Dream Team

Uncle Dave

MacBook Pro and Parallels Desktop. After some intial teething
troubles I've settled down and really love my Mac though I use it as a
desktop - it hardly ever travels.

Since I bought it in August last year I've really used it as a kind of
GUI for Windows. I hate iTunes (I've used it for years on and off and
do nothing but argue with it) and only used iPhoto for the first time
last week. This is sacrilege to Mac purists I know, but I find iLife
looks and feels like kiddy software and does some really annoying
things because it assumes you're an idiot (which of course you know I
am from the mini CD thread). So while I made sure the other apps were
working, I already had my favourite programs for Windows for ripping,
publishing, etc. I've only really used the browser (changed over to
Firefox because Safari is actually the crappiest browser in the world
Apple, not the best) and a few utilities, oh and Mac Office ;-)

If Apple were to bundle Parallels and XP with their machines they
would take over the world, rather than saying the Mac is the fastest
Vista machine around. Why would you want to use it like that? You'd
just have a slightly faster (hardly noticeable is it) laptop with a
funny keyboard. Parallels actually gives you an added advantage which
you don't have when you run the OS direct - instead of having to power
off you simply suspend the VM. With the (comparatively) incredible
reliability of Mac OS and the ability to just open and close your
desktop in the state you want in seconds it's the best PC I've had. I
guess the new function in Leopard of virtual desktops (forget what
they call it) is similar but there's a lot more software for Windows
and it's cheaper and support is easier to find. I guess you could do
it the other way around using a VM, but there's no obvious reason why
you would want to run Mac apps on a PC and certainly no market for it.

Anyone else out there about to own up to ill-treating their Mac in
this way?

UD

Rexx Magnus

On Thu, 06 Dec 2007 21:38:43 GMT, Uncle Dave wrote:

> MacBook Pro and Parallels Desktop. After some intial teething
> troubles I've settled down and really love my Mac though I use it
> as a desktop - it hardly ever travels.
>
> Since I bought it in August last year I've really used it as a
> kind of GUI for Windows. I hate iTunes (I've used it for years on
> and off and do nothing but argue with it) and only used iPhoto for
> the first time last week. This is sacrilege to Mac purists I know,
> but I find iLife looks and feels like kiddy software and does some
> really annoying things because it assumes you're an idiot (which
> of course you know I am from the mini CD thread).

This ensures the Mac's bundled software is easy to use, and
therefore attracts new computer users. It's totally intentional, but
also means that the software does what it's meant to do very well.

> So while I made
> sure the other apps were working, I already had my favourite
> programs for Windows for ripping, publishing, etc. I've only
> really used the browser (changed over to Firefox because Safari is
> actually the crappiest browser in the world Apple, not the best)
> and a few utilities, oh and Mac Office ;-)
>

Safari is the best browser in that it conforms to the WWW standards
that most other browsers don't manage to reach - however it needs a
few plugins to make it run really well. I use Opera for certain
things instead of Safari, but Opera won't allow you to upload photos
to ebay, for example, whilst Safari does.

> If Apple were to bundle Parallels and XP with their machines they
> would take over the world, rather than saying the Mac is the
> fastest Vista machine around. Why would you want to use it like
> that? You'd just have a slightly faster (hardly noticeable is it)
> laptop with a funny keyboard. Parallels actually gives you an
> added advantage which you don't have when you run the OS direct -
> instead of having to power off you simply suspend the VM. With
> the (comparatively) incredible reliability of Mac OS and the
> ability to just open and close your desktop in the state you want
> in seconds it's the best PC I've had.

Thing is, windows isn't as reliable as Mac OS X - so running windows
in a box on OS X isn't actually making windows more reliable,
neither is booting into windows using bootcamp. It's not the
hardware that makes the OS reliable. You use the Mac side to do
stuff that it does best, and the windows side for things you can't
(yet) get under OS X.

I find myself using windows far less, since I realize that most of
the things that I've done on windows exclusively have been largely
unnecessary. The main reason for keeping windows was for work
purposes (and for a few hardware related things and games) - but I
hardly use 3d studio since I have started using Blender, which is
available on all platforms.

> I guess the new function in
> Leopard of virtual desktops (forget what they call it) is similar
> but there's a lot more software for Windows and it's cheaper and
> support is easier to find. I guess you could do it the other way
> around using a VM, but there's no obvious reason why you would
> want to run Mac apps on a PC and certainly no market for it.
>
> Anyone else out there about to own up to ill-treating their Mac in
> this way?
>
> UD

Of course, if Apple shipped their computers with parallels and
windows, there would be no incentive to write OS X software, so with
no software to support it, OS X would be redundant - see the faulty
logic?

I don't use iPhoto (yet) to organize my photos, and only use iTunes
to play my music, rather than keep it organized. I do everything
with folders, as I did on windows - but this is just to keep it
software/platform agnostic. If iPhoto allowed me to organize my
pictures without making aliases for every photo (as it does if you
don't import the library and allow it to manage the files itself)
I'd use it.


--
http://www.rexx.co.uk
To email me, visit the site.

http://www.rexx.co.uk/runes/ - personal online rune readings

Hugh Browton

On Fri, 7 Dec 2007 09:21:31 +0000, Darren Griffin wrote
(in article <200712070921318930-usenet@griffinnetcouk>):

> On 2007-12-06 21:38:43 +0000, Uncle Dave <davidcovey@t-online.de> said:
>
>> If Apple were to bundle Parallels and XP with their machines they
>> would take over the world, rather than saying the Mac is the fastest
>> Vista machine around.
>
> I moved to a MacBook nearly two years ago. Primarily I needed some Mac
> experience as I was running an IT Consultancy back then and some
> clients had Macs in a Windows network.
>
> So I bought the MacBook, installed BootCamp and Parallels and though i
> could dip into Mac on the odd occasion as needed. It didn't take long
> before I was spending less and less time in Windows and after a month I
> only ever ventured there when I absolutely had to. OS X was a breath
> of fresh air after supporting Windows PC's and Servers for many years.
>
> I no longer own a PC of any sort, the entire family are Mac converts.
> I stuck with Firefox for a long time as it was familar to mee but
> eventually sampled Safari and now use that. Much faster than Firefox
> and more reliable. Also recently expunged Entourage and Word/Excel!
>

Well done that man!

--
regards
hugh
hugh at clarity point uk point co
(by the sea) (using Hogwasher)

You never can truly tell when you have run out of invisible ink.

Darren Griffin

On 2007-12-06 21:38:43 +0000, Uncle Dave <davidcovey@t-online.de> said:

> If Apple were to bundle Parallels and XP with their machines they
> would take over the world, rather than saying the Mac is the fastest
> Vista machine around.

I moved to a MacBook nearly two years ago. Primarily I needed some Mac
experience as I was running an IT Consultancy back then and some
clients had Macs in a Windows network.

So I bought the MacBook, installed BootCamp and Parallels and though i
could dip into Mac on the odd occasion as needed. It didn't take long
before I was spending less and less time in Windows and after a month I
only ever ventured there when I absolutely had to. OS X was a breath
of fresh air after supporting Windows PC's and Servers for many years.

I no longer own a PC of any sort, the entire family are Mac converts.
I stuck with Firefox for a long time as it was familar to mee but
eventually sampled Safari and now use that. Much faster than Firefox
and more reliable. Also recently expunged Entourage and Word/Excel!

Uncle Dave

On 6 Dec, 23:42, Rexx Magnus <trash...@uk2.net> wrote:

<snip>
>
> Thing is, windows isn't as reliable as Mac OS X - so running windows
> in a box on OS X isn't actually making windows more reliable,
> neither is booting into windows using bootcamp. It's not the
> hardware that makes the OS reliable. You use the Mac side to do
> stuff that it does best, and the windows side for things you can't
> (yet) get under OS X.

Well that's the great thing - I also have a PC but hardly use it now
because the VM is much more reliable and accessible. Installing
Windows in a VM is much easier than on a PC because the tool does all
the hard work for you.

<snip>

> Of course, if Apple shipped their computers with parallels and
> windows, there would be no incentive to write OS X software, so with
> no software to support it, OS X would be redundant - see the faulty
> logic?

Sorry, I didn't mean as standard but as an option. I haven't used
bootcamp because it doesn't give me anything I need whereas the VM
approach does. I think it's great.

UD

Hugh Browton

On Fri, 7 Dec 2007 09:21:31 +0000, Darren Griffin wrote
(in article <200712070921318930-usenet@griffinnetcouk>):

> On 2007-12-06 21:38:43 +0000, Uncle Dave <davidcovey@t-online.de> said:
>
>> If Apple were to bundle Parallels and XP with their machines they
>> would take over the world, rather than saying the Mac is the fastest
>> Vista machine around.
>
> I moved to a MacBook nearly two years ago. Primarily I needed some Mac
> experience as I was running an IT Consultancy back then and some
> clients had Macs in a Windows network.
>
> So I bought the MacBook, installed BootCamp and Parallels and though i
> could dip into Mac on the odd occasion as needed. It didn't take long
> before I was spending less and less time in Windows and after a month I
> only ever ventured there when I absolutely had to. OS X was a breath
> of fresh air after supporting Windows PC's and Servers for many years.
>
> I no longer own a PC of any sort, the entire family are Mac converts.
> I stuck with Firefox for a long time as it was familar to mee but
> eventually sampled Safari and now use that. Much faster than Firefox
> and more reliable. Also recently expunged Entourage and Word/Excel!
>

Well done that man!

--
regards
hugh
hugh at clarity point uk point co
(by the sea) (using Hogwasher)

You never can truly tell when you have run out of invisible ink.