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PC Programs on Mac

T

t-lo

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A friend told me that supposedly there is a program for Macs that lets you run other programs that normally require a Windows operating system. Is this real even somewhat? He says it's available on the Apple web site but I couldn't find anything.
 
Acill

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there are several like boches and virtualPC. Boches if free and a bit hard to setup, VPC isnt free. They both need a real windows install CD though and you run in an emulated PC so the speed isnt all that great. Games are out unless they are real old ones.
 
MacAddikt

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your friend might be referring to X11 (sometimes called X-Windows), which is a Unix-based environment (i guess you could say its like a flavor of Linux). it is an emulator for programs originally made to run in an X11 environment, to be able to run under Mac OS X.

however, there is a program that allows you to run executables (.exe) under X11. cant remember the name, ill post it when i get home. but it doesnt work very well, and i could only get the programs that came with it to work (calculator, windows explorer and a few other lame ones).
 
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MadSkillzMan said:
are you guys thinking of DarWine?
Click to expand...

bingo.. thats the name :mac:
 
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MacAddikt said:
your friend might be referring to X11 (sometimes called X-Windows), which is a Unix-based environment (i guess you could say its like a flavor of Linux). it is an emulator for programs originally made to run in an X11 environment, to be able to run under Mac OS X.
Click to expand...

Right idea, but this is not the best way to express it.

X11 is a windowing system, like Quartz+Aqua on the Mac. It's a set of tools that developers use to draw graphics, windows, menus, buttons and the like from their applications on Unix-style systems, including Linux, Solaris, BSD, and sometimes OS X. On OS X, X11 exists as an option for running applications that require it. It's not an emulator, and it's not an OS unto itself, but it does let you run a variety of apps without having to rewrite them.

DarWine is mostly a seperate entity.
 
OP
T

t-lo

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I checked some of this out and it looks like the only difference in price between cheap ones and expensive ones is that the expensive, Windows vesions give you a Windows license. I already have one froma previous PC so wouldn't a chep one do essentially the same thing for me as the higher end ones (Virtual PC)?
 
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t-lo said:
I checked some of this out and it looks like the only difference in price between cheap ones and expensive ones is that the expensive, Windows vesions give you a Windows license. I already have one froma previous PC so wouldn't a chep one do essentially the same thing for me as the higher end ones (Virtual PC)?
Click to expand...

My understanding is, the differences are as follows.

Virtual PC is slow.

Bochs (used in many of the cheaper emulators) is very, very slow.

QEMU (used in other cheaper emulators) is somewhere in between.

Sometimes it's better to buy a $350 Dell, which will be much faster than any of these. You can use a KVM switch, or remote-viewer software like VNC.
 
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technologist said:
Sometimes it's better to buy a $350 Dell, which will be much faster than any of these. You can use a KVM switch, or remote-viewer software like VNC.
Click to expand...

I concur, you could probably get by with even spending less than $350 and still getting a system that will run better than Virtual PC.
 
OP
T

t-lo

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That is actually a pretty good idea, but that would essentially take away from the portability of my whole set-up (*fingers crossed* powerbook). What really bothers me is simple stuff like internet problems. Certain videos don't work, certain file formats aren't recognized, sometimes entire websites won't load, all because my computer doesn't have a windows OS. Is there any simple way around that stuff?
 
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You can use IE on OS X, it actually comes pre-installed, the few websites that that I have found to not work in Safari will work on IE for OS X.

I haven't found a video or file format that you can't play in OS X, if it is a WMA/WMV file you can download Microsoft Media Player for OS X. There is also a divx codec around somewhere for OS X but I haven't tried it.
 
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t-lo

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That must be the problem, because I do only use Safari and before the same videos worked.
 
rs2sensen

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It really depends on the type of stuff you want to run. At home, I have a wireless network set up between my Mac and PC. I can use the free remote desktop software to run programs on the PC, and have them being shown on my Mac (and I control them from the mac). It's not great, but it works. Before I got Office for Mac, I did that, and I was able to make it work fine, and, you can easily print to windows printers.

Otherwise, Virtual PC is the main option.
 
rs2sensen

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ah, IC your on OS 9, not sure if remote desktop is available for that.
 

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