I'm thinking of buying a mac but I haven't decided yet.

How does programs like chessbase and deep fritz perform when installed with for example VMware?

Should I go for Parallels or VMware?

Which version of windows is best to use? I have institutional licence for most versions.

Yes, I agree that there are many benefits of using PC and I have done that for many years. It difficult to pinpoint exactly why I am considering MAC. It is the feeling and the design I guess.

It is easy on a Macintosh using Bootcamp to create a partition running Windows and boot into it when you need to run Chessbase. That way you are running Windows at full speed. If I just want to review or analyze chess games most of the time I prefer to stay on my Macintosh OSX partition and use the chess database program ChessX with the stockfish engine.

See my other post -- http://www.chess.com/forum/view/general/free-open-source-macintosh-chess-software  to get recent copies of ChessX and the Stockfish engine

Chessbase, Fritz and the others work very well in virtual machines. I've used virtual box from oracle (a free vmware like application) and VMWare Fusion (which I currently use -- kid is in college, might as well make use of those student discounts!).

oh.. I thought this was the Mac and Cheese base.

Durn!

Big Mac and cheese base?

No. . . I'm a vegetarian.

Macs rule, even if they can't do all the things with ChessBase like Windows can. You can still use some various online databases, though.

Luv Macs. It's a feel thing. Not rational. Unless honoring your feelings is a rational way to proceed. My Mac has a program called "Chess," which is different from "MacChess," apparently. It's not great. It makes great big blunders, even right of center on the slider - as in, stronger play. You guys are out of my league, technology-wise. I'm just relieved I can beat the thing, right of center. Sorry if I've contributed nothing; I'm trying to understand the mechanics of this posting tool. Learning by doing. Peace.

I'm using chessbase 11 on my 2011 iMac (parallels with windows vista virtual machine) and it works fine, installed houdini as my main engine there. I think chessbase had a version for mac ages ago but it sold just a handful of copies and they called it quits, too shame there's not anything like chessbase for mac just now. What's your primary use for chess programs? If you want just to analyze your games, freeware programs with UCI engines installed might just fulfill your needs fine. But if you have already used pc and bought programs from chessbase it's a another story. Talking about freeware database programs, chessx and scid are quite good alternatives for mac os x.

Pfren:

While true, the advantage is that you don't have to deal with some bits working and other bits not. For those of us who are really just looking at games, and blunder checking rather than doing serious opening prep, having a "mere" single CPU and 4 Gig of ram or so (at least on my Mac) isn't so bad.

Chess engines are the only regret I have about owning a mac. There's shit all decent engines for the mac, and mine is old and running something like Fritz through virtualisation would probably cause the notebook to spontaneously combust. That being said, once you go mac, it's VERY difficult to go back. The OS is so, so, so much better than windows, on so many levels.

Stockfish runs naitely on Mac's and works fine with a variety of GUIs, including XBoard and ChessX.

@prfen: My copy of Chessbase 11 is working nicely under Parallels virtualisation software (2011 27" iMac, i5 processor, 12 GB RAM), and Houdini engine uses 4 cores and is given 1 GB of hashtable. In my opinion for a class player this is just fine.

How does Stockfish compare to Rybka 2? I have a free program called Tarrasch, which runs pretty smoothly in crossover and it uses Rybka 2 :)

Stockfish is considered very strong for a freeware engine. I think the whole question is somewhat irrelevant as all top engines are awfully strong at tactics. Here's some comparison though at computer chess ratings list site: http://computerchess.org.uk/ccrl/4040/