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Moving to Mac Made Easy
Jaguar777 writes "According to an article on CNET, Apple has a new weapon in its campaign to woo PC users: a $59 piece of software that makes the switch to Macintosh easier.
Detto Technologies has started selling Move2Mac, a combination of software and a custom USB cable that helps PC users move many of their files, settings and even background pictures to a new Mac running Mac OS X 10.2. Sounds nice. Is there anything like this in the works for the penguin masses?" Detto has had software to move settings from one PC to another; Apple requested them to make it to move from a PC to a Mac, and will carry it in their retail stores.
This great new Mov2Mack-product not only transfers all your data into the Mac, it also transfers the whole look and feel of the Windoors environment you have used to.
This great new Mov2Mack installs a Freeze2Mack-app that by random freezes your new Mack computer three times a day, and gives you a blue screen at least twice a week. But not only this, you also get a free bonus Viral2Mack-app that simulates the behavior of most commonly known viruses on the Windoors environment. It sends all your most private documents to every email fount on your Mack.
Buy now, and get also free can of beige paint to spray your Mack to that color you have accustomed to...
If all else fails, pull the plug and get out...
The Life is out there...
Well, the PowerMacs are the same thing as any other PC, except the firmware and processor. If you look at a PowerMac motherboard, you'll see a bunch of chips by National Semiconducters, Opti (RIP), C&T (RIP?), Winbond, etc. My 450 MHz Blue & White PowerMac has a 64 bit PCI bus, with three PCI slots. There's also a 66 MHz PCI slot, but that's just a cheap attempt to get around the lack of an AGP slot. Of course, newer PowerMacs do have AGP slots. The firmware is kind of cool to play around with, because it's the same thing (OpenFirmware) that Sun uses in their Sparcs. It's based around Forth, a design choice I'm not sure I agree with...
The problem here is that OpenFirmware needs to know how to initialize your PCI card. If it can do that, there's a slight chance you'll be able to use it with your PowerMac. The next problem you will face is getting a driver. A lot of Mac hardware out there still doesn't even support Mac OS X. The chances of you being able to locate a driver for some generic piece of hardware is pretty slim.
You can basically forget about stuff like your Soundblaster Audigy Platinum, which cost $200. Also, forget about your Matrox Parhelia, which is $300. LSI Logic doesn't support the Mac, either. That means you need to buy an overpriced Adaptec SCSI card (or a Qlogic card, if you can find one in the U.S.). Bleh. Nvidia video cards will probably work fine, though. You'll need to flash the video card's firmware with the Mac version, though. You can do this from any PC running Windows. Good luck trying to find a PowerMac that doesn't come with generic off-the-shelf hardware marked up 200% by Apple, though. Have you ever seen how much they charge for a generic stick of RAM or a low-end hard drive? It's sickening. I could buy a SCSI hard drive for the prices Apple wants for their IDE drives.
Trying to put anything new in a PowerMac is always a gamble, at best. The best thing to do is stick with the original hardware that was installed by Apple. Upgrading or modifying a PowerMac is not for the easily frustrated. There are entire websites out there dedicated to rating hardware for Mac compatibility. The fact that you can't use a Plextor SCSI CD-ROM in a Mac blows my mind. WTF? Oh well. Nobody ever said Macs were the best choice for power users.
I'd definitely recommend staying with x86 if you are a power user. Leave the Mac for the artists and people who are confused by a mouse with two buttons.
isn't it so?
:)
:)
I know I am; you know exactly what your software does, and how to "fiddle" with it. Add if it doesn't, you just add that "thing" too it to behave as YOU want.
From this post, to opperate closedSource (apple os x, $ms WinBlow...etc etc), you need to spend more $$$ just so you can save all your precious settings for the next update/upgarde/new system. I get the feeling that maybe they try and hide most of the settings&stuff so that plain users rather go out and buy "their software that will do that", instead of sitting down and learing how to opporate in their maze of a software. Were they give you that "it's for your own saftey"--reason of an answer.
And from were I stand, this is just the tip of the iceberg, for how much more $$$'s you would have to spend extra to accomplish what Openness does.
I've got to admit, Linux/Unix's was a somewhat of a hard-nutt to crack, but the peace of mind I got out of it was well worth it (no more BSOD, "can't do this, insert more money into cdrwdrive"-stuff). It's like learing Physics or Chemestry or Mathemathics; you have to learn the rules once, and then your set, you just apply them over and over and over again.
Why not MAC(or yet)? Well, I like challanges, mac is like 4:th grade math. How challenging is that? You've got your predefinde lego bits, and that's (almost) it. I like to build my own "lego art", and MAC doesn't yet have that sort of a broad/open offering in hardware. Even though I've got to admit those PowerBooks are&look great. And if I know myself, I will proabably buy one far far way into the future; AND install Uni*'s on it
[Footnote] - I'm not saying "go over and use Linux/Unix or OpenSource", just givening you my oppinion of why people (thats me) use it
I don't claim I know more than I know, and if you know you know more than I know, then by all means, let me know.
Um, hello? This article is about connecting PC's to MACS! Why on earth would you want to transfer PC programs to your mac...where they wouldn't run.
The reason this cable doesn't transfer programs PC to PC is because Windows programs are inexorably tied to the registry and nearly IMPOSSIBLE to transplant (an easy matter of drag and drop on the mac). This is why windows has arcane uninstall procedures, instead of just deleting the damn thing.
I'm just curious. Would you fight Mac the same way you do with M$ if Mac were to use illegal means once it gets to the top?
Now,I let you all think about this question...