True Windows on Mac?

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salohcin

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I have a friend who's not so sure about switching to a Mac. Her mum has an iBook, and I've been persuading her to make the switch herself, but she thinks that the Mac is too simple to use.

She did say that if there was any possible way of running Windows on a Mac, she would switch in an instant.

Are there any way of getting Windows to run properly on a Mac? I've heard about emulators, but I've been told that they don't always accurately perform like Windows 100%...
 
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lil

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Has she actually sat down and really played with a Mac?

I wouldn't call the BSD UNIX underpinnings too simple :flower:

The answer to your question is no though, your Mac runs a PPC, Windows needs an x86 CPU which can be emulated as you identify. The only versions of Windows that will run natively on the PPC are versions older than and including NT 3.51 if I recall correctly, and even then it wouldn't work.

Macs won't be for everybody but the best way to find out is to play with a Mac.

Vicky
 
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Yes, choices now for running Windows on Intel chip Macs

Of course, now that Macs are running on Intel chip cpus (2006+), they all can run Windows. So go for it! ;-)

There are (at least) 3 choices as of 12/2006:

Apple Boot Camp - free - which requires you to reformat the HD and set up a separate partition on which you load Windows. Then, you restart the computer into either Mac OS X or Windows Xp. (not both at same time)

Parallels - about $70 - which allows you to install several versions of Windows OS right onto your current free space, no reformat needed (unless you want to partition). AND, it allows you to run Windows simultaneously with Mac OS X.

Both of those are at speeds comparable to modern Windows dedicated hardware.

Third choice is a program called CrossOVer Mac - $40/70 - currently only in beta. It allows windows programs to run without installing the Windows OS. However, because of the emulation environment, not all Windows programs work.
 
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It is still beta and will be until included as part of Leopard. At that time the standalone download will be discontinued and you will need Leopard to use Bootcamp.
 
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I just want to run windows fast on my Powerbook 12 inch :(


I have no clue why I'm saying this, Mac OS X is SO much better.


iRye:black:
 
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ahhh, if wishes were ... what was the question ? ;)

but if you were serious, and your PB is the original 12" at 867 MHz, any emulation will be.e.e. s..l...o......w........w..........

Virtual PC, no longer in development now, used to work well (albeit slowly) for me under OS 9x, and I used it a few times under Jaguar.
'Course, it was rather pricey. And never really snappy. I just needed it to run a few Win-only programs.
FYI, a recent eval at MacUpdate for VPC said '98SE flies using this on my G4 iBook', so maybe it would be fine for you.

I've not tried any Win emulators in my G5 Tiger environment, though I expect I will experiment when day comes that I get an Mac-Intel (or 'ICBM' - Intel Chip Based Mac), since I do PC support as well as Mac support.
 
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Personally I prefer running Boot Camp. I've also tried a bunch of emulators like Parallels and Virtual PC. I actually like Parallels, pretty quick. But I only run WinXP for games, and most have certain requirements and I can't achieve with the emulators.

To answer your question, yes you can most defenitely run Windows on the newer most recent Macs. :)
 

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This is the main reason I will be switching back to Mac.

If all I would want to do with Windows on my Mac was surf the web so I could check for compatibily on my websites which would you guys recommend? BootCamp or Parallels?
 
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Per my post in another thread ... Parallels is a much better option unless you specifically need direct hardware support like Direct3D for games.

If all you want to do is verify compatibility with MSIE, Parallels is a much simpler, faster, and more elegant solution.
 
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I have a friend who's not so sure about switching to a Mac. Her mum has an iBook, and I've been persuading her to make the switch herself, but she thinks that the Mac is too simple to use.

She did say that if there was any possible way of running Windows on a Mac, she would switch in an instant.

Are there any way of getting Windows to run properly on a Mac? I've heard about emulators, but I've been told that they don't always accurately perform like Windows 100%...

This sort of thinking is, IMHO, rather silly. She wants to "switch" but is afraid the OS is to "simple"? What, she dislikes Windows because it is a pain but doesn't know what she'll do with her time if she has an OS that isn't always fighting her and being annoying? Is she afraid that she'll actually have to use the system and become productive and enjoy herself because it works properly 99% of the time? Then why bother switching? She wants to "switch" but to run Windows on it? Why, because she likes the pretty hardware? Again, why bother switching? If you simply want to run Windows on Mac hardware save yourself the trouble, you're always going to have to deal with OSX to some extent no matter how you run Windows, just buy a nice Dell or Gateway or even better a Sony.

If your going to switch, then switch. Seems like most people who do end up not running Windows on their Mac in the end anyhow.
 
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If your just using Windows for simple things like browsing the web then go for Parallels. They have a 30-day free trial and $79 if you want to purchase. Its fast and easy.
 

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