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I'm the wrap and roll type
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I bought a Macbook Pro to replace my beloved Macbook Air. I loved that Air, but it was getting a little long in the tooth. I had huge expectations that the Pro would be bigger, badder, faster, and just plain better.
It's not. It's absolute crap if you want to use Bootcamp / win10.
It's USB C only, meaning connecting it to an external display only works reliably if you reboot before you plug in. The trackpad constantly thinks left click is right click. The screen brightness constantly osculates as it tries to auto-adjust and I get about 3-4hrs max on battery when using Visual Studio.
I use *exactly* the same setup on the Air and had insane battery life and no problems whatsoever with displays or the trackpad.
So I disable auto-brightness, I bring a mouse with me if I can, plus a charger. Plus all the dongles, of course. And I shut down everything when I need to switch displays (ie each time I switch from home office to Office office).
It does, however, work brilliantly when in macOS. You get the lovely double-click pressure on the trackpad, USB-C hot swaps nicely. Font sizes just work on HiDPI screens.
So I decided maybe I should just stay in macOS and use Parallels. All the marketing material says Parallels works fast. It's super easy to install. You can even use VS, ISS and SQL on a low-end laptop with 2 cores and barely enough RAM to remember its own name.
I dutifully downloaded Parallels. Within minutes I had my Bootcamp partition running in a window. A really, really tiny window. Making that window full screen gives you a big black window with a tiny Windows window in the middle. Must be a driver issue. Maybe that explains why I have no network, either.
I install the Parallel tools and reboot. Tiny window still there. Still no network connectivity. I try every option I can find. I try every network option. Every display option. I google and bing and duckduck and disable the folder sharing and tweak this and that and basically do all the simple, obvious things that the interwebz says you must to with Parallels. Still not really functioning properly. I go into coherence mode (Parallels, not me. I was not coherent at this point) so at least I can run and view apps.
My goal was to see how Visual Studio would behave. I had a stopwatch ready and had a coffee. I was assuming I'd need razor sharp reflexes to spot the change in app performance given what I'd read. I fire up Visual Studio. I load up our solution. And wait. And wait. And it loads. I open some files...slowly. And ... try ... and edit ... some code...
This isn't boding well. Maybe it's a mouse driver UI thingy. Raw compilation will let it shine.
So I hit the rebuild button.
And wait.
wait..
wait....
and wait......
A full build in Bootcamp takes about 45s. The build process in Parallels was slow enough that I actually stopped it halfway through and gave up.
My conclusions is: No, parallels will not let you run Visual Studio in a usable manner.
The corollary is, of course, that Bootcamp won't let you run Windows 10 reliably on the a Macbook Pro, either.
This stuff shouldn't be this painful. There are tens of thousands of people using these devices in a vaguely similar way and yet these big, blinding, out-of-the-box issues are there, and the companies involved have the resources to deal with it.
But they don't.
If anyone else had experience with Bootcamp on a Macbook Pro or Parallels and VS I'd love to hear about it. I am truly hoping it's just me, that I've done something bone-headed or forgot to set "run_fast=true" in a config file or something.
cheers
Chris Maunder
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Chris Maunder wrote: I've done something bone-headed
Chris Maunder wrote: I bought a Macbook Pro
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Chris Maunder wrote: All the marketing material says...
Alas, where all our hopes & dreams begin... and always die. 
EDIT
I am honestly beginning to believe we've passed the sweet spot in tech and it's all MARKETING & AI DOOM from here on out. 
EDIT 2
BTW, does the new MacBook have an SSD? If not, immediately upgrade if you're using Win10 on there.
It's an I/O killer.
For realz!
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Hi, VMWare Fusion is the way to go, I'm using it on my MBP. Admittedly I haven't switched yet to Win10, still on Win7. But VS2017 works fine. Also full-screen mode and use that nice 3-finger swipe to switch between MacOS and Win7 desktops.
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Out of curiosity are you running Windows from the Bootcamp partition or from a virtual drive on the MacOS partition?
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Hi, I'm running Win7 using a fixed-size .vmdk VMWare virtual disk file.
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I was running Parallels on a 2013 macbook Pro (with 16Gb Ram) riunning a Parallels instance of the Bootcamp partition, and was using it daily for VS 2015 editing and builds - and never had a problem.
I haven't upgraded Parallels as I don't use the mac as my dev machine any more, but surprised at the problems you seem to be having.
Oh - I really only used it with an external mouse most of the time, don't recall any trackpad mischief on the odd occasion i did use it, though)
PooperPig - Coming Soon
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I don't know if it's intentional or not - I honestly don't - but every time you bring up a Mac in a discussion, you always do a terrible job of selling its benefits to me.
Not that Windows users are doing a better job of it. But I expect that from Windows users.
I'm not sure what it all means...
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dandy72 wrote: I'm not sure what it all means...
Eschew all OSes!!!
Batman: Quick, Robin, to the Browser!! 
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raddevus wrote: Eschew all OSes!!!
I'm envisioning Visual Studio implemented in Javascript, running on a Chromebook™.
Where's the mind bleach...
Software Zen: delete this;
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Gary Wheeler wrote: I'm envisioning Visual Studio implemented in Javascript, running on a Chromebook™
Shhhhh...Don't give them any ideas!!
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Sure as heck wouldnt hurt performance or stability.
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Chris Maunder wrote: I bought a Macbook Pro to replace my beloved Macbook Air.
Haha. Hahahah. Whahahahaha 
Chris Maunder wrote: I had huge expectations that the Pro would be bigger, badder, faster, and just plain better.
Whahahaaa
Chris Maunder wrote: I am truly hoping it's just me, that I've done something bone-headed or forgot to set "run_fast=true" in a config file or something.
Have you tried to modify config.sys and add the line "no_fire=true"?
Ah, well, if it doesn't work, imagine you're a traingle being forced into a round hole and you're one of the crazy ones[^]* - Apple is different
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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3 year old MBP. I get very good performance using Fusion, running VS2015 on W10 and W7 VM's installed on Thunderbolt attached SSD. I get decent performance with USB 3 attached drive. I never (well, rarely ever) run VM installed on same drive as OS. That said, I normally run same W10 VM on a Linux workstation. MBP on road or presenting.
I don't work for ... YMMV, You shouldn't.... blah, blah 
User: Technical term used by developers. See Idiot.
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Um, not to state the obvious, but what the heck. If you're doing Visual Studio development, why didn't you buy a nice Windows laptop?
Latest Article - Code Review - What You Can Learn From a Single Line of Code
Learning to code with python is like learning to swim with those little arm floaties. It gives you undeserved confidence and will eventually drown you. - DangerBunny
Artificial intelligence is the only remedy for natural stupidity. - CDP1802
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I have to second/third this.
I have a co-worker who is retired and likes putzing with technology.
So, he recently went full Mac because his wife loves her Mac, and they are
traveling a lot, and he did not want to bring 2 computers...
He is NOT doing development. But we require windows to use our software, which he is testing, etc.
I dare say NOTHING works easily for this chap. GoToMeeting acts up, loses his mic. Bootcamp (I guess) crashed, he had to rebuild something. He ends up joining meetings directly from his phone because of issues.
I guess the ONE good thing: His wife was happy she could check her WEB MAIL, via the Mac. LMAO.
I don't have time for these issues. It is not that hard to give my wife one laptop, and me keep mine. Done. Oh, that's what I did. Never looked back.
==
Someone mentioned Apple slowing down iPhones...
Well MSFT windows 7 update a WHILE back (18 months), started Parking my Laptops CPUs. My wonderful Dual Processor, Quad Cores, with 32GB of memory was running like crap. I was ready to upgrade. I am talking 5-10x slow down.
Found a CpuCoreParking tool that let me unpark the cores... (And see the parked cores).
This was NOT an accident, and reeks of the same thing Apple got caught doing!
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Kirk 10389821 wrote: Well MSFT windows 7 update a WHILE back (18 months), started Parking my Laptops CPUs. My wonderful Dual Processor, Quad Cores, with 32GB of memory was running like crap. I was ready to upgrade. I am talking 5-10x slow down.
Hmmm, that sounds a familiar refrain. My Win 7 machine has also begun to run like treacle in the last 12-18 months.
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The software is here: Coder Bag: CPU core parking manager v3
One note: if you are accidentally there because you said "ultra-quiet", you will notice the fans being much loader. (As if I care, because the other option was throwing the machine into the wall)
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Find me a laptop as nice as the Macbooks.
(and I'm actually serious here)
I've looked at the Dell XPS - the webcam placement is just dumb and it feels plastic-y. The Zenbook is a contender but battery life is pretty awful and the dark blue with gold trim? I just can't do it. Surface book? Crazy expensive and that rubbish hinge makes it too thick. Surface Laptop? No USB-C which means it won't work with my LG monitor.
And then there's the whole issue of chargers: I find Microsoft's odd brick-and-side-plug clumsy and heavy. Compare Microsoft[^] to Apple[^]. Seems a small thing but when travelling it makes a big difference having a compact brick with just a single thin USB-C cable that can be detached.
Every week - every single week - I trawl through the latest laptops to see if there's one that will replace my current unit but still nothing. The Macbook Air was (in my opinion) the pinnacle. The battery life, the keyboard, the performance. The Macbook Pro has a nicer chassis and screen, but the keyboard is horrid and the bootcamp drivers haven't kept up with the hardware.
So yeah I'm fussy, but dammit: if I'm going to spend that much then I'm going to get something I love working on.
cheers
Chris Maunder
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Chris - I feel your pain. About 10 years ago, I used bootcamp to run win WinXP/MSSQL/VS and switched to Parallels and later to Fusion on a 2006 MBP. Not much in the difference. More recently, I've been using a Macbook Air and VirtualBox (Win7 Pro with VS2015 and SQL Server) wihtout any real degredation in performance. The VM is on a thunderbolt connected external HD.
Are you able to install Parallels on your old MBAir and check how it works? Or try VirtualBox - it's free and you can import a VM.
I was thinking about upgrading to a new MBP, but your comments are making me nervous!
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Parallels on the old MB Air was pretty much the same. I was planning on trying VM Fusion today but that's been scuttled due to some server issues I need to deal with.
cheers
Chris Maunder
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Chris Maunder wrote: The screen brightness constantly osculates
I hate it when my screen starts acting as a spongy vent too.
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