Question re: OS X

Hello,
My brother in-law (who has downs' syndrome) is looking to buy a new computer...his third in a year. Yes, I'm jealous.

Anyway, he uses his computers only for games that are NOT graphic intense. For example, I think his most advanced game is either Who Wants to be a Millionaire, SCooby Doo, or Harry Potter.

He wants to buy an iMac because they take up little amount of space. Most of his games are either PC/Mac compatable. However, I was wondering if the new OS X is similar to Vista wherein some software is not compatable?

Also, I heard a rumor that OS X is compatable with all software, even the SW for PC's...is this absurd rumor true?

Please help.

Thanks!

hx

Old games for G4 and G5 Macs (ie. Macs built before 2006) only won't run too well.

Newer Mac games than run for Intel only or that have 'Universal' on the box will run fine.

PC games need to run under Windows, so you'd have to install that to play them.

The rumor you heard is almost true, but it is Macs that are compatible, not Mac OS X. You can run both Mac OS X and Windows on a Mac. So, your brother in law could get an iMac, which comes with Mac OX X, then add Windows XP to it, and he would be set.

so would I set it up as a dual-bootable, or overwrite the OS X?

I'm not familiar with macs, so forgive the noobness!

horax said:

so would I set it up as a dual-bootable, or overwrite the OS X?

I'm not familiar with macs, so forgive the noobness!

Click to expand...

Mac OS X Leopard, the latest version, includes a feature known as Boot Camp that assists you in the process of installing Windows in a dual-boot manner. In this way, one has the choice of whether to start the machine in Windows or Mac OS X.

Oh now that's cool!

Maybe i'll have to buy one, too! Right now I have an XP box and a Vista box, and I work on linux here at work adn was thinking of making a Linux box for the house.

I think I'll need to buy a mac.

I'm assuming Boot Camp is just an application that is pre-loaded on the imac?

horax said:

Oh now that's cool!

Maybe i'll have to buy one, too! Right now I have an XP box and a Vista box, and I work on linux here at work adn was thinking of making a Linux box for the house.

I think I'll need to buy a mac.

I'm assuming Boot Camp is just an application that is pre-loaded on the imac?

Click to expand...

That's right, Boot Camp is a program that essentially preps your hard drive for dual-boot and provides drivers in Windows for some of the Mac-specific functionality (like your keyboard and built-in web cam). Now that Macs run on the x86 platform, the underlying hardware is not very different from what you would find on your typical Wintel box, so a very important distinction is that Boot Camp is *not* an emulator, it simply eases the process of installing Windows natively on your Mac.

that's a nice function.

since I'll be the one setting it up for him, is there anything I need to knwo before I do it? Any tricks I should look out for?

Oh, and this will still allow for running of OS X, right?

horax said:

that's a nice function.

since I'll be the one setting it up for him, is there anything I need to knwo before I do it? Any tricks I should look out for?

Oh, and this will still allow for running of OS X, right?

Click to expand...

Yes. OS X is still on there, you can choose it to be your default OS in the Control Panel in Windows (under "Startup Disk") or in System Preferences on Mac OS X. You can manually choose by holding the Option key down during startup. All of this is covered in the documentation that you are prompted to print during the Boot Camp installation.

The only caveat is that you must have a retail or non-branded OEM version of Windows XP (with Service Pack 2 integrated) or Windows Vista. You may not use a copy that is installed on another computer, so you'll want to purchase a fresh copy.

Ok...thanks for the input!