Is there a free way to run Windows Programs on a MacBook Pro?

Hi
I am getting my first MacBook Pro tomorrow, and i am just curious as to how i could run Windows only software on it. It will only be a couple of games and music software, but i dont have the OSX version, and i dont really want to buy a new version. I'd rather get a free program that does the same thing as Paralells, but if there is any other paid software that is reliable id like to know.
Thanks

helloskoodle wrote:
I'd rather get a free program that does the same thing as Paralells,
VirtualBox
https://www.virtualbox.org/
Problem is virtual machine software is about 1/5th the performance of booting directly into Windows via Bootcamp, this doesn't matter that much of your games are 2D, OpenGl driven and light weight, but 3D games you either want to direct install Windows via Bootcamp...
https://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVfRQ0YIDUI&feature=related
or better yet, get a Windows 7 64 bit tower with 4GB of RAM expandable to 8GB at least, this way you can upgrade your own video card.
3D video games advance, require video card upgrades, with the Mac platform there are either no video card upgrade ability or options. You can 3D game for a short time on a powerful Mac, but once the game gets updated your slow again and become fragbait.
http://www.cbscores.com/index.php?sort=ogl&order=desc
If you are going both Bootcamp and virtual machine software, then I recommend VMFusion or Parallels Desktop, they have the ability to copy the installed Bootcamp Windows and use it as a another virtual machine Windows, also they have more options, ease of use and abilities than VirtualBox.
Edit: Wine is a opton, however you must check to see if the software your using will work with Wine, not a lot will or if it does it's glitchy.

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