An Architect's View

CFML, Clojure, Software Design, Frameworks and more...

An Architect's View

MacBook Pro

June 6, 2006 · 23 Comments

I picked up my MacBook Pro this morning - it arrived Thursday but I was working from home and I wouldn't have been able to really do much with it while I was offline over the weekend. The first thing I did was to install Parallels Desktop and get Windows XP SP2 installed and then Flex Builder 2 Beta 3 and a bunch of other stuff that will make life easier at Adobe (like many large corporations, several standard processes and systems work best when you are using Windows and sometimes Internet Explorer as well). Essentially I'm setting up a work world inside my main laptop world. Parallels Desktop rocks! I'm using the free trial right now but I'll be buying my copy real soon. Very slick, great user interface and the only issue I've encountered so far is that the guest O/S can't access Adobe systems over VPN (which was a problem I had before with Virtual PC). Windows XP does not rock. No surprise for anyone there - my dislike for Windows continues unabated after several reboots due to wave after wave of security updates. The MacBook Pro? Well, it's a Mac and "It. Just. Works." of course. Is it fast? Yeah, I guess so. Does it run hot? Yup. I like the increased screen resolution (1440x900) over my 15" G4. The downside, of course, is having to rebuild my "iWorld"... I always reinstall everything from scratch and just migrate data as needed to try to ensure I don't just copy old junk from my previous machine. I have basic email, chat and web browsing etc up and running but haven't started on my development environment (Eclipse). If I encounter anything "cool" about the MacBook Pro, I'll blog about it :)
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Tags: osx

23 responses so far ↓

  • 1 Kyle Hayes // Jun 6, 2006 at 10:36 PM

    I am so glad to see so many CF users using Mac!

  • 2 Brian Panulla // Jun 7, 2006 at 4:51 AM

    Any chance you could use Windows 2000 Pro, Sean? I've found Parallels to be very peppy with Win2k compared to XP Pro.

    I can't believe how much easier networking is with Parallels as compared to VirtualPC -- I don't need a loopback ethernet jack to get my (Mac) ColdFusion service to talk to my (Win2k) SQL Server.... it just *works*.

  • 3 Abdul Qabiz // Jun 7, 2006 at 5:05 AM

    Cool! I am also seriously planning to buy Macbook (not pro).

    I have moved to Cygwin and I think this is the right time to move to Mac becuase Flex 2 SDK and most of the command line things work on Mac also..

    -abdul

  • 4 Chris Scott // Jun 7, 2006 at 5:36 AM

    Man am I jealous!! I'm looking forward to hearing more about your experience with Parallels, that's one of the main reasons I want to upgrade to a macbook pro...

  • 5 Mark Drew // Jun 7, 2006 at 5:37 AM

    Glad you got one too Sean!

    I love mine to bits.


    MD

  • 6 Luis Majano // Jun 7, 2006 at 5:57 AM

    Thank God for you seeing the light Sean!! JEJE!! Macs just work!! No nasty reboots. Plus wait till you discover all the Unix goodies. Have fun.

  • 7 Luis Majano // Jun 7, 2006 at 5:59 AM

    Sean,

    Here is a question for your, does the CFMX 701 mac installer work on the intel based macs. I have the model before the macbook pro, still G4. Please let me know?

  • 8 Jeff Self // Jun 7, 2006 at 6:44 AM

    Luis,

    ColdFusion installs fine on the Intel based Macs. However, it doesn't run without some tweaking. ColdFusion requires Java 1.4.2 where the latest versions of OS X are running Java 1.5. Some people have resorted to changing the default version of Java back to 1.4.2 since it is installed. I didn't go this route. I created some symbolic links in /usr/bin pointing back to the java 1.4.2 runtimes and created a shell script to start and stop ColdFusion with the new symbolic link I called java142. Works great. I don't want ColdFusion to run all the time so I use my shell script for starting and stopping it. I've only got 1GB of memory right now. And I'm doing development in both ColdFusion and Ruby on Rails. So I run those servers only when I'm using them.

    I've got Parallels installed as well. Its great.

  • 9 Ken Dunnington // Jun 7, 2006 at 9:26 AM

    Congrats on the MBP, Sean. Any "whining" problems? Mine has a slight whine, but not enough to bug me. I'm using Parallels (I installed Boot Camp, but never use it - why bother when Parallels works so darn well?) and really love the full-screen mode. You can command-tab while in FS mode and get to the Mac side, and Parallels basically becomes your desktop. It always does amaze me how clunky and annoying Windows is whenever I have to use it. I mean, how do people get stuff done?! :)

  • 10 Scott Fegette // Jun 7, 2006 at 10:00 AM

    Ugh- no VPN support in the hosted OS? That's a complete non-starter for me... what a bummer! Most of my projects/dev servers are inside a firewall, and I'm travelling too often now to get locked out. Was hoping to go with Parallels, but may have to strictly BootCamp my en-route 17" for the short term- at least until I can get a confirm that VPN is a go. :(

  • 11 Mark Drew // Jun 7, 2006 at 10:26 AM

    I am no parallels expert but with the Release Candidate 2 it is said there are networking improvements so that might help. remember Parallels is still beta, so if you have issues with VPN not working, email them and I am sure someone will want to sort it out

    MD

  • 12 Scott Fegette // Jun 7, 2006 at 10:36 AM

    That's encouraging to hear, Mark- thanks!
    I'll definitely drop Parallels a line about this, too - as I'd far prefer to run their solution than have to reboot between OSen on a regular basis. ;-)

  • 13 Sean Corfield // Jun 7, 2006 at 1:20 PM

    Brian, I'm finding Win XP to be plenty fast enough with Parallels (but I have 2Gb RAM and 512Mb allocated to Win XP :)

    Luis, I haven't "seen the light" - I've been a long, long time Mac user and I was running a hosted Unix on my Macs back in the System 6 days (using Tenon Intersystems MachTen product).

    Ken, no whining - the MBP is quieter than my G4 PB (which did have a whine).

    Scott, I haven't tried using the VPN directly on Win XP (on the guest O/S). If I VPN in on the MBP, the guest O/S can't resolve DNS (which was true for Virtual PC on my old PB too so I suspect a firewall-related issue with the bridged networking - I'll find out on Friday since I'll be in the San Jose office).

    Mark, I'm running the latest Parallels version. I'm sure I'll figure out the networking glitch soon. I'll try using VPN from the guest O/S tonight just to see what happens.

  • 14 raleigh1208 // Jun 28, 2006 at 2:39 PM

    I'm looking at the MacBook Pro with either Boot Camp or Parallels desktop. I understand with Boot Camp you have a portion of your HD dedicated to Windows XP, so you'd want to run all the anti-virus, anti-spyware, etc. on that portion of the HD. Does Parallels Desktop mean you have to run all that stuff for your entire Mac HD? One of the advantages of switching from Windows to a Mac would be to eliminate the hassle of anti-virus and other protection you need with Windows.

  • 15 Kyle Hayes // Jun 28, 2006 at 5:49 PM

    Yes and No. It all depends how you have your drives set up on the Mac. In Parallels, if you have your mac drives shared within your Windows virtualization, then yes, you need to deal with the antispyware, anti-virus junk. Within Boot Camp, I don't think Windows sees your drives, if it does, then yes you need to run the protection stuff. The only reason you wouldn't need to, is if your mac partitions cannot be seen from the windows os.

  • 16 Mark Andrachek // Jul 26, 2006 at 7:51 AM

    I've got cfmx up and running on my macbook pro. on boot. with a jrun connector to the apple provided apache. with a mysql 5 connector.

    I'm putting together a definitive how-to, but some googling should get you just about everything you need.

  • 17 wayne Kristoff // Aug 1, 2006 at 12:37 PM

    I can not install Parallels on my MacBook Pro. I have latest Apple firmware and plent of memory. Get a message \i386\vgaoem\ not found. Message 32768. Had similar problem when I tried to install XP with bootcamp!

  • 18 Mark Andrachek // Aug 1, 2006 at 12:54 PM

    Wayne: this is a problem with your XP installation cd. If it happens under bootcamp, and parallels (2 completely different environments), what's the common thing between them? Your install disc.

  • 19 John W // Aug 10, 2006 at 12:27 AM

    I bought a 17" G4 Powerbook 2 years ago and installed virtual pc. Speed was ok, but i tended not to use virtualPC very much.

    The software my company was using led me to buy a sony pc laptop.

    I have now got a 17" MacBook Pro which has now happily replaced all my computers, including my G5 powermac. My G5 donated its 23" screen to the MacBook giving me plenty of screen space with dual screens running.

    I was actually out shopping the other day for a 17" pc laptop, all the 17" machines i saw in the stores were 1440x900 and i discovered the MacBook runs windows with a higher resolution screen! The increase in screen resolution to 1680x1050 is really nice.

    It was my first time at an apple store, when I purchased the laptop I was asked "would you like a gloss or matt finish screen", wow!, you mean we actually get a choice!? cool, gloss please!

    Im really happy with this machine and the performance of xp in parallels desktop, in my opinion it really is "the only computer you will need"!

  • 20 T. D. McKay // Oct 25, 2006 at 9:03 PM

    Yes, I too love my new Mac Book Pro 17. About VPN connection while using Parallels Desktop for Mac and Windows XP Pro, well it works perfectly, 100% of the time, when I connect from my home (using Airport Basestation wirelessly for me and direct ethernet connect for my wife on her iMac.) But that is where the fun stops. When I attempt to connect from my office which I use a different ISP, I get a VPN connection too, but I cannot pass data. I cannot get email out or in from the Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 using Outlook 2003. I have worked for days (literally, not figuratively) with Earthlink tech support and no luck.

    I have written to Parallels for any advice. I have not heard from them yet.

    As an alterative, I was gratiously given two software unlock keys from Microsoft so I could install Windows XP in the Boot Camp in addition to Parallels. Microsoft tried to give support but threw up their hands and gave me my $245 service fee back and told me they will not support dual booting.

    My issue still remains: I really like my new MBP. I really need to get VPN connections whenever and wherever.

    Anyone have suggstions? I would really like to get on with it.

  • 21 Carl // Jan 21, 2007 at 9:58 PM

    I've "stepped into the light". After 24 years of PC use I purchased a Macbook Pro 15.4. My company uses Outlook 2003 which without Neo-Pro, I would hate. Would you Mac-perts recommend that I load and run this via Parallels Desktop or is there an Outlook for Mac that works as good?

    And if anyone out there is running ACT! 2007 on a Macbook Pro, I'd be extremely interested in your experiences. Cheers...

    Carl

  • 22 John W // Jan 26, 2007 at 3:43 AM

    "is there an Outlook for Mac that works as good?"

    Microsoft Office for Mac, except outlook is called Entourage.

    If you have Parallels and Outlook already you may want to use that for now until the next relase of microsoft office as that should have better performance, i.e. designed for Intel chip

  • 23 Ros // Nov 6, 2007 at 11:10 PM

    Following up from Carl's question, is anyone managing to run ACT! 2006 on a Macbook using Parallels? There just isn't a viable CRM Mac software alternative for me (Daylite doesn't cut it) so ACT! is the only obstacle to casting off my PC shackles. I know there are networking issues running ACT! through Parallels, but are any single users doing it successfully?
    Thanks
    Ros

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