Prepping #1

So, new machine, new OS - new software purchases!

I have very few packages that I rely on on my current laptop, more that I've bought and tried and never used much. So hopefully it won't be too hard to find alternatives. On the other hand if iTunes really is the peak of music management on MacOS then I'm probably going to want to bring at least MediaMonkey with me - it's not perfect but it does the job nicely. So this means I need to be running a Windows VM.

Which brings me to a choice between VMWare Fusion and Parallels Desktop. Now I did look at Parallels some while back when thinking about putting a Linux VM onto my Vaio - and concluded that the Windows version wasn't ready - it couldn't handle a wireless network connection for example - however on Mac OS it seems a pretty even fight at the moment. The most in depth comparison I found, from only a few months ago, is torpedoed by making a huge amount of the fact that only Parallels can hide the Windows desktop and mix Windows apps with your Mac apps, despite the fact that it VMWare can do that also (and appeared to be able to do so in the version they tested). In the end a) they seem to be pretty much equivalent and b) the healthy competition seems to be spurring development on at a pace.

So I'll probably pick up VMWare since we use this at work which means I can use work VM's easily, which may come in handy. Then all I need to is to find an unused XP license.

I looked at Office 2008 which might be handy, but apparently $399 translates to £349 in Microsoft world (cue David Tennant - what!... What!... WHAT!). Turns out that we have unused licenses from Joe's purchase of Office 2003 though so that's covered.

I'll have to decide what to do about image management. I'm still on Elements 3 on the PC, there's Elements for the Mac but Joe had issues with it so that's still open.