One license, one machine & a VM

Sup guys.
So, I'm getting MacBook Pro in a couple of weeks. Now, I don't want to ditch Windows completely either - so here's my question.

I have my Samsung netbook with a copy of Winfows 7 Home Premium on it. Is there any possibility to use the same license to install Winfows in a VM, on the Mac? (I don't want to use bootcamp). I can't quite remember, but I think there was something about it being possible as long as both copies of Windows aren't running simultaneously...

So?

Your netbook uses a Samsung OEM key. It's tied to the SLIC in the netbook's BIOS.

I don't believe it will work because of it being tied to the Samsung hardware SLIC ID.

Pretty sure Nibsy is right and you need a retail copy.

Let us know how your MBP goes Firecat.

If you can't afford (or don't want to buy) a retail copy of Windows, I suppose that the best thing to do would be to keep the netbook that you have, and use it as needed. That is, unless you're trading it in on the new one, and if you do, you're probably being shafted, unless it's on it's last legs.

In many cases, you can share the same wireless connection and printer. One thing to keep in mind, once you've learned one OS, it's harder to adapt to a new one with ease. The mind tends to revert to the way things are done in Windows, upon starting to learn another OS.

Check out this article, although you're not converting to Linux, the same principle applies, except that it's not free software in question. But the learning curve is equal.

http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm

This will give you a general idea of what to expect when converting from Windows to another OS.

Best of Luck,
Cat

The Mac dock is like the windows 7 taskbar,,, only better.

Thanks for the help guys. So, looks like I'll be buying a new license. Of course, I'm keeping my netbook. Have to say, it's a great little machine. The only sucky part is that I need to buy a full license My netbook allready ran WinXP, so the upgrade was 80$ instead of 200$

From my previous experience with VMs (Linux based) networking shouldn't be a problem, as you said @cattiley I have some pretty solid bases in Linux, server administration, so it shouldn't be too hard. Terminal pwns.

Another question; what software and what settings would you suggest? The MBP has 4GB RAM, so I 'm thinking VirtualBox with 1GB ram and ~50GB HD.

VirtualBox will be fine, and if you have 4GB RAM, you can safely lend 1280MB (1.25GB) or 1536MB (1.5GB) to the VM. Use as much drive space as you need. Too, it would be better to create a fixed virtual drive, rather than one that expands. This was my issue with XP Mode, it didn't give the option to allocate space, it just took what it wanted (I believe around 128GB). So I used the XP Media Center Edition, which I prefer, and created the fixed virtual drive (35GB) to suit my needs.

And if the choice is available to you, enable hardware acceleration (for virtualization) in the BIOS. If you don't know where that setting is, just go through the BIOS settings and you'll find it.

Cat