When Apple announced the introduction of the Intel Chip into the Mac - a revolution began..
 It wasn't so much that Apple had moved from Motorola to Intel, but the anticipation of what it actually meant for the Mac and PC worlds alike. In the world of Mac, we're accustomed to a virus free, spyware free, highly stable environment in which we go about our jobs. PC users are not, and never really have been. Of course, many will champion the many things a PC might have been able to do that a Mac couldnt.. the same applies, of course, vice-versa!. However, for years now, Macs have performed the same tasks as PC's. The working environment is transparent and Macs do, and always have integrated seemlessly into PC networks, connected to PC printers and done all of the same day-to-day stuff that we all do with our computers.
 That's cool, but it really has taken a long time for dedicated PC users to realise that there is an alternative, and that they can, in fact, have the best of both worlds. Not the 'Mac' persé, but a stable platform, built on UNIX that is the only consumer computer on this planet who's hardware and software are programmed and built by the same company to 'just work'.
When a new version of the Mac OS is released, you don't have to go out and buy new software, you don't have to 're-learn' everythng. You dont need to apply a million security updates and sit around your computer until your download limit has been saturated on your broadband only to find that not only has your speed been slowed to a snails pace 64kb/s max, but you're also lucky enough to get a huge bill at the end of the month for all of Microsofts downloads, security patches and the like. Nope, with the Mac, plug it in and, well, It just works.
I mean, look at Vista! It's very pretty indeed.. you'll need a very fast, NEW computer to run it properly and lets face it, it's still Windows. You can't do anything on Vista without having to 'validate' this and 'validate' that.. it's like a Metcard. We installed Skype on a windows machine running Vista... that bit was okay, but the USB phone we use - which is a very standard Skype phone, no longer works! And that was one of the first things we installed! Great! So, ironically, this could be a great opportunity for many to 'switch'. With the advent of XP and Vista as well as the Mac OS on one computer.. 'switching' is probably the wrong word.
Running Windows on your Mac
It's important, of course, to note that although both OS's work astoundingly well on the Mac (way faster than most PC's on the streets today largely due to the across the board introduction of Core 2 Duo Processors into the laptop and desktop range along with Xeon Woodcrest's and Harpertown's into MacPro, it is in no way supported by Apple. And quite rightly. The Mac OS on it's own will do pretty much everything Windows will... people rarely believe that, but it does. It's stable, secure, better and faster. There are exceptions - if you have some obtuse or old, or perhaps bespoke software for a PC that is not available for Mac, then the Dual OS solution is perfect for you.
Now, we know Mac's dont suffer from Viruses. The common misconception here then, is that many people install Windows on their Mac and assume therefore, that it will remain Virus free.. not so. If you install Windows on your Mac, it actually opens your Mac up to the same problems that plague the Windows world. Any Viruses and 'malware' won't in any way touch the Mac side of things naturally, but if you catch an evil virus that takes your hard drive out, then of course, there goes your Mac as well..
So before you even consider installing Windows on your Mac, be aware that you must not be connected to the internet to start with, ensure you close your Windows firewall (i.e. turn it on when you install) and immediately install Anti Virus software and anti-spyware software (AVG Free editon and Ewido are great - and free available from www.grisoft.com). Once you've done that, connect to the internet and immediately update those 2 programs. Just to make it easier for you, use the following link to download AVG Anti Virus. Click here to get the .exe file for your Windows installation.
Bootcamp or Parallels / VMWare Fusion
 Updated 18 August 2008 : Here's the difference. And this is only the difference at the time of writing this article.. Bootcamp is a super-neat, totally Apple utility that basically partitions your Hard Drive and gives you effectively 2 startup Disks - 1 Windows and 1 Mac and will run Windows natively. If you're running Leopard 10.5 , it's standard, if you're running 10.4, you can Download it here... You cannot use both operating systems at the same time though... In this respect, I prefer Bootcamp as it means all of your computer's resources are dedicated to one OS or the other - not both. It's very fast, comes with all necessary drivers to make your Windows XP installation work seemlessly (as far as that's possible with Windows of course). Bootcamp ) now allows you to run either XP or Vista and runs both perfectly..
 So, naturally, for the time being, that's where Parallels comes in. Parallels is a third party download from Parallels.com - Click Here to download.- Or VMWare Fusion. With Parallels and VMWare, you literally boot up as usual in Mac OS X. You can then run XP or Vista in a window, or full screen at the same time. Of course, resources are shared, so performace is a little down, but, again, bear in mind, you're running on a Dual Core Intel Core 2 Duo Processor - it's gonna be fast anyway. There are some very nifty features such as 'Coherence' which lets you run applications essentially without needing to know what OS they're running in.. can get a bit confusing, but it seems to work quite well! One thing though, After many months of teething problems, the current release, V3 is actually very very good and extremely stable.
That's your choice. If you're going to install Windows on your Mac, make sure your Mac has at least 2Gb RAM installed as performance will decrease heaps if you run Parallels with 1Gb RAM only.
Okay, Great. How do I get going?
 Many people ask us if we can just do it all for you. We will happily do that. All you need to do is pick your Mac from our all new jazzy website, and once you 'Buy Now', you are taken to customisation page where you can choose from your version of Windows and VM Ware Fusion. If you laaos select our Windows Install Service, we'll install everything for you and give you one neat Apple that does everything you could ever imagine. Just contact us here or call us on 03 9596 1951 anytime.
So this is all you need to do. Pick XP or Vista. If you'd like us to pre-install for you, the additional cost is a flat charge of $185 inc GST.
Darren Froggatt - Owner, ZeroThree.
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