Should I upgrade VPC 6.x to 7.x

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Rob Teichman - 27 Sep 2005 14:27 GMT

I have been running VPC 6.x with a windows 2000 client for some time now.
While the performance isn't great, its good enough and I have been happy
with it. When I upgraded my PowerBook to Tiger I lost the network switch
capability, but I almost never used it, so I didn't really care. Now I see
that for the next 3 days I can get a $30 rebate on VPC 7.x so it would only
cost about $70

Should I upgrade? If I do will I loose anything (like performance)? While I
gain any performance?

Rob

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Tony Kavadias - 27 Sep 2005 15:16 GMT

Performance was never the hallmark of Virtual PC... but one
thing is consistent -- if you continue to use Windows 2000
on Virtual PC 7, you should not see any significant performance
degradation, because the emulated processor engine itself has
not changed, and the code you're running hasn't changed in
volume.

What you might gain is Quartz Extreme support with respect to
Virtual PC's graphics device. This will depend on the
performance of your GPU inside your Mac.

One thing to be aware of... people (including myself) have
experienced kernel panics with Virtual PC 7.0.2 + Mac OS X 10.4.2.
There is a way around this*, but it's never ideal to run something
that has the potential to bring your system down!!!

* The workaround involves testing your Mac's installation for the
right balance of running what you want (including Virtual PC)
without triggering pageouts with the Mac's virtual memory system.
Every pageout gives Virtual PC the chance to crash, so the trick
is to prevent pageouts from occurring. See the top(1) command
in Mac OS X for more details.

>I have been running VPC 6.x with a windows 2000 client for some time now.
> While the performance isn't great, its good enough and I have been happy
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
>
> Rob

--
-- tonza

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Unseelie - 27 Sep 2005 18:21 GMT

Virtual Switch is not the only issue with 6.x under Tiger... there are
also known issues with the Dock Start Menu, Dock Proxy Applications,
Drag and Drop, and Shared Folders.

There are issues with 7.0.2 & 10.4.2 reported, primarily a number of
different kernel panics... rumors suggest that these should be
addressed in a future dot release of Tiger.

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Rob Teichman - 28 Sep 2005 20:56 GMT

Hmmm... Tough decision, I did notice some wierdness with drag and drop, but
nothing that caused to much of a problem. I also don't use any of the dock
stuff.

Maybe I better ignore the current savings and "if it aint broke 9too bad)
don't fix it" <g> The kernel panics scare me!
Rob

> Virtual Switch is not the only issue with 6.x under Tiger... there are
> also known issues with the Dock Start Menu, Dock Proxy Applications,
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
> different kernel panics... rumors suggest that these should be
> addressed in a future dot release of Tiger.

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Mac Forum / Applications / Virtual PC / September 2005

Should I upgrade VPC 6.x to 7.x