First let me start by stating clearly that this is not a 'PCs are better than Macs, or vice versa' post. This ridiculous argument has been going on for years, and is a completely futile waste of time. You may as well argue that 'Fords are better than Vauxhalls' or 'Mars bars are better than Snickers'. Each have their merits and failings, and everyone is entitled to their opinions (usually unwavering).
After almost 30 years of using computers, both Macs and PCs, I finally purchased my first Mac a few weeks back. Although I have used Macs for work I have always purchased PCs for my freelance work, mainly because there are software packages that I HAVE to use which are unavailable for the Mac. When my XP box became due for replacement the iMac, with it's much vaunted, ability to run both OS's seemed the ideal solution for me.
I duly purchased a 2.4 Ghz 24" iMac (new aluminum model) with 2Gb RAM. The first one was returned immediately with several dead pixels on the screen. The replacement came with Tiger installed . I duly purchased the Leopard upgrade from Apple and a brand new XP Pro disc with SP2 (oem - but not tied to a particular make). When the Leopard upgrade disc arrived my iMac could not find it in the drive. A quick check revealed that it could not find the Tiger discs in the drive either. After a call to Apple support I managed to upgrade to Leopard by holding down the 'c' key during power-up and booting from the Leopard upgrade disc.
I ran boot camp and created a partition for XP, but the installation failed with an error that suggested that the disc was not SP2. I know it definitely is. I tried again with an existing XP Home SP2 disc from my old machine -same again. I then tried an install using VMWare Fusion... same problem. In desperation, I tried using Fusion to install Windows 98SE from an original disc, and even '95 with USB support, anything to get some form of Windows on the iMac so I could start earning money again. These failed because Fusion could not find the boot discs.
I now feel that I have the most impressive looking paperweight in the world. I am sure things will get sorted eventually (fingers crossed), but please Mr. Jobs, don't keep filling my TV screen with patronizing ads telling me Macs 'just work', because they don't, any more than all Fords 'just go' or all Snickers bars just 'taste great'.
After almost 30 years of using computers, both Macs and PCs, I finally purchased my first Mac a few weeks back. Although I have used Macs for work I have always purchased PCs for my freelance work, mainly because there are software packages that I HAVE to use which are unavailable for the Mac. When my XP box became due for replacement the iMac, with it's much vaunted, ability to run both OS's seemed the ideal solution for me.
I duly purchased a 2.4 Ghz 24" iMac (new aluminum model) with 2Gb RAM. The first one was returned immediately with several dead pixels on the screen. The replacement came with Tiger installed . I duly purchased the Leopard upgrade from Apple and a brand new XP Pro disc with SP2 (oem - but not tied to a particular make). When the Leopard upgrade disc arrived my iMac could not find it in the drive. A quick check revealed that it could not find the Tiger discs in the drive either. After a call to Apple support I managed to upgrade to Leopard by holding down the 'c' key during power-up and booting from the Leopard upgrade disc.
I ran boot camp and created a partition for XP, but the installation failed with an error that suggested that the disc was not SP2. I know it definitely is. I tried again with an existing XP Home SP2 disc from my old machine -same again. I then tried an install using VMWare Fusion... same problem. In desperation, I tried using Fusion to install Windows 98SE from an original disc, and even '95 with USB support, anything to get some form of Windows on the iMac so I could start earning money again. These failed because Fusion could not find the boot discs.
I now feel that I have the most impressive looking paperweight in the world. I am sure things will get sorted eventually (fingers crossed), but please Mr. Jobs, don't keep filling my TV screen with patronizing ads telling me Macs 'just work', because they don't, any more than all Fords 'just go' or all Snickers bars just 'taste great'.