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Questions from a potential XP convert

E

Element 92

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 22, 2003
4
0
I am looking to (maybe) make the switch over to Mac from an XP computer.

I heard from a friend that Macs (at least the newer ones) are compatible with XP, like in sharing an internet connection. Is this true?

Also, from seeing your "mac web development" forum, I suppose you can also install PHP/MySQL/Apache on a Mac?

Oh, and, being a gamer (though my focus is shifting), about how many games are out on Mac? :D

Thanks!
 
Re: Questions from a potential XP convert

Originally posted by Element 92
I am looking to (maybe) make the switch over to MAC from an XP computer.

I heard from a friend that MACs (at least the newer ones) are compatible with XP, like in sharing an internet connection. Is this true?

Also, from seeing your "mac web development" forum, I suppose you can also install PHP/MySQL/Apache on a MAC?

Oh, and, being a gamer (though my focus is shifting), about how many games are out on MAC? :D

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Well before somebody else has go at you, it's Mac not MAC. About your questions, I hook up my Mac to friend's pcs share the internet and play some games with them. A lot of games are out for mac: http://www.insidemacgames.com
 
Re: Questions from a potential XP convert

Originally posted by Element 92
I am looking to (maybe) make the switch over to MAC from an XP computer.

I heard from a friend that MACs (at least the newer ones) are compatible with XP, like in sharing an internet connection. Is this true?

Also, from seeing your "mac web development" forum, I suppose you can also install PHP/MySQL/Apache on a MAC?

Oh, and, being a gamer (though my focus is shifting), about how many games are out on MAC? :D

Thanks!
Click to expand...
My Mac laptop plays nice with my XP desktop. They are sharing an internet connection and a printer wirelessly right now. I can't answer your other questions, but I'm sure the others here will.
 
Re: Questions from a potential XP convert

Originally posted by Element 92
I am looking to (maybe) make the switch over to MAC from an XP computer.

I heard from a friend that MACs (at least the newer ones) are compatible with XP, like in sharing an internet connection. Is this true?

Also, from seeing your "mac web development" forum, I suppose you can also install PHP/MySQL/Apache on a MAC?

Oh, and, being a gamer (though my focus is shifting), about how many games are out on MAC? :D

Thanks!
Click to expand...

sharing an internet connection was not a problem under 8.6 and windows 98 - around the time my friend and i switched to mac.

For web-development ... think - anything that runs on UNIX - OS 10 is basically FreeBSD
 
Re: Questions from a potential XP convert

Originally posted by Element 92
Also, from seeing your "mac web development" forum, I suppose you can also install PHP/MySQL/Apache on a Mac?
Click to expand...


Apache and its PHP module are included with Mac OS X.

MySQL is relatively easy to install using packages from Marc Liyanage.
 
I switched from XP about a year ago, and couldn't be happier. Macs communicate with Windows flawlessly. I don't know about PHP, but Apache is installed by default and can be enabled in 3 clicks :) MySQL is available, although I haven't tried it.

As for games, most of the big ones are available on the Mac. You occasionally come across Windows games that haven't been ported, but this situation is occurring less and less these days.

While I'm on the topic of games, I'll just take a moment to spam, er, advertise, my Half-Life 2 petition. :)
 
Much the same

As what these guys have said had a Mac for 7 months now. i have an xp system and found that everything works better with a mac than it dose with windows. games wise as long as you get a new system you will be flying along nicely

like the other guys have said apache is installed already and theres a load of other things like. exspose and free apps like iPhoto iMovie iDVD etc basicly everything you will ever need for your entertaiment

as for working with windows all i did was plug in the network cables switch on both systems and away i went. net sharing works sharing files across a network works fine and printing from mac to windows works fine ..

enjoy the swtich i know i did and do
 
Wow I guess the only thing I have to wait for is the money :p

Anybody want to recommend a good Mac for someone like me? Something that still has some nice power to it :) I have heard about the G5, but I also heard that the G4 (is there a G4?) is almost just as good as it....I'm probably wrong, I don't remember it much.
 
element, if you could, post your pc's configuration. That way we can help you pick out a comparable or faster mac.

I have the slowest mac money can buy (emac 700mhz G4, 32 mb geforce mx2, 640 mg ram, 40 gig) and I absolutely love it. I would take my "pegasus" over a pentium 3.2 with an ati 9800 anyday. But my main factor is not speed. After all, a computer is only as fast as the person using it. I promise you that after 1 month you'll be able to do the same task MUCH faster on any mac running panther than any XP machine. Except for locking up, the pc still does that MUCH faster.
 
Mac's and PC's play well together as far as networking goes, I've had my Mac go through my XP using ICS to dial up(unsurprisingly the modem wouldn't autodial when it detected the Mac trying to get on the internet, thanks MS!) And I currently have an Airport network setup which works just as well, better infact since the Airport base station will dial whenever ANY computer wants out, not just apple branded computers.

Sharing is cake, all you have to do is click one checkbox to get windows sharing from a Mac and Mac's can connect to Windows by using the built in SMB.

Web Development is great also, as already stated it comes with Apache already installed. If you goto www.serverlogistics.com and look on the sidebar for downloads they have packages to install MySQL, PHP, Tomcat etc. You can even get Coldfusion to run on Tomcat without too much trouble. All of Macromedia's tools work on Mac so thats covered.

As far as games, I guess it depends on what games you like and how picky you are. Most new FPS games are/will be available for it. Pretty much anything made by Blizzard, etc. The game situation is getting better for Mac as time goes on.
 
Originally posted by kuyu
element, if you could, post your pc's configuration. That way we can help you pick out a comparable or faster mac.

I have the slowest mac money can buy (emac 700mhz G4, 32 mb geforce mx2, 640 mg ram, 40 gig) and I absolutely love it. I would take my "pegasus" over a pentium 3.2 with an ati 9800 anyday. But my main factor is not speed. After all, a computer is only as fast as the person using it. I promise you that after 1 month you'll be able to do the same task MUCH faster on any mac running panther than any XP machine. Except for locking up, the pc still does that MUCH faster.
Click to expand...

Athlon XP 1.67 Ghz
GeForce Ti 4200
512 DDR-333 RAM
Gigabyte 7-VRX mobo
60 gig 7200 RPM HD
 
You could go Powerbook. :)

Anyway, I am on a Tibook at the moment on a wireless adhoc network between me and the PC, using dialup of all things. So it's pretty good with a PC.

Good Web Dev, though I haven't used it.

Game wise, check out Aspyr or Macsoftgames. Then there's ID software and Blizzard. Don't expect many EA Sports, Rockstar, or Valve games though.
 
I have 2.4 Athlon AMD w/ 512 and an ATI 9700 Pro.

My 5 year old Mac a 350 G4 runs OS X just as fast as my PC runs XP.

To answer you questions:
There are G3's, G4's and now G5's.

G3's are a few years old and slow compared to the g4's and g5's, so don't even look at a used G3 on ebay.

There are many versions of the G4 that can be found at www.apple.com or used.

The number before or after g3, g4, g5 is the speed like my mac (350 g4) that's a 350 mhz prosessor. You might think thats VERY slow compared to the speed of Intels and AMDs but it's on a different scale.

If your on a buget the lowest model G5 is SUPER fast compared to a Athlon 1.7. If you don't have the money for a G5. Look on ebay or on online Apple sellers for "G4 Tower" They are very nice also, you can get them in Dual prosessor configs and loaded with ram, DVD/CD burner, just like a PC. Also take alook at the imacs and emacs. Both great machines and faster then your current PC.

You could also put your 60 gig in your new mac for extra storage. Just an idea if you get a desktop.

If you want a laptop the ibook's and powerbooks are great and faster than your PC.

Your screen you use now will work fine with your a mac. So will any non PS2 mouse or keyboard. Macs don't have PS2 ports. You could always get an adapter though.

You will have to look at www.apple.com for what computer and setup you would like and don't let the computer speeds fool you. :D

My PC and mac work great together, I use a router or hub. OS X (the newest and best apple operating system) has great networking options, share printer, share network (if you only have one IP), and file sharing between mac and pc works great too.

There is a long list of mac games. And normaly the mac version is released a few months after the PC version.

You can also get "Virtual PC for Mac, it allows you to run windows XP on your mac. You can run any program, kazza or whatever you want.

You will be amazed at how easy, fast, and stable OS X and Macs are to use!
 
-All

And before we star nitpicking coopdog's comments, let all sit quietly, say koom-bai-ya, weave a wicker basket, then nod with agreement on the general spirit of what he said.
 
Ideally everything coopdog said was true, but, sadly, some of it doesn't hold water. I don't know how fast an AMD 1.7 is, but I have a 1 Ghz TiBook and although it handles day-to-day tasks quite well, its atrociously slow for games. I played the UT2003 demo on low graphics settings and it was skipping around and such, might have been the video card, though.

Macs are truly great machines, but one thing my powerbook has taught me is that speed is a relative term. Games are simply not as good, which is why many will tell you never to buy a Mac for games. What you should buy a Mac for is stability. I don't care how many windows users will tell you XP is stable, it has nothing on OS X.

If you're really good with computers, you can probably get an XP machine to run flawlessly, but sooner or later you'll get sick of constantly tweaking things and bad things will start to happen. I never thought I'd switch over, as I had no trouble keeping my win2k box running smoothly for years, but as soon as I made the switch two things happened. First, I forgot what it was to "tweak" or "fix" and second, my family forgot what it was to have a functioning computer as the 2k box was destroyed by virus after virus.

If you want to play games buy a console, or put together a windows gaming box. If you buy a Mac it won't take a long time for you to realize that they're the only computers that make life more productive and not less. They're wonderful machines and as soon as you get used to the X being on the left side of the window you'll love the OS.
 
Originally posted by patrick0brien
-All

And before we star nitpicking coopdog's comments, let all sit quietly, say koom-bai-ya, weave a wicker basket, then nod with agreement on the general spirit of what he said.
Click to expand...

the old

"you know how this crowd is, say something wrong and they jump on you like a pack of dogs on a three legged dog"

-PhilaMac

or i recall he said something of that nature .. .LOL
 
Originally posted by revenuee
the old

"you know how this crowd is, say something wrong and they jump on you like a pack of dogs on a three legged dog"

-PhilaMac

or i recall he said something of that nature .. .LOL
Click to expand...

-revenuee

Actually, I said that ;). Phil of Mac asked me if he could quote me. And for posterity:

"You know how this crowd is, say something wrong, or leave out a detail, and they jump on you like a pack of dogs on a three legged cat"
 
Originally posted by patrick0brien
-revenuee

Actually, I said that ;). Phil of Mac asked me if he could quote me. And for posterity:

"You know how this crowd is, say something wrong, or leave out a detail, and they jump on you like a pack of dogs on a three legged cat"
Click to expand...

My apologies Pat ...
 
Originally posted by revenuee
My apologies Pat ...
Click to expand...

-revenuee

Oh, no! I took no offense. Actually, it's quite nice to have something quoted back to me.

And I had to eat my own dog-food;) there and jump on that quote :D like a...

Ok, time for bed. Way too many lines of VM code today.
 
I'd personally recommend either the G4 1.42's or the dual 1.8 G5's.

I mean, if he's gonna make a jump, I'd make a significant one while he's at it.

Anything less than that, he's going to physically see a difference in gameplay.

Take like UT2k3 or Warcraft3 (2 mainstream games). The 2000+ (1.67Ghz) AMD manages decent fps, even with only 133sb, don't even consider anything less than the 1.25 or 1.42 G4.

Some old review sites rank the 2000+ slightly above the 2.2Ghz P4 northwoods, for an overall "mhz" standpoint (that's 1.67ghz vs. 2.2 folks)

And since he has a 4200, he is coming from considerably high expectations (please no iMac or E Mac considerations AT ALL--only Power Mac's will do for you :) )

I'm wondering if he can get some sort of rebate for the Mac version of the 4200 if he already has the PC version...

*this picture may interest you:
gr31-pa.gif


*some information on this page may highlight the difference between the dual 1.25's and the dual 2.0G5's (and the difference it makes with video cards).
 
Originally posted by Element 92
Wow I guess the only thing I have to wait for is the money :p

Anybody want to recommend a good Mac for someone like me? Something that still has some nice power to it :) I have heard about the G5, but I also heard that the G4 (is there a G4?) is almost just as good as it....I'm probably wrong, I don't remember it much.
Click to expand...

I have a current-model Power Mac G4, and I love it. They're $1299 new from Apple. I previously had an 800 MHz iBook G3, which "felt faster" than my previous computer, an Athlon XP 2000+. My G4 is certainly a lot faster still. Like being able to encode MPEG-4 in realtime :)

You'll see the most benefit on G4-optimised apps, which are plentiful these days.

BTW, if you're a student, consider joining the ADC Student Developer programme. It costs $99 to get going, and you get 10-15% off a computer purchase (can only do this once). I used this programme in order to get my Power Mac for cheap :)
 
Just get a dual 2GHz G5 the pricing will probably go down as soon as the new PM's come out around Jan.
 
Originally posted by Nermal


BTW, if you're a student, consider joining the ADC Student Developer programme. It costs $99 to get going, and you get 10-15% off a computer purchase (can only do this once). I used this programme in order to get my Power Mac for cheap :)
Click to expand...

IF your a student who is honestly working towards being a developer, don't abuse apples offers, cause they may note be here

if you a student though, consider just purchasing through the apple student store ... you can still save 10 -15 on your purchase, without scamming the ADC
 
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