Are there any Mac users here. Can you please tell me if Mac is any good. Im not talking about the full Mac computers, Im just talking about the OS.

Is it possible to buy Mac OS X Panther and install it as the default OS on a normal PC? For example, can I format my currect Windows PC and install Mac OS X Panther on it instead?

Why would I want to do this, I hear you ask. Well, some meetings were held at work and the conclusion I got from these meetings was that we might be required to become Mac users !!!

Hi Jen

Sorry to let you know Mac OS X (v10) will not run on PC. I work with a few people that use Macs & it is a nightmare to get files transfered - share work - do anything normal between the 2 OSs.

The best right now is you can emmulate up to MacOS v8.1, MacOSv9 & v10 are just too incompatible at this point.

You'll need the real thing to work with OSX

There is rumoured to be a version of Mac OS X running on Intel hardware, deep inside Apple. I guess it will see the light of day when Microsoft officially trashes Office for the Mac, then Apple might consider "freezing over hell", just like they did with iTunes for Windows.

The core of Mac OS X, in the form of Darwin, does run on PCs. You just don't have that translucent Aqua interface or the other Apple stuff....just a UNIX box

I agree, it should be relatively easy for Apple to release an x86 version of Mac OS X. However, TwoJ is right, there is no x86 based Mac OS X at this stage. I would definately consider dual booting with Mac OS X and Windows XP if there was an x86 version though.

It cant be emulated!

Not even on Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 ?

Nope, VPC can't emulate the PowerPC hardware.

A while back some people at Apple came up with a way to run MacOS on PC hardware, but it got killed by upper management. By a while back, I mean like more than ten years.

The unbelievable thing is that Aqua is made using OpenGL. It shouldn't be too hard to port it to pc.

Really? That's quite funny, actually.



It sounds like it might have been a 68000 series emulator then, rather than a PowerPC emulator. 68000 series emulators on x86 aren't that tough, not that I could write one These guys sell one that reputedly works extremely well provided you have their ISA card and the appropriate Mac or Atari ROM.
PPC seems like it would be rather tough to emulate on x86 with any efficiency in my understanding, given the more limited number of registers in the latter architecture.
Possibly a Transmeta chip could emulate them both

For those interested in the secret Apple version of Mac OS X for Intel hardware, the codename is 'Marklar'

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,496270,00.asp

rjamorim is correct. VPC (even the Mac version) emulates Intel-based hardware, so It cannot run any version of MacOS... For now... MMMUUUAAAA HAAA HAAAAAAAAA...



Don't fear the Mac!!! It will be OK!!!



Most file transfer problems can simply be solved by making sure the Mac user adds a file extension to the document they want to share with PC users. For example, an MS Word document on the Mac will have no file extension. In the Save dialog there is a check box that makes Word automatically add the ".doc" extension. There is no other difference in the way Word for Mac and Word for Windows saves files. Once the file has the extension on it the PC can easily recognize the file and open it.

This is the case with most major applications from Adobe, Macromedia, Microsoft, etc. That leaves fonts as the only other source of conflict. If the Mac and PC user have the same fonts there should not be much problem sharing files.

There has been at least one massive feature enhancement:

the chessprogram that ships with it now uses my engine

Nice. Did they pay you or are they ripping you off?

They didn't pay, but opensourced their interface, which was fine by the license.

i think it is some sort of PDF display technologie ... Quartz or something ... love macs ... love powerPC

Yes. The contents of the windows are defined using the PDF. The windows are drawn to screen using OpenGL.
http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/quartzextreme/

Sorry about the lame question, but how about the other way? Running Windows in a Mac? Is it possible, or Microsoft doesn't support the PowerPC Processor?

Yes, there are/were windows emulators for the Mac.

And without emulation? Why isn't it possible to install Windows or Linux on a Mac box?

Windows was developed for Intel-compatible hardware only. Back in the good old days of Windows NT, it used to be able to run on IBM PowerPC and MIPS platforms but not anymore.

On the other hand, there are a couple of Linux distros for the Mac. There is PPC-specific stuff in the Linux kernel so Mac is supported.

It's a processor issue, then. Thanks for the info, QuantumKnot

Not really. There are Windows versions for Itanium and AMD64 for example. The NT kernel still seems to be quite portable.

I did say Intel-compatible.

Originally NT ran on Alpha and so as well, and I don't doubt MS could port it over if they wanted to.

Also, calling AMD64 'Intel compatible' is perverted. It's more like IA32e that's 'AMD64' compatible

That would have been quite a remarkable system to have, a desktop Alpha (they did exist, and were the first "true 64 bit desktop computers" I suppose) running NT4.
Was that build even released to the public though?



For anyone who's curious, there's an interesting series of postings at the linux-kernel archive. The differences between IA-32e and AMD64 look to be pretty small to me, with Intel not supporting a couple of features at this time. Since AMD64 was unveiled long before Intel would even admit that 64bit ISA extensions were even useful, it's clear who's copying who this time around.

edit: Here's a more readily understandable interpretation by micro report.

Oh, I never doubted the NT kernel's portability. It is after all a microkernel and their supposed advantages was portability. I mean, we've seen in the past, ports for SGI MIPS and IBM PowerPC as well which are another Universe compared with Intel/AMD compatible (yes I added that just in case ) processors.

But the present fact is that the latest generation of NT-based Windows OSs do not run on MIPS, PowerPC, and Alpha's anymore because Microsoft made that decision. But I use the word 'Intel-compatible' in a broad sense, much like how we have 'IBM-compatible' stuff.

On an unrelated sidepoint (I guess all of this is unrelated to Mac OS X Panther lol), NT used to be OS/2 compatible as well. Am I correct in believing that that's been or is close to being deprecated and unusable as well? Not that anyone uses OS/2 nowadays anyway.