Hey Simon - no need for the trepidation, it's all a lot simpler than it
sounds.
Ok, bootcamp parallels and fusion are 3 different pieces of software that
will enable you to run windows and jaws on your mac. Here's a bit about
each option:
Bootcamp - this is Apple's offering, and it comes free with mac OS now.
Bootcamp allows you to set up a dual boot system, one partition for windows,
and another for mac OS. choosing the sizes of and resizing those partitions
if necessary is accessible, but after that you have to install XP exactly as
though it were on a PC, hence you'll be needing some sighted assistance to
get you through the windows installer. It might be possible to do it with an
unattend script, but don't hold me to that because I haven't tried. Once
windows is installed, there's one more wizzard to run that will install the
certified drivers for all your mac hardware, and then you're good to go.
Once it's all set up, you can choose which OS boots by default, and you can
also override that selection and choose which OS to boot easily each time
you start up if needs be. With this solution, windows runs as well as it
would on a pc with the same sppec hardware. Sharing files between windows
and mac OS can be done several ways, but the easiest would be to have your
windows partition formatted as Fat32 so that mac OS can read and write to
it, then use one of a number of software packages when you're in Windows if
you need to be able to access your mac partition. I'd recommend macdrive
from mediafour.
Fusion - this is made by Vmware. It allows you to run windows under
virtualisation. In case you don't know what that is, it's basically running
an OS within an OS. The cool part about this is that you can have mac OS and
windows both active at the same time and switch between them in a flash.
Sharing is all set up for you by Vmware which is nice. There is an option to
generate an unattended install, meaning it's easy to get Windows up and
running this way without sighted assistance. The downside is that you're
relying on Vmware's drivers, which don't seem to handle screen readers quite
as well as Apple's yet, and running simultaneous OS's obviously means you
won't get quite as much performance from it as the dual boot setup. To sum
up Fusion, the program is accessible, the unattended installation is neat,
but unless you really need to run both OS's at one time at the moment I'd
say the drop in system performance and slightly dodgy screen reader support
will get on your nerves.
Parallels - Does the same thing as Fusion, with a few different bells and
whistles. It's been on the market a lot longer. The Parallels interface
wasn't accessible with voiceover last I checked, it'll only utalise one core
of your processor if you have a dual core mac, and the screen readers don't
seem to be as happy with it as they are with Fusion. Parallels and Fusion
come in at the same price, so unless there's a good reason I'd go with
Fusion.
Jaws authorisation shouldn't cause you any problems. As far as Jaws is
aware, it's running on just another PC.
The biggest pitfall I can think of for any of these options is the lack of
technical support. I've read about and seen first hand situations where
companies are far less keen to help with the support of windows software if
it's running on a mac, although seeing as Apple's drivers are all microsoft
certified now surely that should change. Apple themselves don't and probably
won't ever offer support for Windows, but they do for bootcamp and their
drivers. I don't have a clue about support from Vmware or how companies
react when you're running under virtualisation, but I should think the
latter is a shady area.
To sum up, bootcamp is easy, but you'll probably need some sighted
assistance. Fusion is the way to go for now if you need to run multiple
opperating systems at one time or you can't get sighted assistance for an
hour.
Did I miss anything?
Scott
----- Original Message -----
From: "Simon Cavendish" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "General discussions on all topics relating to the use of Mac OS Xby
theblind" <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, December 08, 2007 11:51 AM
Subject: Mac OS windows and Jaws
Hi All,
Having followed some of the discussion threads on the list, and having had
some information from Anne, I understand that I could switch to Mac OS but
still run Windows xp pro and Jaws on a Mac machine. Anne has mentioned
Bootcamp, Fusion and Parallels. I know very little about it but since for
some important things I would still need Jaws, it would help me switch
sooner rather than later to be able to use Jaws on a Mac machine when
needed.
Could anyone give me some more explanations on what the above programmes do
and how easy, risky or not it would be to use any one of them for a totally
blind person like myself. What are the pitfalls? Which is the least
troublesome? Are there any problems with Jaws authorisation? Does it mean
that I have to partition the hard drive? Could I share and use the same
files under windows and under mac? I have lots of questions, and it all is
so devilishly complex. You guys seem to know such an awful lot. Have you all
studied IT or something?
With best wishes and with trepidation
Simon Cavendish
