Thundar
Do any of you guys use Boot Camp as far as emulation goes? Or for Steam or stuff like that? I never bothered with BC until I was told about BC assistant. (I'm not one to fiddle with things I have no idea about.) I heard you can set up BC then get the free ISO (for free for a month trial), partition the Mac, & use Windows on the Mac. Now I'm thinking I can forget about Wineskin & just play Win XP games on my computer.
mossy_11
I have Boot Camp (Windows 7) set up for games. It's a bit annoying having to reboot into Windows, but it's worth it for the boost in performance versus playing the same game natively in OS X or through Parallels. I never bothered with Wineskin stuff, so I can't tell you how that compares.
Thundar
Yea, they have Windows 7, 8, 8.1,10, all too confusing for me. So does the ISO or Windows disappear from the computer after the trial ends?
menace690
Stick with 7 or 10. Skip the 8's.
The iso wont go anywhere. Bootcamp will partition your hard drive and install windows using the iso to the hard drive partition.
Thundar
I'll do 7.
Thundar
I'll do 10...to match the 10 on the Mac
menace690
10 gets you access to DirectX12, so not a terrible choice as newer games come out that support it.
Squishy Tia
If this is your first foray into Windows, stick with 7 Professional if you can get it. Personally, as long as you can remember to avoid the stupid "pulldown splitscreen" action on the desktop, Windows 8.1 is a better choice (Professional, naturally). You really don't want Windows 10 being your first trip into that OS purely because of the always on/forced updates. You will end up in a situation where you get the inevitable "infinite boot loop" where Windows 10 forces a driver update that breaks your system and BSODs you, then Win 10 reverts to the last saved point before the update, attempts to reapply said broken update (because forced updates you cannot disable), and you get that lovely loop of doom.
And no, it isn't a fairytale. I've seen many friends afflicted with that situation, including my dentist who had the misfortune of thinking Win 10 would work for him only to have one of his dental imaging software drivers forcibly updated by Win 10, thereby sending the computer into perpetual boot loop, thus rendering his medical equipment useless until I reverted him down to Win 7 (the pervasive database software he uses is incompatible with 8.1).
Right now, while 10 has lots of under the hood goodies, it's too much of a problematic hassle for end users whose systems inevitably get a broken driver, thus the situation I just described above. I wouldn't recommend Win 10 until MS gets back to reality and lets us control our drivers again (security updates being forced are fine, but not drivers).
menace690
I maintain Windows systems professionally. (100+ systems) Skip 8 series altogether. Stick with 7 or 10. 10 may still have MS's new auto updates, but 8 series is an unmaintainable mess, designed to be an iPad competitor, not a Windows OS. I had way worse experiences with 8 than I've ever had with 10. 7 is the last good OS, but 10 isn't bad on the normal day to day. 7 will give you the best compatibility, 10 will give you all the features of 8 without the shitty interface.
I miss XP. Security mess, sure, but fast and easy to work with.
FYI, random fact, they skipped 9 because I lot of legacy software looked for Windows 9x as a version number to determine features and compatibility.
_Em
As someone who runs all the OSes against an array of software professionally, I should point out that there were some architecture changes in 8, and a lot of newer software won't run on anything below 8.
XP: fast, stable, and full of security holes. Will run everything 7 will.
7: slower, takes more memory/cpu, has fewer security holes.
8.0: failed attempt at turning all Intel PCs into iPads. Avoid.
8.1: New architecture, baseline for running modern code. Relatively secure, stable, and non-intrusive.
10: Cleans up the UI as started in 8.1; 10 really feels like 8.6, except... every. part. of. it. communicates. with. Microsoft. If you have any bandwidth concerns on your internet connection or any privacy concerns with MS knowing everything you do on your OS, avoid this and stick with 8.1. Otherwise, it's definitely the best OS since XP.
Squishy Tia
_Em wrote:
As someone who runs all the OSes against an array of software professionally, I should point out that there were some architecture changes in 8, and a lot of newer software won't run on anything below 8.
XP: fast, stable, and full of security holes. Will run everything 7 will.
7: slower, takes more memory/cpu, has fewer security holes.
8.0: failed attempt at turning all Intel PCs into iPads. Avoid.
8.1: New architecture, baseline for running modern code. Relatively secure, stable, and non-intrusive.
10: Cleans up the UI as started in 8.1; 10 really feels like 8.6, except... every. part. of. it. communicates. with. Microsoft. If you have any bandwidth concerns on your internet connection or any privacy concerns with MS knowing everything you do on your OS, avoid this and stick with 8.1. Otherwise, it's definitely the best OS since XP.