How can I run Linux and/or Windows on my Mac without Boot Camp or breaking these rules?

Question

I would like to run Windows (XP preferred) games and Linux on my MacBook Pro I got from school. However, there are some rules I have to follow. If I need to I will try to further clarify the rules, since they are in Swedish and there isn't a perfect translation.

1. I cannot use Boot Camp. This is because Windows machines get viruses 24/7 and there are no viruses on Mac. Furthermore, we are using Visual Studio for about half the things we do through a virtual machine. Perfect for debugging, performance and "virtual machines don't get viruses", right? At least that's what my teachers think.

2. I cannot change the default setup of the computer. In Swedish this basically tells me I cannot even start it up because then I will mount the drive, and make changes in RAM, and use the processor, and move electrodes from the battery and so on. They're telling me that that's way to specific, though, and that we aren't allowed to change the operating system files. I think we break that rule with each update, install or setting we ever touch.

3. I may not use any program without first showing a receipt. The original casing, CD and the CD key isn't enough. A license like GNU is ok, though.

I basically need a way to boot into a USB drive or CD, with the ability to use network and DX9 to play games on Windows. Linux support isn't as crucial since OS X does have a lot of Linux support already. I've tried other ways of working around the rules like running games in Wine but I can't get DX9 based games to work and the FPS is terrible.

They have the right to check the computer at any time to see if there is something bad there. Swapping a harddrive will definately be noticed.

Answer 1

What are the penalties you get from not following these rules? This sounds way too strict.

This is because Windows machines get viruses 24/7

This is factually wrong. If you pay attention to which websites you visit and which files you open, you won't get a virus, ever. There are people who run their systems without anti-virus software and they do just fine.

and there are no viruses on Mac

This is also wrong. While the chance to get infected might be lower, there are viruses for OS X, yet less common.

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You have to run a native system in order to run games or anything that needs performance. While you can theoretically boot from a removable disk and use that, you will most probably see even worse performance than on a virtualized instance.

Currently I see the following ways for you:

• Break the rules: Get another hard disk, use this for whatever you want to do, and keep the original. Swapping hard disks is nothing that would void the warranty _{(I guess)} maybe not that easy (depends on the model). It depends on how often you might have to change it. And because you're breaking the rules, it's your risk if something happens.
• Try it in a virtual machine, try different software (VMware, VirtualBox, Parallels), maybe some provide better performance.
• Make a clone of your original hard disk using Clonezilla or Carbon Copy Cloner. Then, setup your system the way you want it. If you need to, you can restore from the Clonezilla backup. There will be no evidence of you changing the system.

Answer 2

I don't think there's actually any way to do this without breaking rule #3 at least, since presumably your Linux disro won't have a recept.

Anyway, your options for being undetectable are: boot off a USB(/Firewire/eSATA?) drive, make a complete image of the drive and then install the new OS, then copy the image back when you're finished, or use a VM.

The first option is probably best, since the only performance penalty is likely to be longer load times. Swapping drive images might be more time-consuming (would probably take the best part of an hour each time). The VM solution won't generally work for games, or at least newer ones, since they usually require direct access to the graphics hardware (there is some basic OpenGL support in VirtualBox, at least enough to run Unreal Tournament 2004 reasonably playably, and I've heard that some DirectX support exists too, but I haven't tested it); the same goes for VMware.

Answer 3

Without knowing exactly what you'll need to do on it, Id think a virtual machine is about the only way to run Windows XP without using Bootcamp on a Mac.

VMWare and Parallels allow you to easily run Windows with some decent performance and keep it quarantined within the VM. VirtualBox is a free alternative but I dont think it has quite the features or performance benefits of the other two. Do you need a receipt for free software?

What if you just use remote desktop and login and screen share with an actual PC? Or another alternative, you can boot Ubuntu with a thumb drive. Ill bet someone has found a way to do that on a mac.

There seems to be an awful lot of misinformation coming from your teacher so I'd suggest you not take their ideas as the only options. I dont get the reason for developing for Windows on a Mac. That makes no sense to me. You can develop almost any code natively so why even run Visual Studio. Just use an IDE like Eclipse with C#.