My daughter shortly going to UCA for photography (lucky girl) where macs are recommended.
She has a reasonable spec pc (XP)
Can she emulate the mac os within windows or would the advice be to shell out for a mac laptop
Assuming the mac laptop, can the two systems network and talk to each other easily.
Many thanks
Peter
On Sun, 7 Jun 2009 10:56:35 +0100 someone who may be "Peter" wrote this:-
When I looked into it, some years ago, emulating a Mac on a PC was difficult due to Apple wanting to screw money out of people. However, someone may have cracked it by now.
Yes.
Well.. yes AND no.
There is a lot about a mac that doesn't map well into a PC environment.
The network here has a PC, linux with Xp under Vmware, Linux as a server, and a Mac. Used to be two macs, but I got fed up with it..
Whilst data can be changed, there are a lot of issues.
Macs don't just have files, they have files *about* the files. when you flip data to a winpeecee that gets lost.
Likewise, a lot of Mac stuff is almost indechipherable to a PeeCee - I-photo for example. Don't even go there with a PeeCee at the file level.
If she is doing a photo course, and they are using macs, you want her to be concentrating on the course, not struggling with computer issues.
get a secondhand PowerPc mac is my advice. now mac has 'gone intel' a lot around at sane prices.
Or I've got a couple of rather slow G4's (400/450Mhz) here need a good home.
>
Well I emulate Windows 2003 Server and Vista Business Edition using Virtual PC on my XP pro laptop, and although it does all work it isn't exactly fast (you wouldn't expect it to be) and you can't beat using the native OS for real-time stuff.
Looks like you are going to have to buy her a going away present.
Given the amount of money you are going to spend on the degree/diploma etc.. the additional cost of a proper MAC has to be recommended. I can do everything a MAC can do to photos with The Gimp under Windows or Ubuntu Linux, but I've been using UNIX since 1975 - and it isn't easy. She wants to learn photography, not computer science - get her a Mac.
FBCS CITP
Wait for a couple of weeks into term-time.
See what everyone else is buying (as the latest version of the operating system may be needed for some software to run).
Get the Apple student discounts on machines (possibly bundled with the right software).
Make sure she has somewhere secure to keep it (new students being a top target for thefts) - and insurance.
Many thanks to all, needs to be a laptop, 20% discount at the Uni, and will wait till she is there. I'm fairly pc literate (no zip zero mac experience) but the apple laptop price range is a bit of a shock. For photo/some film editing/cad/ 3D etc I assume higher end versions.
Peter
Exactly. The student discount is a help - mac prices are a complete ripoff - or go secondhand. Mac users are fashion farts, and always want the latest trendy crap.
Oh, and the gimp cannot do everything that photoshop can, which is likely the program she will use the most. And certainly not in the same waty. It cannot adjust color temperature easily for one thing. Leastways I've not found a way. It is however stupendous for those with no money..its NEARLY as good.
The Natural Philosopher gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:
And a side note...when unloading the car into her room, lock the doors (car and room) even if it's only for 30 seconds...gangs watch people unloading, time the cycle, and grab stuff in the short gaps.
Definately wait for the HE discount (although I heard of poeple getting the HE discount before going if they can show evidence of an unconditional offer)...
It's fairly generous discount - and a big bonus is that you get 3 yr hardware support for free when purchased under the HE agreement. She might also get a free ipod touch (I think that's this years deal).
I suspect a macbook would be fine - the only thing she might want a macbook pro for would be video work as it has firewire.
Macbook alu with 4GB ram is a pretty powerful laptop - and yes, they are expensive compared to PCs...but the build quality tends to be better in my experience.
Darren
Since no-one else has mentioned it...
It s possible to install the MacOS on a standard PC. However, you have to make sure that the hardware is supported by MacOS. For example there is loads of info on the web for turning a Dell Mini
9 laptop (9 inch screen) into a Mac. These were ideal because MacOS had drivers for most of the bits, or people managed to find them AND they were cheap (£200 ish). However, Dell have stopped selling these.It's non-trivial and involves downloading torrents from dodgy websites.
Here's a link but there are loads of others
Can you look at files with both OS's?
Possible, but never easy.
You need some hacks. A PC wont boot a mac install disk at all.
And this is NOT what you want to do for someone who just wants a mac to U= SE.
Exactly.
And you can get a secondhand mac for that easily.
Dont go there.
Really.
If uyou want to run a reliable MAC OSX, get a mac.
You can add linux and windows to an Intel mac, but its almost impossible =
the other way around.
And there are horrid issues with sharing files.
And VMWare Fusion works extremely well for running Windows within OSX. But make sure you up the memory. (Partner went to the full 4GB with an upgrade from Crucial - not even very expensive.)
Yep, VMWare Fusion is great - I'm running it as I type with a couple of solaris VMs and an XP one.
Running MacOS on non apple hardware isn't possible in a reliable *legal* way AFAIK.
Running windows on a Mac (an Intel based one anyway) works well - but vmware is a good compromise if you really have to run windows. Need a windows license to be legit though...
Parallels is supposed to be ok as well - I ran a trial version, found some issues and reported them. They then released an updated version that alledgedly fixed the problem so I tried to get another trial key to check.
They told me I'd used up by 30 days trial (I'd used a day of it before reporting the problem). I told them I wanted to retest and if it was now fixed I'd buy. They told me I'd have to buy it to test it.
I bought VMware fusion instead and told parallels to stick it. Never looked back (in fact I'm now a fusion beta tester).
I suspect most people on here won't care, but there are some issues trying to move VMs between Fusion and ESX (until v4 ESX AIUI).
Darren
you BOUGHT it?
Some people, who claim to be Mac-lovers, have gone the Dell Mini 9 route to the extent where they've sold their original Macs! The main reason appears to be that Apple don't sell a Mac that's the size of a netbook (or anything like as cheap)..
Some have bought a retail copy of MacOS to do the install. While this breaks the EULA they reckon it's morally okay.
Apparently, when it's done right they work like a real Mac. It's just unfortunate that Dell have stopped selling the Mini 9. At the moment I've not heard of any other machines that work as well. Most other netbooks need hardware mods etc..
I forgot to say that I used VMWare to emulate a Mac and I wouldn't recommend it. It works but it's nothing like as pleasant as using the real thing.
Errr..... yes?
Why?
Darren
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