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On the necessity of Windows in Mac OS X.
Thread poster: Mikael Müller
Mikael Müller
Mikael Müller
Local time: 03:50
German to Swedish
+ ...
Mar 19, 2008

I have been running Win XP in Parallels on my Macbook dual 2,0 ghz, 2 gb (upgraded) ram for about a year, mostly in the "Coherence" mode.
It has been working out pretty smoothly, even if I hate being forced to run Windows when I have a mac. I guess I will have to obey to the almighty SDL World Takeover (together with MS Office) until some kind coder finally creates a universal platform with the same grade of usage as Trados has (but I am at the moment looking at different kinds of CAT too... See more
I have been running Win XP in Parallels on my Macbook dual 2,0 ghz, 2 gb (upgraded) ram for about a year, mostly in the "Coherence" mode.
It has been working out pretty smoothly, even if I hate being forced to run Windows when I have a mac. I guess I will have to obey to the almighty SDL World Takeover (together with MS Office) until some kind coder finally creates a universal platform with the same grade of usage as Trados has (but I am at the moment looking at different kinds of CAT tools for mac).
There have been some problems I have stumbled upon, though.
Big Word files (50-100 mb, containing pictures etc.) tend to make the computer cough a bit more than it should have to do (as it after all isn't a native OS). This problem kind of disappeared with the 3,0 version of Parallels.
Some Clean-up processes in Trados tend to make the system very very slow too, but on the whole it has been going good.

Some time ago I installed the VMWare Fusion system and a downloaded "Windows XP Lite" version (afterall, I have an XP license!) to see if this minimized the loss of having a none-native OS running, and it definitely did. As I did two upgrades (or downgrades!) at the same time, I cannot tell which of them is the big gainer, but I should think it is the "Lite" version of XP. This is simply a stripped down Windows XP, nothing fancy pancy, just the plain shell without animations and other extras.
Other than that, the (many t:s!) VMWare system works very much like Parallels. One big difference is that it does not work perfectly well with "Spaces", the multi-desk function in Mac OS X Leopard, which is actually fully supported by Parallels. And also I tend to use the Full Screen mode, instead of the Unity mode (Coherence in Parallels), because of the Alt+tab-functions between the OS:es applications (ie between MSN (Adium) client in Mac OS X and for example Tageditor in Windows).

I will soon try to install Windows XP Lite on Parallels, but right now the work flow is a bit heavy, so I have no time for this.

I have discovered everything I have needed to know about running translation in Trados on my mac by myself, but now I am looking for ways to get rid of the need for Windows and Word (I actually like Trados quite a lot). As I have seen on other places on the forum, there are no ways Trados will ever work in another OS, as even the scripting is done in an old Windows-"language" (.NET).

This is what I know.

Please submit anything helpful on anything related. Or just say Hi! ▲ Collapse
 
Johnny Speiermann
Johnny Speiermann
Denmark
Local time: 03:50
English to Danish
+ ...
Hi! Apr 3, 2008

I was considering this setup myself as I am working on an iMac.

I don't really mind using Windows, and most tools used in software localization is Windows tools, so I won't be able to avoid it.

I do prefer the Mac though for iPhoto and Aperture, and I would rather be using the Mac for mails instead of Outlook.

I don't really understand why Trados was never developed to also run on a Mac, but as the new Office for Mac does not contain VBA this will most like... See more
I was considering this setup myself as I am working on an iMac.

I don't really mind using Windows, and most tools used in software localization is Windows tools, so I won't be able to avoid it.

I do prefer the Mac though for iPhoto and Aperture, and I would rather be using the Mac for mails instead of Outlook.

I don't really understand why Trados was never developed to also run on a Mac, but as the new Office for Mac does not contain VBA this will most likely never happen.

So currently I run base camp to be able to run Windows natively as this gives the best speed. ▲ Collapse
 


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On the necessity of Windows in Mac OS X.






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