[thechat] Windows on a Mac

[Bob Davis]

On Wednesday, February 5, 2003, at 02:35  PM, Kevin Stevens wrote:

> Don't use Macs, don't like them. However, my boss loves them and his
> son is
> getting to an age now where he will be learning computer stuff at
> school and
> said boss wants to get aforementioned son a computer. He seems to
> think that
> it will be PC based training at school, but is loathed to buy a PC
> because
> he knows nothing about how to fix them if they go wrong. Am I right in
> thinking you can get a Windows emulator for a Mac, and if so...
>

Smart man.

Virtual PC is the answer. It's getting better on X, but it's not so
fast. If you turn off all of the added on GUI stuff in XP (running in
your virtual environment), it speeds up though.
VPC gives you the additional advantage of being able to load x86
Solaris, Linux, etc. and run them all at the same time (you can have as
many virtual computers as you have OS's).

> 1. Would this work as a solution, i.e. could he do his Windows school
> work
> on the Mac?

Yes. I use it for testing stuff, and for manipulating Access databases,
etc. What is "Windows school work"?
Office on a Mac is the same as on Win. (with the auto inserted
fractions being the only issue - and a complete pain in the ass, since
I handle a lot of recipes for publication).
The line between Win/Mac is getting thinner all the time - at least on
a practical level. People aren't really Mac users or Windows users any
more. They are Word/Excel users, powerpoint users, Mathemateca users,
photoshop users - all programs that work equally well on either
platform.
The real difference lies in games. There are more games available on
windows.
The other difference is sexy hardware - Macs (esp. PowerBooks) are sexy.

> 2. How much does this program cost?

With the OS - about $250

> 3. Is it a good simulation of Windows?
>

It is windows. It's a virtual environment that has your windows
operating system running in it. There are some funky things about
accessing the hardware, but you can access windows/smb mounts, print,
etc. and it all works the way one would expect a windows machine to
work (ok, damning with faint praise, I know).

It's a fine solution.

Bob