Will my older version of Win XP be functional using BootCamp and other questions

My 1st post at your forum. I hope these questions don't come accross too naive.
I have a son who is a 14 year Army vet & works with all kinds of computers. To him (and maybe most of you) Mac is the holy grail of computers! He finally convinced my wife & I to take the plunge to Mac! It wasn't all that hard after years of dealing with Win XP & lately a free trial of Win7. We're getting older & have had enough of all the chaos. I will add that we also worked with Ubuntu Linux & like it a lot, but have problems getting hardware to work, if at all.
We are looking at purchasing 2 Mac's; a Mac Mini & iMac so please help.

Will my older version of Win XP be fully functional using Boot Camp? The reason I ask is in Linux there's a program called WINE which some but not all Windows software will function. Namely programs that dependant on Windows Netframework (needed for Windows audio-video software) which will not install with WINE software.

There's a rumor that Snow Leopard will be announced next week. If we purchase our MACs now will there be a free upgrade to this or do we need to wait? I couldn't tell you what the differences might be from Leopard to Snow Leopard but it seems many are excited about it.

And last, I see MACs for sale at discounts on websites like B&H Photo which is a legitimate company. Is there any difference purchasing there vs a Mac store or Best Buy @ full price; like warranty & exchange?

Thanks in advance!

As long as you have a full retail copy of XP it will work fine in bootcamp.

With Snow leopard a week away, I do believe that you will get a free upgrade. Or just wait a week.

Macs are the same no matter where you buy thehm. Apple services them directly in most cases.

If your looking to same a bit of money why not check out the Refurbished section at apple.com

I have bought 5 macs all refurbs including my mac pro and have had zero problems!!!

Refurb ftw... better for the environment too, it's like pre-recycling! Why waste the energy to melt down more aluminum later, when you can keep the parts, clean them a bit, and make a whole new computer out of it?

My MacBook is refurbed, and it's a beauty!

Blizare said:

With Snow leopard a week away, I do believe that you will get a free upgrade. Or just wait a week.

Click to expand...

You know more than everyone else does then. It's expected that an announcement regarding the development and potential release date for SL will be released during WWDC (June 8 - 12), not an actual release itself.

If your software isn't hardware intensive or require 3D acceleration, you may want to look into virtualization products such as VMWare Fusion (a favourite around here), Parallels or VirtualBox. We can leave that for another day once you get your Mac though .

EDIT: As for XP working, what kind of XP disc is it? Only a certain group will work (manufacturer branded discs will not for instance).

Hey, fancy to see you here! ;D

GARoss said:

... Will my older version of Win XP be fully functional using Boot Camp?

Click to expand...

Absolutely, including 3D applications etc., in my experience Windows on Mac hardware runs a little faster as well.

Below is from the Boot Camp Assistant Installation & Setup Guide

What You Need
Here’s what you need to install and set up Windows on your Mac:

An Intel-based Mac computer, with:

a USB keyboard and mouse, or a built-in keyboard and trackpad

Mac OS X version 10.5 or later (the latest version of Mac OS X is strongly
recommended)

all firmware updates for your computer
For information about updating your computer’s system software and firmware, see
page 23.

A Mac OS X Leopard installation disc, which can be either of the following:

a Mac OS X Leopard disc (included with all purchased copies of Leopard)

a Mac OS X Install Disc 1 (included with all Macs that have Leopard preinstalled)

At least 10 GB of free space on the disk you’re installing on

2 GB or more of RAM when running Windows Vista on a Mac Pro computer

Boot Camp Assistant (located in /Applications/Utilities/)

Windows XP Home Edition or Professional with Service Pack 2 or later, or Windows
Vista Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, or Ultimate
Important:
You must use a single full-install Windows installation disc (Service Pack 2
is required for Windows XP installations). Do not use an upgrade version of Windows
and do not install an earlier version of Windows XP and attempt to update it later to
SP2. Use only 32-bit versions of Windows.

Click to expand...

If you have a original OEM of Windows XP (no service packs) OR a version of the Windows XP disc that's not at least SP2 then you'll need to perform a slipstream process to consolidate the SP2 updates + Windows XP to one disc. I can help you with any of this if you need, I had to do this with mine and it works great.

I know Macs are 64-bit. My Xp is 32-bit; no problem? Also, I think it is an earlier version before any SPs. I trust it would act normal (if this is possible for Windows), be up-datable & still need the dreaded Anti-virus?

vansmith said;
If your software isn't hardware intensive or require 3D acceleration, you may want to look into virtualization products such as VMWare Fusion (a favourite around here), Parallels or VirtualBox. We can leave that for another day once you get your Mac though .

EDIT: As for XP working, what kind of XP disc is it? Only a certain group will work (manufacturer branded discs will not for instance)

XP is an original Windows DVD disc, not a copy or anything like that. The only program I would install would be a video editing software program that requires NetFramework 3.0 & other support software which would not install with Ubuntu Linux's WINE liaison software & therefore would not install the editing software. I though about installing VirtualBox in Linux but never got around to it as I could always dual boot. Of course with boot camp, no need to dual boot.

DarkestRitual, I will check out the Refurbs. Could be good!

BKRonline, I have one major video editing remaining to do; is this going to work?;D

Thanks to all!

Oh, one more question about iPhoto. Does it support Levels, Layers & simple resizing - like clipping a photo to 3x4 @ 150px per inch as it does in Photoshop?

GARoss said:

I know Macs are 64-bit. My Xp is 32-bit; no problem?

Click to expand...

The Mac OS and hardware is capable of 64 bit, your 32 bit XP installation will present no issue. Click here to read up on it.

GARoss said:

Also, I think it is an earlier version before any SPs. I trust it would act normal (if this is possible for Windows), be up-datable & still need the dreaded Anti-virus?

Click to expand...

You'll need to perform a SLIPSTREAM process as described a bit in my previous post before to merge SP2 with your early version disc (I can help with that). The bottom line is you need ONE disc with Windows XP SP2 or later to use Mac's 'bootcamp' for dual boot installation.

Once Windows is installed and you boot in to it, you'll need to first insert your Mac OSX installation disc and install the Windows drivers for Mac hardware, then perform updates like normal using Windows update etc. And yes, since Windows is so vulnerable to viruses / worms / trojans etc. you'll want the dreaded anti-virus in your Windows installation unless you're running a closed system.

GARoss said:

... Of course with boot camp, no need to dual boot.

Click to expand...

Remember with Boot Camp, you're still dual booting, it's just setting it up for you. When you boot up your Mac just hold down the Option button (Alt) until you see a gray screen showing your bootable volumes. At this point your mouse works and you see graphics, just click on the Windows volume and you'll see good 'ol Windows booting up... just like the old days!

GARoss said:

BKRonline, I have one major video editing remaining to do; is this going to work?;D

Click to expand...

We won't let you down... we have a reputation to uphold!

GARoss said:

Oh, one more question about iPhoto. Does it support Levels, Layers & simple resizing - like clipping a photo to 3x4 @ 150px per inch as it does in Photoshop?

Click to expand...

iPhoto is different than Photoshop in many ways. iPhoto always keeps the original image safe, you're always editing a copy... though you don't realize it as you work because it's so seamless. Since you're editing a copy, you can always revert to the original and/or undo to your hearts content.

You can do basic levels, exposure, contrast, saturation, definition, highlights, shadows, sharpness, de-noise, temperature, tint, white balance, rotate, crop, straighten, enhance, red-eye, retouch, and effects.

In iPhoto, when you crop, you crop to an aspect ratio not a specific px x px. iPhoto allows you to print different sized prints, therefore it does in effect change the ppi setting behind the scenes as you choose print sizes. But it won't change the ppi setting in the photo's exif data permanently. The short answer is no, it's not like Photoshop, but this doesn't mean iPhoto can't do what you need it to do... just make sure you need to do it the way you think you need to, you might be suprised. iPhoto is not a professional program, but it does yield very nice results without having to worry. Visit this thread if you want to read more about it.

Things to check out:
Apple: iPhoto Features
Apple: iPhoto Tutorials

Mac is all about thinking simple, less confusion.

BKRonline said:

You'll need to perform a SLIPSTREAM process as described a bit in my previous post before to merge SP2 with your early version disc (I can help with that). The bottom line is you need ONE disc with Windows XP SP2 or later to use Mac's 'bootcamp' for dual boot installation.
Once Windows is installed and you boot in to it, you'll need to first insert your Mac OSX installation disc and install the Windows drivers for Mac hardware, then perform updates like normal using Windows update etc. And yes, since Windows is so vulnerable to viruses / worms / trojans etc. you'll want the dreaded anti-virus in your Windows installation unless you're running a closed system.

Click to expand...

We have 3 copies of Win XP; only one has SP2 so I guess were good. Would SLIPSTREAM still need to be performed being it is SP2 & once installed, would it be updateable to SP3?

BKRonline said:

Remember with Boot Camp, you're still dual booting...

Click to expand...

1-800-MY APPLE said Boot Camp would open XP like an Application. No need to close Mac; then boot to Win XP. This is what I was referring to.

BKRonline said:

iPhoto is different than Photoshop in many ways. iPhoto always keeps the original image safe, you're always editing a copy... You can do basic levels, exposure, contrast, saturation, definition, highlights, shadows, sharpness, de-noise, temperature, tint, white balance, rotate, crop, straighten, enhance, red-eye, retouch, and effects.

In iPhoto, when you crop, you crop to an aspect ratio not a specific px x px. iPhoto allows you to print different sized prints, therefore it does in effect change the ppi setting behind the scenes as you choose print sizes. But it won't change the ppi setting in the photo's exif data permanently. The short answer is no, it's not like Photoshop, but this doesn't mean iPhoto can't do what you need it to do... just make sure you need to do it the way you think you need to, you might be suprised. iPhoto is not a professional program, but it does yield very nice results without having to worry. Visit this thread if you want to read more about it.

Mac is all about thinking simple, less confusion.

Click to expand...

My wife sells on eBay & like her photos cropped to 3x4 @ 160px per inch. PS has this function whereas Gimp is a 2 step. I was hoping iPhoto was more like PS is this regard, but it sounds like it's close enough!
Thanks!

GARoss said:

We have 3 copies of Win XP; only one has SP2 so I guess were good. Would SLIPSTREAM still need to be performed being it is SP2 & once installed, would it be updateable to SP3?

Click to expand...

You could use your existing Win XP SP2 disc for all of your bootcamp installations, just be sure to use one lisence key per machine (in your case up to 3).

Yes it's updateable, since you boot in to Windows you're IN Windows and you can perform the normal operations as such. Boot Camp is not an emulator that runs IN the Mac OS.

GARoss said:

1-800-MY APPLE said Boot Camp would open XP like an Application. No need to close Mac; then boot to Win XP. This is what I was referring to.

Click to expand...

You actually boot (reboot) in to Win XP, you're no longer in the Mac OS in this case. Boot Camp Assistant is a program within the Mac OS that helps create your Windows partition and gets your Windows installation rolling.

GARoss said:

My wife sells on eBay & like her photos cropped to 3x4 @ 160px per inch. PS has this function whereas Gimp is a 2 step. I was hoping iPhoto was more like PS is this regard, but it sounds like it's close enough!

Click to expand...

In iPhoto you would crop the image to a 3x4 ratio, then select File > Export > File Export (tab) and choose a custom size with a max pixel dimension to suite your specific needs.

Think of iPhoto as a light version of Aperture, it's designed to be more of a photo manager than editor that's tightly integrated with all applications within Mac OSX which makes it a drag and drop dream... but some specific tasks need to be done in a editor like any other general program since it's not going to suite everyone's needs.

Also keep in mind that you can use a handy tool called Automator (Applications > Automator) to craft a kind of 'droplet' (since you're familiar with Photoshop) that can automate tasks like resizing by dragging and dropping a slew of images on it.

Can't beat it for the price, that's for sure.

Having a BIG MAC attack...soon

iMac & Mac Mini are on the way!
Thanks for all your advice.
GARoss

My copy of XP is from around 2004 and works fine on a MB, MBP and MBA. I've read that some older XP disks do not have SATA drivers on them. You may need to slipstream some drivers in that case. Mine was fine. FWIW: I install XP from my downloaded MSDN copy of the WinXP Retail disk which was then burnt to CD. (Not a stolen copy mind you, a legitimate copy downloaded from Microsoft) It's not the actual disk, but an .iso I made from it and activated with my company's volume license key - it works just fine.