Thread: Just ordered a new iMac

Originally Posted by solmanic

GEEK!

Yep - until I've sused the beast out at least. After that, I'll just go back to posting inane threads on here!

Good to see you have left the dark side.
Probably one of the best value computers on the market.

Just wondering... If a computer just stores and processes information then would it be possible to put Mac programs on a pc instead of windows etc... ..or is it the way it does things that is different? Jim

Originally Posted by Mulgo

Just download the test version of Parallels - nothing to loose, mate.

Download Parallels Desktop 4.0 for Mac ? Run Windows on Mac

You can use the boot camp which is already built into the computer type boot in the search bar and load up windows. You elect a certain amount of hardrive space to run it

Originally Posted by jx2mad

Just wondering... If a computer just stores and processes information then would it be possible to put Mac programs on a pc instead of windows etc... ..or is it the way it does things that is different? Jim

Jim,

Apple and Microsoft use a fundamentally different operating system. Their architectures are similar though. If you pulled a bit of code from one and put it in the other you could then re-compile that code for the machine which would fix the things that are specific to that machine. It doesn't always work but sometimes it does. That's a very high level explanation.

The Apple operating system is a UNIX variant. Hence, it's possible to get applications from other versions of UNIX and compile and run them on the Apple operating system very easily. Indeed this is probably the key difference between the Apple and Microsoft operating systems.

Microsoft on the other hand is a completely different beast, unique to itself, and in parts very very old. The core of the operating system is not open source so programs are not as easy to transfer.

The easiest way is to run an emulator on either machine to run programs from the other.

Well I'm still lovin' this iMac! I'm in danger of Vit A deficiency though, but I'm really getting the hang of this OS - it's really neat.

A fellow at work suggested that I might like to partition my disc, set up Boot Camp and run windows.

Apart from the fact that I bought this iMac to escape everything PC, , and the fact that my PC was running Office 2000 (which won't run under Boot Camp) - I reckon it would be bordering on sacrilege, not to mention unholy, to pollute this fine machine with such rubbish!

My advice would be to not do it unless you absolutely have to.

I have a Laptop running Vista - this drove me to the Mac. I haven't seen any need to run boot camp and a Windows partition. I think if I get a Macbook I will probably do so just so I can run LR EPC and Rovacom (or what ever I get for the Puma). I've found I can do everything else I need on the iMac so far.

I use parallels to run the few applications that I can't run on the mac. Like nanocom and ozie-explorer. It works very well.