I have a MacBook Pro, fairly new, intel based, 4G RAM. I may need to work on a Sharpoint project, so I'm assuming I'll need Visual Studio and Sharpoint Designer. Is using VMware an option, if so, what Microsoft OS should i use, and what general VMware settings should I use (RAM and disk size).
+1
A:
VMware Fusion is a good option.
As to Microsoft OSes for SharePoint development, you have two choices: Windows Server 2003/2008 or Windows 7.
I've been developing with a Windows Server 2003 VM for SharePoint for about a year. I'm still using Server 2003 because it matches our dev/qa/prod environments.
Forgotten Semicolon
2009-12-03 22:22:12
A:
I would agree with the post above that VMWare is a good choice. As for what OS if your are doing true enterprise level SharePoint development then you will need 2003/2008 however you can run WSS on vista. As for using SharePoint designer I would avoid it for SharePoint 2007 development and instead focus on getting a solid solution structure defined and use some tools like WSPBuilder and your be off to a good start. If your doing SharePoint 2010 SharePoint designer has got a lot better and the new support in Visual Studio 2010 for SharePoint is great.
Michael Ciba
2009-12-03 22:28:24
do i need to consider 32 vs 64 bit? does Fusion come with either, or this is not a choice?
bmw0128
2009-12-03 23:21:29
if you are doing SharePoint 2010 then that is 64bit only. For SharePoint 2007 32bit or 64bit is fine.
Michael Ciba
2009-12-03 23:45:44
SPDesigner is in my eyes a must have tool, if only to quickly test some html / js, or create a webpart for export. I build a lot of webparts based on the dataformwebpart, using SPD to generate the basics, then tweak the SPDataSource's query so it's reusable, then export it when it works and add it to my visual studio project.
Colin
2009-12-04 00:36:17