Acro bytes by Kurt Foss

As a longtime user of and advocate for Apple Computer’s Macintosh machines, there are admittedly times when I’ve desired access to some of the Windows-only features in Acrobat. But buying a separate Windows computer hasn’t seemed practical, for reasons of both space and cost efficiency.

So when I first heard some months back about Apple’s release of a beta version of Boot Camp, software that allows users of the new Intel-based Macs to set up a dual-boot solution for running both Mac OS X and Windows XP on the same Apple computer, it seemed too good to be true. Experience says that’s not a road you want to go down too often.

I was in the market for a Mac upgrade around the same time, so splurged for a high-end version of the desktop Intel Macs, but decided to hold off on installing the free Boot Camp beta software to see first what the early returns from other users might reveal. I’m glad I did.

Not that I discovered notices of fatal flaws or serious problems. Rather, I started hearing about a potentially even better third-party solution called Parallels. Unlike the Apple beta application, the commercial Parallels product for the Mac is priced at $79. But several key advantages seemed worth the modest investment. While Boot Camp requires rebooting in order to switch from one platform to the other, Parallels provides the ability to run Windows alongside Mac OS X as a separate virtual machine. In addition, it offers the ability to share folders and files between the platforms. Better than too good to be true — is that possible?

The final straw in opting to take the plunge — after acquiring both Windows XP Pro and Acrobat 7.0 for Windows — was Apple’s own endorsement of Parallels. On its “Get a Mac” website, where the company lists the many reasons it makes sense to buy a Mac instead of a PC, it has added “You can even run Windows software.” The explanatory text makes no mention of Boot Camp, but notes: “Third-party software solutions such as Parallels Desktop for Mac help make it possible.” Further, you can purchase the software from the online Apple Store. OK then, bye bye Boot Camp!

So late last week I installed Parallels, Windows XP Pro (and some anti-virus software!) and then Acrobat 7.0 for Windows. I haven’t done any serious testing, but so far both Windows and Acrobat seem to run very well — probably slightly slower than if they were installed on a separate PC, but if so, not significantly or noticeably slower for my current needs. Time will tell if that opinion stands up as I work more with the virtual machine’s “Guest OS” running Acrobat.

I’d love to hear about the experiences — for better or worse — of any other Intel Mac users who run Acrobat for Windows under either Parallels or Boot Camp. If that’s you, please add your comments below!

This entry was posted on Monday, August 14th, 2006 at 12:44 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.