Quote Originally Posted by Darwin View Post
Will parallels run win apps WITHOUT Windows installed?
No. Parallels allows you to set up a virtual machine that you can install Windows on. Also note that the license of at least the Home version of Vista will not let you install it on a virtual machine. XP and earlier are fine though. As Phil noted this won't be quite as fast as running under Boot Camp, however, if you only need 2D applications (e.g. Xtreme) it should be fine. This is what I do and have no complaints. On the other hand, if you need 3D applications performance may not be acceptable as the virtual machine will not be hardware accelerated, at least for the time being.

VMware provides another virtualization option on Mac. This is actually the software I use and I have been very happy with it, although I haven't had a chance to play with the Mac version yet. Their Mac software, called Fusion, is currently available as a free beta. Just recently I set up a virtual machine on my Linux box, put it on a DVD, and mailed it to my sister halfway across the country so she could use it on her new Macbook. It was all very slick, did I mention I really like VMware? There have also been rumors circulating that when the final version of Fusion is released it will have 3d acceleration.

Quote Originally Posted by Darwin View Post
I was not aware of that... if it does, it sounds like Wine ported into OS X from Linux...
A commercial version of WINE called CrossOver Mac is available that may allow you to run some Windows applications without a copy of Windows. I use WINE for some things but have had mixed results overall. A free trial is available so you can check it out without commitment.

Depending on your specific needs you may need or want to use some combination of dual boot, virtualization, and WINE. This page gives a pretty good simple comparison of the various options:
http://www.codeweavers.com/products/differences/