How is your Mac set up for Windows development?

Question

I am looking for a MacBook Pro to replace my tedious laptop. My daily work is like a .NET web developer, so I'm looking to use VMware Fusion to run VS and SQL Server, etc.

As I have not yet run my dev environment in VM, I would like to know how others are configured. What applications do you have installed? In what environment? Where do you store your files? Inside each environment or some kind of shared drive? Are there any errors? Or the basic things I should know.

Many thanks

Matt

Answer 1

I also use bootcamp. This is very easy to set up, and I find it much faster than merging, as there is no sharing of resources.

Vs2008 and vs2010 work very fast on a fairly clean installation of windows, I would say as fast as on my desktop.

I use svn to store source files and backup windows to an external drive so often. In general, the experience is not different from using Dell, except for the @ symbol, is in the wrong place;)

John

Answer 2

I personally use Parallels Desktop 5 for my Windows virtualization. Like Fusion, it is compatible with Boot Camp, so you can boot Windows directly to the metal if you need performance improvements (empirically, it really matters).

Both Parallels and Fusion provide access to mounted volumes between environments when both are running. Parallels can also be configured to use your custom Mac directories as Windows user directories, although I'm not sure that they remain available in Boot Camp since they will be stored in the HFS partition. You might be better off leaving them separate and either migrating them as needed, or using a repository or synchronization tool to keep both environments running. It depends on how much you need to move the files between them.

Regarding software installation, I pretty much have a fallback installation of VS 2008 and SQL Server 2008. No matter what someone else says, you will notice a difference in CPU intensive processes, such as compiling on the hardware you use. This is followed by work under virtualization. On metal, Windows 7 works like oil.

Answer 3

I use VMware Fusion to provide me with both Windows and Linux (x86-64) virtual machines for cross-form development. It works very well - just make sure you have a lot of memory (preferably 4 GB or more). I'm sure Parallels is similar, but I chose Fusion because at that time it was the only way to run VMware x86-64 (both of them support the 64-bit version).

Answer 4

I am booting Windows twice with Bootcamp. I store files on an external drive. on Win I have Visual Studio, then WAMP for webdev. on Mac, I use textmate, xCode, MAMP ... and tons of web browsers on each.

Answer 5

On mac, I use textmate, netbeans and xcode. Parallels for dualboot for vs2008 and vs 2010