New iMac

[justflybob]

Just out of curiosity...

If you have never used windows on the Mac, then you really have three choices:

1) Bootcamp - using windows as an alternate bootable OS
2) Parallels - emulation sw that let's you dual boot both OSX and windows
3) VMware Fusion - also an emulation sw that let's you dual boot both OSX and windows

I have used all three in a security conscious environment since March of last year. While your experiences or usage requirements may differ from mine, I highly recommend #3 - the VMware Fusion choice.

Bootcamp requires you to boot back and forth
Parallels tech support has been anything but

One last point worth considering regardless of which method you choose. Determine up front what size you think you will need for the windows volume (or partition, if you prefer) - and then double it. One of the more dicey parts of emulation is when find that you are out of disk space on the windows side and need to expand that space, whether as a volume or partition. Others here or elsewhere may disagree, but I speak from experience of having to reinstall dozens of proprietary software titles after having to rebuild the whole mess all over again - just because I underestimated my windows needs.