There have been a lot of speculators on the net as to why you would need to dual boot / run both Windows XP and OS X on an Intel Mac. Aside from my personal preference for OS X and Unix based systems, Here are my lists why I need each one for work:
Reasons I need OS X:
- Presentations - Keynote is miles ahead of powerpoint. I can copy and paste from illustrator, drop in pdfs and the transitions are gorgeous. We have received many WOWs from customers when using Keynote
- PDFs - I generate reports where I have Excel files embedded in Word Documents. In windows, the colors in the embedded excel file dont print. In my Mac in Office 2004… no problem!
- Unix - I sometimes administer the company Debian web server. Running xwindows on Mac OS X, I am able to load up xemacs on the server or other x based programs. I doesnt work as easily using free software for windows.
Reasons I need Windows:
- Microsoft Access - I use it as a front end for SQL Server 2000. I havent found a good alternative where I can easily copy and paste data into excel
- Microsoft Outlook - the mac email client (corrected: Microsoft Entourage) doesnt cut it when talking to Exchange server 2003
- Windows File Sharing - There are a bunch of great websites like macwindows that tell you how to connect your mac to a windows domain. It seems like every update from apple breaks the connection. Not to mention if you are on wireless and it drops! The samba / windows file sharing support in Windows is a lot more resilient. P.s. I am on a Windows Server 2003 domain which seems to have more trouble than earlier versions
Im sure I can find a bunch more if I think about it, but these are the ones that are in the forefront of my mind every time I try to totally switch to one or the other.
Honestly, I ave no darn idea why both Gates and Jobs don’t open up their OSes for each other. It seems to me like this is win-win. A Windoze user buys a crappy M$ box and decides that they really want to use OS X. As of now the user would be SOL, but if they only had to spend about $125 for the OS X, then I bet a lot more people would be OS switching like crazy …. which would mean increased sales.
What about an OS X user switching to M$??? That would never happen you say??? Well, hell, even Mac users get sick (and silly); they would buy M$, use it for a few weeks, then come crying back to OS X.
Games Games Games Games Games
O, sorry and Ghost Cast Server
ms visual studio + matlab (doesn’t work on intel cpus yet)
Well, Windows XP is the actual main OS due to statistics and not by its technologic value. Microsoft is in panic trying to make Vista get near the actual OSX. I think, sincerely, that the dual boot is not useful and you will use more OSX than Windows. When a software does not run on OSX it’s a poor developed project and will be dead in less than 10 years (just like Windows). The new tech-reality Apple+Adobe+Intel+Disney is going to change the actual computing reality. If you want games, get a PlayStation and be productive and a challenge leader on your Mac. Windows is for masses. OSX is for the intellectual tech and art elite.
You can install X11 and its apps and make the “so advanced windows server tools” look lika a joke. Real pro UNIX tools. Open your minds. Windows is dying.
I used Windows and our team know its limits. It’s a poor product being promoted by a blind industry looking for market targets and not real solutions for people and companies. Get away of Windows Server and change it to UNIX (there is a lot of free options out there). Besides of much more powerful, it’s much more secure. The Windows jokes: ActiveX, DirectX, Spyware, Viruses, etc. Awake people. Change your intellectual pleasure position to a technologic evolution and get the best results. It’s so nice when you win a stupid tendency and enter a new level. Slow people will have to pay for you then. It’s evolution and free commerce.
Main reason I want MacBook Pro is because it is a powerful machine. I love the machine and all the appz that comes with it. BUT there are SOME appz which i can’t run under mac os x for my work, such as, Websphere MQ. Its just matter of time that almost all appz will be available for both OS.
Why don’t you just get a Sony Vaio? It’s Attractive. It runs Windows Natively. It’s got great media functionality…
and like everything else… it’s cheaper!
Wow people, Apple has delivered us a price-upped, incompatible, forcibly proprietary machine and we’re rejoicing? It’s almost an insult to the x86 specification. So you can run an implementation of BSD, how exciting! Why not dual-boot Windows XP and Ubuntu Linux on a brand new Vaio or Acer or Compaq? They’re made by Quanta, as well. Big deal.
Look at Windows Vista- attractive, functional, and cheap, too! — and they didn’t even have to steal Mach, BSD, and OpenStep to create their OS!
You know, if you don’t like powerpoint you can always try Impress. That certainly runs on Windows. I use StarOffice 8 on whatever machine I’m running. I tend to use Windows 2000, Mac OS X 10.2 (i have an old powerbook), and occasionally Ubuntu Linux.
I’m tired of everyone flipping it out because Apple recently caught up with Linux in technology - they’ve got a long way to go before they’re wetting MS’s heels.
That even solves the gaming problem!
PS - I don’t understand why you can’t produce PDF’s and run emacs in windows… why not admin your server through putty? OS’s are surprisingly transparent, be a wise consumer.
Re: Reasons I need Windows - 3 (Windows File Sharing)
Hi Colin!
I’ve also had problems with my Mac on a Windows domain, because of Mac OS X poorly supporting Windows proxies. However, the issue was completely solved by this little program Authoxy (free):
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/10899
Don’t know if this will help you, but I hope so.
Re: Anyone know of a MS Visio back-and-forth compatible app for OSX?
Try OmniGraffle!
malevolentjelly Says:
“Look at Windows Vista- attractive, functional, and cheap, too! ‚Äî and they didn‚Äôt even have to steal Mach, BSD, and OpenStep to create their OS!”
You are right, they didn’t steal Mach, BSD, or OpenStep. They just sat down with an OSX box and decided what they liked about it and stole it directly. And don’t forget that you can also run extra software on a Windoze machine: Anrivirus software, spyware software, the list goes on. I’ll keep my Macs and avoid Microsoft like the plague.
I’ve successfully run many Windows Systems without spyware or adware support. The primary security issue has always been Internet Explorer and Outlook Express. I would say most of the major security issues have been solved since Windows 2000, and that MS has gelled their OS since XP SP2. The weakest times for windows was pre-2000… when you could run mac and enjoy all the joy of 1980’s computing:
-dismal memory “management”
-awful software support (no unix core yet!)
-non pre-emptive computing
Acting like Windows is still as crappy as Windows 98 is like acting like Mac OS X is an upgrade of OS 9.
Most of the stability OS X offers is merely an effect of the incredible lack of hardware support. If Windows only supported a handful of machines, in total, it would probably run circles around OS X in terms of stability.
–That’s not to mention the incredibly irresponsible behavior of Apple in the way of leaving the last “major” version change incompatible with future software on an almost yearly basis. I’d say you save a lot of money just running a generation of Windows and enjoying about 5 years of direct upgrade support, then a whole computing generation of basic software support.
This idea that Microsoft is robbing OS X is hardly relevant, the OS X gui is very intuitive, but it’s really standing on the shoulders of NeXT — i mean, that’s the OpenStep interface, to a hair, with guifications. And they actually had NeXT’s code to work with, whereas Microsoft is only adapting concepts. I think the “stealing directly” statement is a little mislead.
The only company out there with worse business practices than Microsoft is Apple. If you are trying to make a statement, run Linux.
run VS.net/code C# on a mac !
That’s right superman!
Currently I’m developing .NET apps and I kind of really need Visual Studio 2005. At the same time I want to have this MacBook and use OS X. don’t ask why, I just want it
Here is one, I need a windows machine to boot inside the four walls of most of my clients offices. Often I have to join their messy domains and let them make a hash of the machine itself. I have a choice - dual boot and carry a spare harddrive and live in WinDoz or carry two bleeping machines like I do now.
Which one sounds easier to carry?
Zig.
Counter-Strike is the reason. There’s no port of Havok for MacOS, therefore, there is no Half-Life for MacOS….:/
Worse than that, there’s no effort to bring Havok for MacOS…so titles depending on it, will never reach MacOS platform…sadly
Lets add Visio and MS Publisher….
Choice is freedom. Why would anyone object to giving users another option? If you don’t want to run Windows on a MacBook, then don’t. If you do, great.. wish us both luck!
I’ve been looking for a laptop that’s better looking than my Vaio and also more powerful. MacBook fits the bill. Windows XP/2k3 and OS X are all wonderful OSes and I really look forward to the day that I can use my preferred OS on slick Mac hardware.
Here’s to choice!
I think it would be a great marketing idea. Apple could just sell their machine with either MacOSX or Windows or Both. Someone who doesn’t want to switch to OSX but likes Mac hardware could just get a XP version of the Mac hardware.
For being a new convert to mac…..i have apps that are platform specific that would be very expensive to buy again in os x version…..like Photoshop etc….I must say after having used Bootcamp on my MBP Photoshop runs better than it did on my Win laptop….thought to be fair my MBP is quite a bit better in terms of hardware……that said I am satisfied enough with performance not to want to buy another copy of Photoshop….plus with the win partition in FAT 32 i can easily grab my files into OSX….other than a few apps I am always in OS X which I really like. So to end for those of us who have been win users for years and have apps that we don’t want to buy again being able to have both os’s on one platform is very beneficial and functional. Thanks Apple!
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