Windows on Mac!

[bushtuckerman]

Wow, and Cool, are the words i think of

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4816520.stm

if interested you can watch this video...rather pointless, but visually descriptive none the less!

 

[Pappa]

Why would you want to run Windows if you alread had a Mac??? Some people are just crazy.

Pappa

 

[-Switch-]

You think a 'Page not found' notice is worthy of the words 'wow' and 'cool'?
I wish I were this easily pleased!

 

[bushtuckerman]

I am a simple person! try removing the square brackets...maybe i will.

Because with Macs software is more "expensive"...if you get me..., unless you get open source, and there are some prgrams which only run on PCs. Also, the possibilty of both OSs on the same system gives loads of scope, games aside.

 

[Moonraker]

Probably the only reason I would want it is to be able to play games when they come out for the PC rather than wait months for them to be ported.

Often the games are ported well and sort issues left in the original, but even so, months in games terms, if a lifetime

There are also a few other small things like no Mac version of the Oxford English Dictionary available which is annoying. But otherwise you can do pretty much anything on a mac you can on a PC, and often better (especially in graphics).

So, would I wish to boot into XP every time rather than Mac OS 10.x? No way!!! Really it is such a great user interface and much safer (I have not had one virus in 8 years of using Macs ;-) and now, being based on an Intel chip, and using the UNIX kernel as it's core (under the bonnet, unless you like tweaking), really Macs offer so much (for a smallish premium,like all good things). And if you want to talk about well considered, and good looking product design...

But the opportunity to choose to boot into Windows if I wanted to play a game or run the odd app I can't get, then sure, that's cool.

The question will be, when they hack the Mac OSX to run on a plain vanilla PC box, I wonder how many PC users will be tempted to use that combo

 

[bushtuckerman]

I've heard that recently there have been worries of the mac being very vulnerable to viruses. they are considered 'safe' because no one writes viruses for them...until now aparently. windows has been continually patched whereas the mac os is left wide open...

I'm not sure how useful it would be, but i thought it was impressive that it had been done. I am used to windows, but may need to get used to using macs for graphics work: computer models and the like of whatever i may get up to with the course over the next few years. my department is mac based. I refuse to use their hopeless mice however, it's easier using the touchpad on my laptop!

 

[stone]

The question will be, when they hack the Mac OSX to run on a plain vanilla PC box, I wonder how many PC users will be tempted to use that combo

They've had that option for a few years now, and it's called Linux. No viruses for me yet after 7 years (touch wood) and from what I have heard it is harder to produce a virus that will actually harm the system since most distibutions have files and directories in different areas, and you also need root access to do real damage.

Linux is mostly open source and depending on the program, can have literally thousands of programmers fixing problems as they are found, and not once a month like Micro$oft does.The new MacOS is UNIX based and runs a similar setup, so there should not be the same security issues that Microsoft has seen. And the best thing about Linux is it's free!!!! as in beer

~mike

 

[Pappa]

I've heard that recently there have been worries of the mac being very vulnerable to viruses. they are considered 'safe' because no one writes viruses for them.

Without wanting to enter the whole arguement about macs and viruses....

There are two viruses on the mac (OS X anyway), a proof of concept virus produced about two years ago that was never released into the wild, and another one produced recently which has escaped into the wild. Both viruses are (IMHO) a bit rubbish, as all they do is self-replicate and both require certain types of software to be preinstalled and actively used (OS X Mail in the first case, iChat or a filesharing client in the second).

Also, whilst I don't know enough about programming on the mac to qualify it, I'm sure the old idea that "they are considered 'safe' because no one writes viruses for them" has got to be wrong. There are enough virus writers out there who are sick enough of hearing "macs are great, macs are safe, we don't get viruses on the mac" to try to do something about it, but as yet, nobody has produced anything remotely scary.

Maybe time will prove me wrong.

Pappa

 

[bushtuckerman]

They've had that option for a few years now, and it's called Linux.

Linux is mostly open source and depending on the program, can have literally thousands of programmers fixing problems as they are found, and not once a month like Micro$oft does.The new MacOS is UNIX based and runs a similar setup, so there should not be the same security issues that Microsoft has seen. And the best thing about Linux is it's free!!!!

Yeah, it's a good point that linux is similar in use to a mac. I like it, i've seen a preview of a new linux OS due to rival windows vista and it's very visually impressive. difficult to get used to, but the support for it is much greater than for the mac, and it's continually developing at a decent rate. and of course it's free in most cases though i notice companies such as dell sell their PCs with OSs like linux Red Hat (or some such name).

It's pretty well known that macs do not go wrong very often, but it's important to remember they can, and when they do they're difficult to fix if you don't have the right friends. I would quite like a mac, but i wouldn't replace a windows system with it because macs have their limits, which i imagine is why they are generally more stable: you can't mess about with them so much!