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Virtual machines for CRIMPers
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Posted by Paul Korm
Feb 25, 2016 at 04:29 PM
I run a Windows 10 VM on my Mac Book Air, under Parallels 11. It’s up and active about 10 hours a day, and has been for years. Generally stable. It is a full-fledged Windows instance—I run Office 2016, MS Project, Visio, ConnectedText, OneNote, Outlook and numerous other apps concurrently, and the VM is running along side everything I have going on the OS X side (OS X 10.11.3)—usually Mail, DEVONthink, Curio, Tinderbox, TheBrain 2Do, and a couple dozen menubar apps, and several other things. In other words, this is always a very busy machine and it’s a real benefit to having two simultaneous environments. The Windows VM is almost always VPN’d into a client. Parallels is configured to let Mac recognize and use Windows apps, and vice versa. The only thing (no great loss) is that custom URLs on the Mac side are not recognized by Windows—an esoteric thing of no consequence.
So yes, real work goes on LOL. I have never had a memory issue—the MBA has 8 GB RAM and 500 GB SSD—which is managed as virtual RAM.
Simon wrote:
Due to the too often version upgrade from Parallels, I’ve opted for
>VMware Fusion, which works very well. I only use the VM to mess about.
>Does anyone use VM’s for serious work? I have often been tempted by
>Connected Text, but wondered how cumbersome it would be to have apps in
>Mac and Windows and how the cross pollination would work.
>
>Anyone seriously using Mac and Windows in a VM environment and does it
>work?
Posted by MadaboutDana
Feb 25, 2016 at 10:02 PM
I run Windows instances on my Mac, too. I have to, because I use InCopy to enter text directly into a German publisher’s servers. Unfortunately, the rather elderly version of InCopy I have doesn’t run on El Capitan - nor does the Windows version I also have (similar in vintage) run on anything later than Windows 7. So I’ve been running InCopy in VirtualBox, but although it does work well, I do experience occasional memory issues (even on 8GB of RAM).
So I’ve started playing with Veertu. And it’s looking really rather interesting - although I’m still waiting for Windows to download all its updates. But the memory footprint is tiny! I’ll let you know how I get on.
Cheers,
Bill
Posted by Simon
Feb 25, 2016 at 11:14 PM
Paul Korm wrote:
I run a Windows 10 VM on my Mac Book Air, under Parallels 11. It’s up
>and active about 10 hours a day, and has been for years. Generally
>stable. It is a full-fledged Windows instance—I run Office 2016, MS
>Project, Visio, ConnectedText, OneNote, Outlook and numerous other apps
>concurrently, and the VM is running along side everything I have going
>on the OS X side (OS X 10.11.3)—usually Mail, DEVONthink, Curio,
>Tinderbox, TheBrain 2Do, and a couple dozen menubar apps, and several
>other things. In other words, this is always a very busy machine and
>it’s a real benefit to having two simultaneous environments.
Is your data kept separate or do you use the same repository?
Could I ask why you would run ConnectedText, Onenote, Tinderbox, theBrain and Curio, when they all seem to overlap somewhat in functionality? I’m also really interested to know how you delineate what goes into which app and how, if at all you connect information?
I’ve long wanted to use ConectedText, but am worried about disconnecting information from my mac. The more apps I use the more I have to think what I put where!
Posted by Paul Korm
Feb 26, 2016 at 02:57 PM
Windows under Parallels can see the entire OS X file system (this is handled by Parallels and is configurable). I keep all data (except ConnectedText, see below) on the Mac side because I don’t want to crank up Windows just to get a file.
I use all those programs because I love to buy software (CRIMP!!). But I don’t see them as overlapping at all. I work 14 hours a day on computers and I enjoy the variety of working with lots of beautiful tools—it makes the work fly along. I periodically step back and do personal data and feature modelling to reflect on what’s working and what’s not—but basically it’s like going into your workshop and deciding what tools you need for the project at hand. Building a chess set requires different skills and tools than building a breakfront. I suppose that doesn’t answer “how do you delineate”—because it has no answer.
ConnectedText is one case I cannot break loose from Windows. I’ve tried ConnectedText running in CrossOver and I hated it—the look and feel is horrible in CrossOver and CrossOver stores ConnectedText’s licensing scheme incorrectly. Since the VM can access your Mac files, you should be OK (not knowing your particulars, of course). I store my CT projects on the Windows side since they don’t need sharing with any apps in OS X.
It’s important to back up your VM. At least weekly shut down Parallels and use your backup program to copy the whole .pvm package over to a separate volume in your NAS or elsewhere on your LAN.
@Simon wrote:
>Is your data kept separate or do you use the same repository?
>Could I ask why you would run ConnectedText, Onenote, Tinderbox, theBrain and Curio, when they all seem to overlap somewhat in functionality? I’m also really interested to know >how you delineate what goes into which app and how, if at all you connect information?
>I’ve long wanted to use ConectedText, but am worried about disconnecting information from my mac. The more apps I use the more I have to think what I put where!
Posted by Dr Andus
Feb 26, 2016 at 03:28 PM
Paul Korm wrote:
>I periodically step back and do
>personal data and feature modelling to reflect on what’s working and
>what’s not—but basically it’s like going into your workshop and
>deciding what tools you need for the project at hand.
I think that’s an important meta (reflexive) activity, as sometimes the solution of even an intellectual problem lies in the particular instrumentalisation (tool chain) and workflow.
I have also taken to recording my particular toolchain and workflow regularly, in order to remember them the next time I come across a similar problem.
The particular toolchain and workflow for that reflexive activity (normally at the end of the day) consists of a “Stick A Note” reminder (saying “RECORD WORKFLOW!!!”) that pops up when I navigate to the Home page of my CT ‘project’ (database), which is the main dashboard for my activities.
I have also added an automatic heading to each ‘topic’ (wiki page) that says “Workflow last recorded on 23/02/2016”, to serve as an additional reminder, and also as a hyperlink to the actual page where I record the workflow/toolchain for the given day.
A bit off-topic but FWIW…