Thanks to a fellow techy classmate, I was tempted to install Windows 7 beta, which is free for now, on my MacBook Pro. Earlier I would not have done this. It would be sacrilege! Macs are self-sufficient!
But then I learnt that:
1) I could not run regressions using Excel macros, which are no longer supported. 2) I cannot have full access to administering mailing lists using Entourage - the IT folks told me I needed Outlook on a PC 3) I cannot run my MarkStrat software, which is a simulation developed for marketing students at INSEAD. And may I add that this software simulation directly accounts for 40% of my grades??
I’ve been resorting to using other people’s PCs, or the shared computer terminals in school, but still there’s nothing like doing your experiments on your own laptop.
Still I think it’s not the fault of the Mac OS … it’s the tyranny of the majority :P Then again, Windows must have had dominant market share for good reason.
And surely Microsoft can’t screw up so badly twice.
So I’ve installed a trial of VMWare Fusion, which I’ve heard some good things about, and the Windows 7 beta, so technically this has been free for me (until both trials expire).
Installation was rocky. Microsoft makes it almost impossible for a Mac using Firefox to download the beta, as you can imagine - no ActiveX means the download tool can’t work. So I had to use the family PC to do it. And being 3GB it took the whole afternoon to download. Fortunately VMWare’s installation was a cinch - it was just installing Windows 7 beta that required a few retries. I think my partitioning did the trick. I hope.
TO BE CONTINUED…
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