iTod
I have officially crawled out from under the rock and joined the land of the living. As a proud owner of a new iMac I feel both unshackled and invigorated.
For the past 10 years I have been convincing myself that I needed a PC and Windows (before that, I didn’t really take the Mac seriously). For one, all of my desktop development was in Visual FoxPro and .NET. Secondly, since my desktop applications were designed for PC users, I felt that it was important for me to have and use PCs (and Windows) like my clients. I would be developing in and using the environment that my users did, giving me more comfort and confidence when helping them use the software. But now that I’m involved strictly in Internet development and data warehousing, I no longer can justify the need for a PC; I simply do not have as much contact with my end-users as I used to.
My first order of business: I’ve got to set up a virtual machine on my iMac so I can install VFP9, .NET, and SQL Server. I may explore some other options, including Remote Desktop (or maybe VNC) into my PC, but I believe VM will be the best route. I’m dead set against having two computers on my desk at this point. The iMac just looks cool and I don’t want to cramp its style with my ugly PC box.
It is likely going to take me a while to get fully set up. I need to repurchase some of my key software (I need upgrades in all of them anyway): Dreamweaver & Photoshop CS3, Office 2008, and something to replace my old version of Cakewalk Pro Audio. And now that SQL Server 2008 is released, I’ll likely get that installed as well.
I'm a Quant Technical Specialist (Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence), with expertise in business analysis, data modeling, and data integration. I have extensive experience developing vertical and integrated desktop, Internet, and BI applications spanning municipal, clinical, and financial industries.
August 10th, 2008 at 9:47 pm
You can dual boot with Windows XP using Apple’s Boot Camp and I believe you can use VMWare Fusion to boot that partition as a virtual machine. (Disclaimer: This is only based on my anecdotal research; not reality.)
My wife has a Mac Mini, but I am still a PC/Win person for now. Nonetheless. it would be fun to port the Windows Mobile stuff from my day job into an iPod touch.
August 10th, 2008 at 11:53 pm
Hi Don, thanks for the tip — I’m totally new to this so at this moment I’m not sure what my best options are. I think that in the end, VMWare will win out though.
August 18th, 2008 at 9:08 am
[…] you may know, last weekend I bought my first Mac. In a week, I’ve made a ton of progress and am starting to feel rather comfortable with the […]
August 19th, 2008 at 10:47 am
Indeed VMware fusion can just start the boot camp partition, I use it all the time and no more rebooting
August 20th, 2008 at 11:39 pm
Now that really sounds like a good option. I did, however, pick up Parallels instead and I love it!