For those considering buying a Macbook with the intention of running Bootcamp on a regular basis, beware of the following limitations, and factor those in to your purchasing decision.
Context
I have been using an Early 2009 era Macbook Pro 17″ Unibody for about six months.
During this time, my usage has been about 75% Bootcamp with Windows 7 Ultimate.
Disclaimer
To the best of my knowledge, the issues listed here apply to all unibody Macbooks running Bootcamp.
I am running the latest Snow Leopard bootcamp drivers.
These issues only apply in Bootcamp mode. If you run Windows in a virtualized environment on OSX (Parallels or VMWare Fusion), these problems do not exist.
The Shitty Deal
Integrated video is not an option
In Bootcamp mode, I cannot use the integrated video. I am forced, without an option, to use the discrete graphics at all times.
This sucks because I an stuck with all the negatives of running discrete video: poorer battery life, increased heat, and increased fan noise.
The trackpad functionality is crippled
The trackpad functionality under Bootcamp is crippled. Three and four finger gestures are not available, nor are advanced motions (e.g. rotate).
The trackpad functionality is buggy
Among the buggy implementations are tap to click (though this is improved in the Snow Leopard driver set), and control clicking. These gestures frequently (say, 1 in 4 times) do not register properly, which is surprisingly frustrating for continuous use.
The keyboard backlight is buggy
You cannot completely turn off the keyboard backlight. The lowest setting possible is one tick above off. This is a bug in the drivers.
When you power on, or resume from hibernate or sleep, your backlight setting is forgotten, and defaults to maximum brightness, which is annoying.
A third party utility now exists where you can turn off the backlight manually, via a system tray application menu.
Conclusion
I would love to be wrong on any of these, so please do let me know if there is an error on my part, or an otherwise known workaround available.
None of these issues are deal breakers, but in combination they do have a negative effect on the user experience. They are all annoying, and even more so considering the fact that they are clearly software/driver deficiencies.
Bootcamp is a (seemingly purposefully) neglected feature, and that sucks.
Why not Windows on OSX via Virtualization?
In my case, for two reasons:
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Performance
In certain scenarios, the performance penalty of virtualization cannot be tolerated.
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Security requirements
My security requirement was to run Windows BitLocker on the OS drive. This is not possible to do in a virtualized environment.
Richard Dingwall
April 27, 2010
How often is Bootcamp updated? Are there any community graphics drivers or keyboard/trackpad drivers that fix these problems? Asking cos my next planned dev machine is Windows 7 via Bootcamp on an i7 MBP…
Martin Aatmaa
April 27, 2010
Hi Richard,
From what I can tell, a new version of Bootcamp coincides with each OSX major release.
Driver point updates are rare, and not many issues seem to be addressed (considering the amount of outstanding ones)
I have not encountered any community fixes for any of these issues, other than the trackpad backlight one (and this is a very recent addition).
I still love the machine, and still use it as my primary mobile dev box. I just wish the Bootcamp experience was more polished.
I’m going to get a larger and faster HDD soon, at which time I’ll re-evaluate the virtualization performance. Ideally, if the perf is good enough, I’d rather use OSX and virtualize Windows, instead of doing a full Windows boot.
Shelly
October 6, 2010
For long term use I highly recommend NOT using Bootcamp.
The crippled trackpad is eratic and clumbsy.
Trackpads in PC laptops have gotten much better in 2010.
I recommend using a full Windows laptop, like Asus or Acer.
I made the decision to use Windows via bootcamp, and now I regret it.
I’ll probably be getting a Asus laptop next year, and though I like Mac OS X, the headaches of Bootcamp just is NOT worth it.
The laptop has to do both Mac OS X and Windows 7 well or do at least Windows 7 well. Doing Mac OS X well and failing at Windows 7 is a deal killer.
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October 15, 2010
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