(last update date: June 7, 2007)
Boot Camp and Parallels are two ways of running software on the 3D Animation Lab computers. Boot Camp lets you run "native" Windows (Mac OSX is not running in that case). Parallels is used from inside the Mac OSX. The Mac OSX operating system is running, and then in a special "partition" you can select which Windows programs you would like to run. Not all Windows programs will run or run well, but most should come up and allow you to try them out.
How to reboot the system and switch into either Windows XP or the Macintosh OSX operating system
Boot Camp is software that is loaded on the 3D Animation Lab machines which lets you decide whether to boot in Windows XP of the Macintosh OSX operating system. This link describes Boot Camp in some detail: http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/
Here is how it all works:
Hold down the Option key at startup. (Windows users may be more accustomed to saying the ALT-key rather than the Option key.) When the system restarts, you will see icons: one for the Mac OSX operating system and one for Windows XP. Click on whichever system you wish to run and the machine will take over and do what you have requested.
In order to boot from Windows to the Mac OSX, shut down Windows using CONTORL-ALT-DELETE as usual, select RESTART, and then hold down the Option key until the Icons for the Max OSX and Windows appear.
In order to boot from the Mac OSX to Windows, click on the Blue Apple at the top left of your screen, select RESTART and follow the options. Once the system restarts, hold down the Option key until the Icons for the Max OSX and Windows appear.
How to use Parallels
Parallels is designed to run from the Mac OSX operating system and let you also run Windows applications at the same time without having to reboot. Some Windows software works very well like this, and some is less successful. Much depends on how the Windows applications is written and whether the authors wrote the application so that it could easily be supported in Parallels. The only wat to find out is to try the application. In general Windows applications will not run as efficiently in Parallels as they do in native Windows, but at times these differences are very minor. As the system user, you get to decide if that performance is acceptable. Try it out and experiment running Windows applications under Parallels, and see what you think.[This section will be completed later. Feature not yet complete.]
