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How to run LetSys on a MAC

Posted: Sun Jan 10, 2010 3:57 pm
by bblake
LetSys is written for Microsoft Windows. We have never found the time to produce a version for the Apple MAC.

However, one of our users has reported successfully running LetSys on a MAC using a tool called VMFusion. See http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/
The version used was V2 (V3 is now out) and VMFusion costs $99 at the time of writing, with a 30 day free trial.

Here is an edited version of the information we received:

"Using VM Fusion you can run Windows XP within a dedicated "Space" (like a virtual monitor) in the Mac environment. Switching between Mac and Windows is instant.

Letsys has been installed within the Windows XP VM, and it seems to run without any issues.

It's the first application I've tried so far. One problem I hit was the date display in the booking window for Start and End dates; a slight head scratch and I realised that I hadn't set up Windows, so it was defaulting to the US format. When that was changed to UK all was fine.

Regarding performance, Letsys in VM is responding faster than it does on my Windows PC (about 5 years old)

My reservation was whether email from within Letsys would work, so this is a good test.

Setup:

I'm using an imap connection to aol. Within the Mac environment I'm using Apple's standard supplied email package Mac Mail. Within the Windows environment Outlook Express is set up to use one of the same imap accounts as I use for Mac Mail.
Within Windows, I don't have Outlook Express open.
When I hit send, Outlook Express opens, the email is sent, and Outlook Express closes again. That's it!

If I switch to the Mac environment, I can look at the aol resident sent mail folder for the account from within Mac Mail, and find the message I've sent from within Letsys; that's useful as I can then move it to my local folder, where I'll also keep any other guest/enquiry emails.

The end result is identical to when I was using the Mac and the Windows PC separately, but obviously more convenient - and I'm getting to understand why people convert to a Mac!

I hope that's of some help; if there's anything specific you'd like me to try then let me know.

(BTW - you may well know this, but for some time there's been an app on a Mac called Boot Camp. This allows the user to boot the machine EITHER into the Mac OS, OR into native Windows. That used to be the only solution to running Windows apps on the Mac, and I'd have thought it would be painful. I'm not sure how long the VM apps have been around, but a bit of Googling prior to my making the big leap seemed to suggest they were stable(ish) and proven. I'm using VM Fusion, the other one is called Parallels. I'm by no means an expert, but I can't see why Letsys would work any differently in Parallels to VM Fusion.)"

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We would be interested to hear from anyone else using this or any other approach to run LetSys on a MAC.