Fastest Mac Ever and Parallels

By Matt@Smalldog.com

Yesterday I finally got my hands on a Mac Pro. It’s a dual 2.66 with two hard drives and 5GB of RAM and it is jaw-droppingly fast. I thought the G5 quad booted up quickly…try 12-15 seconds for the Mac Pro. It’s crazy!

The fastest Mac ever is a great machine to run Windows, too. I tried installing Parallels, the program that allows you to run Windows and Mac OS X simultaneously. It’s like Virtual PC, but there’s no processor emulation, so it’s quite fast on the machines I’ve used. However, Parallels isn’t yet compatible with the Mac Pro: it is unable to find the SuperDrive. On my third try, there was a kernel panic.

A call to Parallels Tech Support department was returned within the hour, and an e-mail even sooner. It looks like we’ll have to wait a few weeks for an updated version.

Meanwhile, Boot Camp was updated to (beta) version 1.1 to support the Mac Pro, so go that route if dual-booting is what you’re after.

A word of advice to all Windows users on any hardware: remember you’re running Windows! Take security precautions to keep yourself safe, like religiously installing Microsoft security updates and keeping the latest virus definitions. Small Dog keeps Symantec AntiVirus for Windows in stock, and if you plan on running Windows, plan on buying AntiVirus or reinstalling Windows regularly! You can get it by clicking here.

By Matt@Smalldog.com