Probably the best technology combination?

As I commented yesterday, over time I've become an Apple fan primarily driven by the Apple iPhone.  My own iMac and MacBook Pro are running OSX 10.6 and I have tried Parallels with Windows Vista on the MacBook.  I was disappointed with the results to be honest, the underlying OSX operating system become sluggish and at times unresponsive, so I soon removed it.

More recently, I've installed Windows 7 Home Premium on a 21.5" iMac for a family member.  What's great about this is that the hardware is rock solid, the iMac retains the Apple OSX operating system, and you can run a full Windows 7 OS through Bootcamp.

I was impressed by the results. The hardware is a Core 2 Duo processor running at 3GHz with 4Gb of RAM and 500Gb hard drive so you would expect reasonable performance with this specification.  However Microsoft Windows is notoriously bloated (or so I thought) and I expected the machine to be less responsive than with OSX.

I have to say that it's a match made in heaven.  Windows 7 runs extremely well on this particular iMac, and even Office 2010 is quick.  Bootcamp for Windows installs the correct hardware drivers, so the in-built camera, microphone and speakers are detected and used.  Skype works like a dream, and the whole thing sitting in a sleek and slender iMac.

I don't think it's a massive leap to see businesses going down this route; the hardware is robust, and the OS is one that businesses worldwide have been using for years.  Users need minimal cross-training, and less desk-space.

If my Microsoft-based customers want to look to the future, I'll be showing them this solution as an option.