Macs and windows

[hollywood]

Question:

I have been given a G4 desktop. Haven't even plugged the thing in. I wanna know if it's at all possible to run WinXP on the Mac. I know I shouldn't be able too, since windows wouldn't know what the heck a PowerPC chip is...but maybe some or one of you have heard of something that would allow this.

If it's not possible I'll just install SUSE Linux or something...Perhaps gut it for a sweet PC case.

[Charles Wirth]

Not possible nor is it possible to run MAC OS on any other platform.

[Smizack]

Originally posted by Hollywood

If it's not possible I'll just install SUSE Linux or something...Perhaps gut it for a sweet PC case.

Yup. And yup!

[hollywood]

Cool...I already gutted the damn thing. Freaking mess in there!!

[hollywood]

Best Avatar EVER!!!! Poor thing can't get the PB off his tounge!!!

[Smizack]

Originally posted by Hollywood
Best Avatar EVER!!!! Poor thing can't get the PB off his tounge!!!

;)

[Mrk200]

It is possible to run windows on a mac. My roomate runs WinXP on his g4 powerbook using a program called VirtualPC by microsoft.

[////\oo/\\\\]

'tis true:)

[serialkiller]

anybody has more details about that virtualPC thing?
Does it slow things down, does it freeze quickly...?

The thing is, my mom needs a computer, and im into distributed computing.... :)
So i figured: why not buy her a good powerpc g4 with 2*1.25Ghz procs in it?
Only problem is that it has to be compatible with most devices she has to use,...

PS. would it be possible to have a network between a few PC's and one mac?

Thx in advance :)

[Charles Wirth]

Yes, got 6.1 this week. It only works on the G4 and G3.

I was planning on using it on the G5 to take super pi records but I have to wait for a patch from Microsoft.

I am sure they will get it working correcly soon as they have put major effort into this release.

You can load Pro or Home version on a G4 and run windows based applications that do not require direct 3d or open GL currently. There might be a few more that dont work but I have not tested much yet. When you start a windows application (solitaire) it will pop up on the dock with the other OSX icons.

So far so good, it is a simple installation of copying a directory to your applications folder and running the file. I suggest running it on a seperate drive for best performance as I have seen it pause fighting for disk access.

Good program and has lots of potential.

With OS X you can network PC's and Macs without any additional software.

Devices on VPC? printers, networks, and external disks work. firewire and usb work.

This is running in emulation, not native so there will be a performance hit.

[serialkiller]

thx a lot for the very valuable info fugger! :)

PS. can a normal 17" or 19" CRT screen be used on a mac?
Looks like the gfx cards are the same as on a PC, but still i would like to be sure ;)

[Charles Wirth]

Yep they sure can, just like any usb mouse or keyboard.

[John Cena]

You can't run Mac platform on Windows platform and vise versa because Mac is using Cisc n-tier while Windows is using Risc n-tier

[st0nedpenguin]

A more important question is, why would you want to?

Slap OSX on there and just look at it for hours, I would...

[Soulburner]

Originally posted by John Cena
You can't run Mac platform on Windows platform and vise versa because Mac is using Cisc n-tier while Windows is using Risc n-tier
Isn't it the other way around?

I thought MACs were RISC based?

[Assasin-uk]

im no authority on this but..

We run Virtual pc on 5 out of 5 of our macs here as a backup..

In my experience VPC makes the mac run real SLOW..

To give an example on one of my G4's with a gig of ram running seti it took longer than one of my P166 intels with 128mb of ram!!

Shame as it was a good idea.. :D

[apathy^2]

i heard macs with l00nix aren't too bad, maybe teach yourself gentoo or slack on it.

[DaveX]

Originally posted by Soulburner
Isn't it the other way around?

I thought MACs were RISC based?

Yeah, PowerPC are RISC chips.

[Chris_F]

Yeah. PCs are x86 and MACs are PPC. You need an emulator like Virtual PC to run windows apps on a MAC.

[boshi]

I find it sad that the only topic in this forum is about a guy who got a mac he didnt want... :(

[craig588]

I find it funny. Macs just arnt extreme.

[scrible88]

Did you really gut it. That's horrible because I am a hardcore mac user as much as I am a pc user.

How much $ would you be willing to sell the mac parts for? What specs? PM me.

[boshi]

ditto

[asterix]

This sure is a thread revival, but it IS possible to run Mac OS X on any x86 system with the use of an emulator. Although, it runs xtremely slow.

[eddieate]

virtual pc isint an operating system its just an app you can use to run your x86 programes in.
you can install Mac OSX on an x86 system but it takes huge ammounts of buggering around, some guys did it here on an xbox http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~ranma1/mac_install.html

dunno how fast it ran though
Ed

[angrysquirrel]

virtual pc isint an operating system its just an app you can use to run your x86 programes in.

Thats only half-true, it's not an operating system but it's not as simple as just running your x86 apps in it. You need to install an x86 os (dos, windows, os/2, solaris, linux, beos, netbsd, ect) to a drive image and then run your apps within that os. It's like the consumer version of VMware.

BTW: Does anyone have a cpu-z screenie from within virtual pc?

[Charles Wirth]

BTW: Does anyone have a cpu-z screenie from within virtual pc?

I do, I need to find it in the database.

[masterofpuppets]

I took a screenie of CPU-z running in WIn2k3 under VMWare on Linux. It worked pretty much fine, except alot of info was missing. It detected clock speed, FSB, cpu name, cpu core (although, it said Northwood instead of Gallatin), other info was missing. The RAM tab did nothing, except report the amount of RAM. I could upload it if anyone wants.

[i found nemo]

yea upload it, all of the tabs if you could

[(sin)morpheus]

I don't see why it would be very hard to get OSX running on a pc. Afterall, OSX is based on unix isn't it?

[angrysquirrel]

I don't see why it would be very hard to get OSX running on a pc. Afterall, OSX is based on unix isn't it?

It's unix for ppc not x86. So you could run it on a pc if you could find an emulator for pcc, but it would run like crap.

[masterofpuppets]

You can actually get a ppc emulator called PearPC. And, it runs OSX pretty much flawlessly too.

[NoYd]

PearPC doesn't run flawlessly by any means, it runs about 1 percent of the speed of a actual g5 running osx. :rolleyes:

[(sin)morpheus]

Since it's unix, couldn't you just modify the kernel so that it has x86 support like you would with linux?

[GoodOmens]

No because the processor doesnt have x86 instructions on it. It has to emulate them like it does in VPC.

[masterofpuppets]

When you enable x86 support, it only means it works on an x86. And as different architectures need alot different code (some of the kernel is architecture generic), it's useless since Apple only develop for PowerPC.

[angrysquirrel]

Don't forget that the source isn't open to the public, either.