Intel-Macs do Windows natively?

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 1:54 am

Something very interesting can be afoot. Doesn't sound like we're "there" yet, but...

http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/macword ... /index.php

giles117 · Post by **giles117** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 6:32 am

Dual boot?? Phooey, give me the equiv of Virtual PC with native speed. Dual boot is a time waster.

I currently use VPC on my G5 to jump into windows to do something and jump back into OS X (or never leave OS X) Where is the new VPC?????

Features like instant on.... Shared clipboard between OS X and Windoze.... Those are the important things to me...

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 1:14 am

Many of the Windows apps I'd want to use probably couldn't be trusted in emulation mode. These include surround sound and DV suites. It would be nice to access complimentary apps on one computer, though...

Giles-- what are you running under VPC? I bought this a few years ago and it took forever to install (like an entire day!). After that it wouldn't really work. Granted, I've not bothered with it since getting my G5, but I sort of gave up on it.

giles117 · Post by **giles117** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 6:00 am

Frodo wrote:Many of the Windows apps I'd want to use probably couldn't be trusted in emulation mode. These include surround sound and DV suites. It would be nice to access complimentary apps on one computer, though...

Giles-- what are you running under VPC? I bought this a few years ago and it took forever to install (like an entire day!). After that it wouldn't really work. Granted, I've not bothered with it since getting my G5, but I sort of gave up on it.

I am sure a native version which wouldnt necessarily be an emulation because the chip is the chip so no conversion process, it is a matter of making a shell to run windows on OS X...(Kinda like DOS Shelling eh???)

Anyway, I run Cubase, Nuendo and Sonar for client transfers. Works great for number crunching. Surely I wont do a mix with it. LOL

Even though the puppy plays back pretty decently surprisingly.

toofar · Post by **toofar** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 11:31 am

Frodo,

I've just recently installed the current version of VPC on a G4 iBook, and the installation went very quickly and smoothly. It now has an automated installer that makes it pretty painless and VPC itself seems to work as advertised. It may be worth your while to try the newer version; though as Giles suggests, I wouldn't count on it for serious work. I only installed it so that I could check my HTML/CSS pages natively in Windows browsers before publishing them, and for this it's just fine. Cheers.

Bill

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 12:39 pm

toofar wrote:Frodo,

I've just recently installed the current version of VPC on a G4 iBook, and the installation went very quickly and smoothly. It now has an automated installer that makes it pretty painless and VPC itself seems to work as advertised. It may be worth your while to try the newer version; though as Giles suggests, I wouldn't count on it for serious work. I only installed it so that I could check my HTML/CSS pages natively in Windows browsers before publishing them, and for this it's just fine. Cheers.

Bill

Thanks Bill. I will give VPC a try. There are some semi-serious apps I hope to try-- there are some apps for Windows for mastering stereo tracks or surround encoding which might be processed offline. It's just that the choices for OSX are limited.

This might be a no-no, but there is one computer games for Windows only, but I suspect that this might be unrealistic if not unwise. Too bad-- the game is called Battle For Middle-Earth II.

toofar · Post by **toofar** » Tue Mar 21, 2006 7:44 pm

You're welcome Frodo. I think you'd be fine with apps which do their crunching offline, so to speak. As I said, I installed VPC on a 900MHz G4 iBook, so there's not gobs of power here to begin with. I have noticed a bit of a stutter even trying the freebie pinball game that comes with Win XP, but I'm sure there are things that could be done about that if I cared, such as quitting other apps and background stuff. Maybe even re-nicing via terminal where appropriate. And VPC has some processor-load adjustments available as well. Cheers.

Bill

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 1:00 am

Just found this review:
http://www.macworld.com/2005/01/reviews ... /index.php

Seems to tell the truth-- better, but not flawless-- yet.

Also found this:
http://www.macworld.com/2005/05/reviews ... /index.php

The Guest PC review is more revealing about both apps-- no 3D graphics support in this or VPC. Nice to see that MS bought Connectix (I think). I do like the printing options with VPC better...

We shall see..

giles117 · Post by **giles117** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 5:40 am

Personally I think if Connecticx was still an indie they would have an intel version out already...

MS = Politics....

toofar · Post by **toofar** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 9:20 am

Thanks for the links!

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 2:28 pm

giles117 wrote:MS = Politics....

...at the very least--!!

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Wed Mar 22, 2006 2:29 pm

toofar wrote:Thanks for the links!

Cheers!!

Groovepusher Sly · Post by **Groovepusher Sly** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 3:50 pm

Boot Camp!

Sly

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Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 6:13 pm

I certainly hope for the best, but I wouldn't fully expect a truly usable A/V system under XP on an IntelMac to be ready for prime time for a good while. Sight unseen, it just feels too good to be true-- or at least too early to draw any conclusions.

Maybe I'm overly cautious, but better safe than sorry. There was SO much hype about G5's finally breaking the 3Ghz barrier, but they never really did. True support for 64-bit processing only went halfway, even though it has been a huge marketing point for Apple over the past 5 years. With these and other questionable past developments, it doesn't seem so unreasonable to be at least a little suspcious.

I understand the pun behind the name "Boot Camp", but I'm also reminded that there could be an extended period of difficult and painful hardware/software orientation before things are truly ready for "battle".

The other thing that comes to mind is that a Mac running X and XP *could* have limited appeal-- meaning a percentage of Apple's 4% market share who really need to run both systems on one computer. Given the divide between Mac and PC users, I see no reason why hoards of PC laptop owners would buy in to Apple's high hardware premiums, but the advantage clearly goes to Apple: Bill Gates could care less about a 1% gain or loss, but if Steve Jobs can attract just 1% of the PC market, he's increased Apple's market share by 25%. Sellout? Arguable. Good business strategy? Certainly-- in the short term, anyway...

Presently, I wonder if OSX will not eventually be the "optional" OS, or if circumstances will decide whether it's even worth it for Apple to continue supporting the "feline" operating systems. The very necessity of even mixing Apples and Windows speaks volumes about Apple's previous endeavors and strategies-- painting their hardware and software updates much less as the great silicon hope that they were touted to be and a little more like clever, but limited technology in VERY attractive boxes.

Where all this is going remains to be seen, but these are huge gambles on Apple's part, and their faithful 4% market share is small enough a sacrifice for a bigger piece of the PC pie.