PC & MAC become one

zoranb

Registered
When will this ever happen? What do i mean huh? Well i have 2 examples

1. lets say i want to purchase an app, i go buy the cd and i runs effectivelly on both windows and mac os no worries if its pc or mac. unicodeCDprogramming or something!

2. lets say i want to run both systems on one machine. Dual boot, one for windows and other for OSx

Any rumours on that stuff? im tired of needing to have 2 machines. Mainly for PPro that Adobe stopped recently!!
Cheers guys!
 
1. There are several applications out there that run well on both systems. These CDs are called Hybrid CDs, and contain the applications for both. If you put such a CD into a Windows system, you only see the Windows files, while on Mac you only see the files for Mac. Propellerhead Reason is one of those applications.

2. Dual boot with Mac and Windows as systems will never be possible. Mac OS X can only run on PowerPC hardware while Windows can only run on Intel hardware. The only way you can have Windows on a Mac machine is Virtual PC. There is a way to have Mac OS X on a PC, but it's incredibly slow and there's not much use in it. The software is called PearPC and it's free.
 
chances are very slim that apple and Microsoft will ever become one or be duel bootible. Microsoft needs apple to stay alive so it doesn't become a monopoly and there will always be a difference in apps for one and apps in another.

your best bet (if you are sick and tired of having to go back and forth between 2 comps) is to get something like a KVM switch from iogear and just share a keyboard, mouse and monitor between the two computers and set them to share files.
 
Is that honestly true Jetwing, about MS needing Apple to stay alive?

I understand why.
MS need a competitor who's software DOESN'T run on MS compatable hardware. That lets MS keep it's share of the X86 PC market's and he can still say "I do have a competitor, who i work with, Apple"

This must be why MS hates Linux so much and makes programs for OSX.

Anyway, if it were possible to dual boot OSX and Windows why would software companies port thier software to different OS's?
 
Back in the old days, you could get dual-booting Macs — via PC compatibility cards packing Pentiums.

I've heard a bit from both Intel and IBM about some crazy new chip architecture that would let you run two OSes at the same time. Currently, though, I think that just means two of the same type of OS. That is to say, you could run PPC Linux and OS X at the same time, or two x86 OSes, but not mix and match. But it's possible some day we'll see a chip with the ability to natively execute both PPC and x86 instructions, perhaps even simultaneously. Not likely (at least not anytime soon), but possible (I think).

I think the more practical answer is for some PC company to make a knock-off of the Mac mini that doesn't totally suck. Stick it under the real thing, add a KVM switch, and there ya go. :)
 
UNIX is not free software, HomunQlus. Quite the opposite. There's even a big case going on about it.
 
I know. UNIX (c) is not free, but variations, that consider themselves a Unix (-> FreeBSD) are free.
 
HomunQlus said:
I know. UNIX (c) is not free, but variations, that consider themselves a Unix (-> FreeBSD) are free.

A Unix (as opposed to UNIX) does not have to be free. OS X that considers itself to be a sort of Unix is by no means free.
 
I remeber there was a new company called Nutek. It designed hardware to run Mac and PC in one. They gave me one prototype to test it. It work great but some didnt work. It was in 1992 something. Nutek was sued by Apple. Apple forced Nutek to stop product. I remember that we can use both pc and mac applications on Nutek its look odd but awesome. Its too bad its gone.
 
(sorry to go back in the conversation)
Chazam said:
Is that honestly true Jetwing, about MS needing Apple to stay alive?

In the mid/late 90's, Apple was on the edge of death but MS made a deal with apple and gave them money to stay in business. I think one of the terms in the contract was that IE had to be the default browser under OS 9
 
MacFreak said:
I remeber there was a new company called Nutek. It designed hardware to run Mac and PC in one. They gave me one prototype to test it. It work great but some didnt work. It was in 1992 something. Nutek was sued by Apple. Apple forced Nutek to stop product. I remember that we can use both pc and mac applications on Nutek its look odd but awesome. Its too bad its gone.

There have been some interesting machines, especially around that time, I remember a PC which was also a Sega Megadrive (Genesis in the USA) which was cool.

As for PC and Mac in one, it's not an outlandish idea, many years ago Acorn (UK) had the RISC PC which ran a lighting fast RISC OS and could run Windows too thanks to an optional on-board PC CPU, that was really neat.

Hell, my old Atari 520ST had a 286 daughterboard and Windows 3.0 if I recall and Sun produced SunPCi which gave Sun workstations the ability to run Windows.

I think it COULD be a good idea to make a future Mac with the option of running PC software using a real CPU especially as the 64bit thing takes off, and using some software on the Windows side, it could be a seemless thing done really well. I know the arguement about it being a bad idea because people won't make Mac software anymore, but I don't really buy into that. I think it could be a good thing, I'm not confident about VirtualPC ever being a real alternative, especially now Microsoft has it's grubby hands on it and the idea of buying some butt-ugly buzzing box to sit beside an aesthetically pleasing Mac is horrific to me.
 
JetwingX said:
(sorry to go back in the conversation)


In the mid/late 90's, Apple was on the edge of death but MS made a deal with apple and gave them money to stay in business. I think one of the terms in the contract was that IE had to be the default browser under OS 9

I heard that Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are actually pretty friendly towards one another so that's not surprising. Although iPods are frowned upon at Microsoft HQ so some employees bought black headphones for them so that they were less recognisable.

I think it's likely that MS will develop a portable media player in the near future and will probably use the Xbox 360 as leverage in the market (Xbox 360 can interface with other devices).
 
Chazam said:
Anyway, if it were possible to dual boot OSX and Windows why would software companies port thier software to different OS's?
Because there are people, armed with cash, who refuse to use Windows.
 
Okay but this idea of a machine with both OS's is for whom really?Developers, true that is who is probably the majority here. So anyone like to take a stab at what such a beast would cost? Who is going to build it? Talk about your niche market shheeesh!
 
It would be far cheaper and simpler to just buy a Mac and a PC. You could spend under $1000 and get both to test things out.
 
JetwingX said:
(sorry to go back in the conversation)


In the mid/late 90's, Apple was on the edge of death but MS made a deal with apple and gave them money to stay in business. I think one of the terms in the contract was that IE had to be the default browser under OS 9

Well, Apple was bleeding red ink, yes... but still had right around 4 billion in liquid assets. This particular deal was 150 million dollars of non-voter stock being purchased by MS, which Apple could have survived without. I much rather think that Steve Jobs (this arrangement was after Amelio was canned, so after 1996) wanted to bargain with MS in order to get MS vested in the platform to make it more stable (in terms of software support) in exchange for some preferential treatment towards MS. This is one of the myths that seems to propogate even under Jobs' RDF. They could have survived without the MS investment.

But.... Why fix your red ink problems with your own money when you can do it on someone else's dime? ;)
 
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