Your PC software will not run on a Mac - PERIOD. PC software will
run on an Apple made computer if you have installed Windows on it but
the Mac OS runs software written to run in the Mac operating system.
If your core need is to run specialty Windows software then don't
bother buying a Mac. Using a Mac for general purpose computing such
as email, web browsing and word processing, all the little details of
life I find to work much better on a Mac but I too have PC only
software that is mission critical and for that I restart the Mac into
Windows XP and the computer simply becomes a very high end Windows
laptop. There are options for running Windows while the computer is
still booted in the Mac OS but if you run software that must have
real time network access ( not just web access ) then you may find
that not all Windows software will work in that environment.
This advice comes from a member of the listserv that holds Macs in
very high regard considers Windows as a sometimes unavoidable nuisance.
On May 28, 2009, at 9:44 PM, COMPUTERGUYS-L automatic digest system
wrote:
Robert Carroll <carrollcompu...@gmail.com>
Date: May 28, 2009 9:13:30 PM EDT
Subject: Re: Mac or PC laptop?
I take it that you are voting for my buying a PC laptop.
Why, you ask? Many reasons, here's a few why.
The reason for considering buying a Mac is the high regard that
members of this listserv hold for the Mac. It seems that the OS is
claimed here to be superior to that of a PC, as well as the Mac
hardware.
For the software:
My work gives me free software for PC, none for Mac. If I buy the
software for Mac, I must pay for it myself.
Example (one of many): Matlab, with 13 toolboxes. Unfortunately,
the Matlab web site doesn't list prices, but I estimate that the
packages would cost around $1,000 to $2,000.
There are quite a few other mathematical or scientific packages
that are free to me for PC but for which I would have to pay for
myself to get the Mac version.
There are a number of other, more mundane, reasons: for example,
just this week I upgraded to a version of a music notation program
that is available only for PC. What music notation program is
available for a Mac, and how much will I have to pay? It is the
cost of switching many professional-quality programs to a Mac
version that is a reason to avoid the Mac if it can't execute PC
programs satisfactorily.
Thus, my question: can a Mac run PC programs well enough to make a
Mac laptop a desirable choice, or is there no reason to prefer a
Mac laptop over a PC laptop?
Please note that I am not a PC or Mac partisan. I've never owned a
laptop nor a Mac, so I have no opinion at all about the differences
between the PC and the Mac until I have tried both at some length.
E. Riley Casey
Entertainment Sound Production
2311 Kansas Ave.
Silver Spring MD
www.ESPsound.com
301-608-2180 office phone
301-608-0789 fax
301-440-2923 shoe phone
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