfortable with OS X while having all your stuff right there. (I've found it's pretty easy to have a dual-boot setup and then just ignore the other OS.)
posted by mrg at 10:34 AM on April 7, 2006

Following Dasein, if I own a Dell or HP computer (for example) that came with Windows XP preinstalled, and I am willing to throw out that computer or it just plain dies, can I legally transfer my XP license from the old computer to a new MacIntel?
posted by alms at 10:56 AM on April 7, 2006

Alms: No, you can't. OEM versions of Windows are not legally transferrable.
posted by Mwongozi at 11:04 AM on April 7, 2006

Thank you, mwongozi, that's extremely helpful and timely for reasons that I can't fully go into here.
posted by alms at 11:08 AM on April 7, 2006

Response by poster: thank you extremely much nicwolff, this is precisely what I'm looking for. I'm very unfamilar to the whole mac thing and the ability to run simultaneously is even more helpful than the dual boot option offered by Boot Camp.

since I'm not a gamer, I doubt the video native format deal will affect me. I mostly do office productivity, music and photography stuff, with some side forays into training software for cycling.
posted by lonefrontranger at 11:13 AM on April 7, 2006

Will Vista run on the MacBook Pro when it's released?

I think it's safe to say that Apple will make sure it will.
posted by jjg at 11:15 AM on April 7, 2006

Will Vista run on the MacBook Pro when it's released?

Ask again when Vista is released. Personally I think both Microsoft and Apple would be foolish not to make that happen, but I can see Apple restricting people to XP (so you can run your Windows apps, but not on the absolute latest versions of Windows).
posted by kindall at 11:16 AM on April 7, 2006

Dasein writes "Will Vista run on the MacBook Pro when it's released?"

Looks likely.
posted by mr_roboto at 11:20 AM on April 7, 2006

Dasein writes "Would it be appropriate to give mr_roboto a Best Answer for me?"


Maybe not. Looks like he did the full install today and couldn't get it to run....
posted by mr_roboto at 11:56 AM on April 7, 2006

For what it's worth, Parallel's software has made my MacBook explode in new and interesting ways. (I got gray-screened on my first try with it.)

I'm trying again with disc images instead, and so far I have graphics and am currently "Installing devices". (I got past the point where I gray-screened when using physical XP media.)
posted by I Love Tacos at 12:22 PM on April 7, 2006

Oh, and so far Parallel's software feels a lot like qemu with the fast x86 extensions, but who knows... these virtualizers are all so similar, it's hard to know.
posted by I Love Tacos at 12:23 PM on April 7, 2006

The MacBook Pro should be able to easily handle all the reqs for Vista, but the Radeon x1600 isn't designed for the upcoming Shader Model 4.0, so bleeding-edge games for Vista, say, two years down the line will be even more sluggish/lacking in eyecandy than you'd ordinarily suspect.
posted by Ryvar at 1:04 PM on April 7, 2006

Can you run games in the virtualization software?
posted by Lord_Pall at 1:34 PM on April 7, 2006

Yes, you can run games, but they won't have access to any 3D hardware, as the virtualized video card is fairly plain.
posted by kindall at 1:39 PM on April 7, 2006

Response by poster: so, I Love Tacos, sorry about your luck with the exploding MacBook, but can I use you as a guinea pig? (o and WTH is qemu, sorry I'm a lot stupid about some of this stuff)

I'm quite eager to do dual OS as I've got a ton of windows software I use daily, but not at the expense of my brand new spendy machine... so I'm going to hold off for a bit until the worst bugs are fixed or someone can figure out good crash
avoidance techniques.

if need be I'll just suck it up and cough up the cash for a full version of XP... sigh. regardless what you do with windoze, it costs.

to the guys apologising for hijacking the thread, no worries. this is part of the value (to me) of MeFi and how I learn stuff, anyways I'm not a thread nazi. heck now I know the Vista answers, should I have been so inclined.

I suspect I'm a good fit for virtualisation since I'm an OSX rookie and not a gamer.
posted by lonefrontranger at 5:04 PM on April 7, 2006