[X4U] Parallels vs. Windows

[Jim Robertson]

I'm grumbling each time I need to reboot to do the only things I do in
Windows: synchronize my Windows Mobile 5 Pocket PC phone (Cingular 8125) and
interact with my dialysis center's Windows IE-only online medical records
system.

I've held off on purchasing and installing Parallels because I've heard that
Parallels may soon be able to work with an already-installed (via Boot Camp)
iteration of the Windows XP OS. I'm not eager to go through the Windows
installation process again, then have to prove to Microsoft that I'm really
using the same computer for which I previously purchased my licensed copy of
Windows (I'm also not eager to DO the Windows installation a second time).

Yesterday I had my first opportunity to play with a Parallels installation.
It was running on the big-screen iMac at my local Apple Store. I was
surprised to see fairly obvious evidence of compromised performance. For
example, it couldn't keep up with the simple action of dragging an icon
across the desktop (I had it running in windowed mode - don't know if that
would make a difference). The store had the "Cars" QT trailer loaded into
the Windows environment. If I dragged the Quicktime Player window around
within the Windows XP window, video playback stopped, but sound continued
seamlessly. That's obviously a bigger challenge than dragging an icon across
the desktop, but I'd guess it is an indication of the tradeoff between
addressing hardware natively and through some level of interpretation.

My questions:

Are there other examples of typical user experience anyone cares to share
about Boot Camp vs. Parallels?

Have others heard/read/divined that Parallels will be tweaked to capture an
already-installed Boot Camp Windows XP partition?

Thanks so much,

Jim Robertson
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