I'm in the market for a new laptop and I'm torn between getting a MacBook 15.4" or a Windows laptop. I've always used Windows and there are many applications I cannot run on a Mac. Therefore I would need to run Parallels with a copy of Windows. From what I understand, if I install Parallels and use Transporter, I can copy my entire existing Windows 7 laptop to the new MacBook. Then when I started that VM it would function exactly like my current laptop. All applications, data, etc. would exist in that Parallels window. Is that correct? What is the speed sacrifice for doing this? Pros/Cons?
Transporter will copy everything. The speed might by 10% slower in Parallels than using Boot Camp but the new laptop might be > 10% faster than your old laptop so you might see a speed increase. I made up those numbers so you should find some benchmarks elsewhere. http://forum.parallels.com/showthread.php?t=104313 http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2010/09/parallels-desktop-6-the-ars-review.ars/ Make sure you max out the RAM in the MacBook. It will make Parallels run much better.
