Running windows on a mac? (Vmware possibly?)

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I have purchased a macbook pro and will want to run windows on the system, I have researched and I am quite lost on my options, I believe there's something called "bootcamp" and another called "parallel" which gives the ability to decide whether to boot windows or mac OS on startup, this isn't really what I want tbh so I'm thinking more VMware.. as I know what I'm doing and its easy to get started with it; I use VMware workstation 11 totally free as its a free version available on the VMware website, and I am able to run various Windows operating systems using it. I am not sure whether I am just not seeing it but am I right in thinking theres no free version for the mac where I can just run Windows in a VM? if you know of any alternatives or can offer me some advice that would be great, remember free is good

 

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Is there not a version of Vmware fusion for free, like Vmware player is?

To be honest I have the Windows VM set up but prefer to remote onto my main machine, why, because the VM can be laggy, and that is with it being updated etc.

I know its more cost but I love it, I can flick over with the swipe of my magic mouse and im remoting on, or if I need to do mac stuff, i flick back over in an instant

Ed

 

Theres a cost to remote in??? Curious to what this cost could be?

 

When you say a cost to remote in, what do you mean exactly?

The physical machine or the software to do it. Microsoft remote desktop is free?

 

I maybe misunderstanding your previous statement, when you said "I know its more cost but I love it, I can flick over with the swipe of my magic mouse and im remoting on, or if I need to do mac stuff, i flick back over in an instant" what were you referring to?

 

What about VirtualBox?
I have Windows 10 on my Mac at work but use Virtualbox.

Does the job comfortably.

 

Well I have a physical windows PC, which I remote to. Running VMware fusion with win7 or 10 is very laggy even though the mac is high spec

I spose it costs more to run and there is the cost of the machine, if that explains it

 

really? any negatives you've experienced doing this?

 

Not really mate to be honest. Only issue I have is the Keyboard layout but Beggars cant be choosers and all that.
Its only really used for testing but I haven't seen any serious problems. Been running it about a month.

 

Bootcamp has come a long way and is much better with Windows 10, but if you don't fancy dual-booting and want something free, I've always liked Oracle VM VirtualBox. Parallels or VMWare Fusion can add up.

I run native Mac OS and can do what I want comfortably for administering Wintel environments. I guess it depends on your workload and what you are trying to achieve.

On a side note, since you've gone for a MacBook Pro I'm assuming you've got the Retina model. Windows scales this horribly on the Mac hardware. Just food for thought.

 

As far as I am aware VMware Fusion and Parallels are not free, though I'm getting the impression I am wrong so I may have to look into this again as I did look online a few days ago and they were not free.. I don't have the retina version as I just wanted something cheap (although this wasn't much cheaper) I am liking the mac, its going to take sometime getting used to it though.

 

Thought I'd update you guys, I'm going to go with parallels I have tested it (infact I'm using it right now to type) and I think its really good, I found that I can get it for under 40 quid on Amazon.

 

Since when was a macbook pro cheap ?

 

well when it comes to mac prices are limited, the non retina option is the cheapest.

 

Yes it's quite a bit cheaper here in Australia, but the hardware on it is a bit dated now. They're due a refresh soon. The Mac hardware does tend to last a while too.

 

virtualbox is a good alternative and it's totally free.