SLMC

Silas Scarborough · Joined: 04 Sep 2007 Posts: 1184 Location: Rhode Island

You can usually find good deals on Macs at dealmac.com but keep in mind that none of the laptops have quad-core motors in them yet. That may not matter as SL probably isn't smart enough to use multiple cores anyway, most software isn't. I've run SL on a Mac dual, Mac 4-way, and a Mac 8-way. I currently use the 8-way for audio/video/etc and I use the 4-way mostly for Windows. That box has six GB in it but SL ran fine on four. Note that XP can't address more than 4 GB (might be 6 GB) so more RAM than that is senseless for Windows.

The way you do it is you get the new box and boot it up for the first time. That will take you into Mac OS X (Leopard). Then you run a program called "Boot Camp" that will set up your Windows partition on your hard disk. It'll do your Windows install from whatever CDs you used previously. Next move is to restart and boot into Windows instead of Mac OS X. Whammo...you're home. (Vista is supported for anyone mad enough to want to buy it.)

There are all kinds of virtualization software tools (VMware, Parallels, etc.) that will do very clever things in the way they let you run Mac OS X and Windows at the same time. I would not screw with them unless you have a serious burning need to move data very quickly between platforms. Later on it's great getting all creative like that but taking on multiple computer mindshifts at the same time is what gets people into computer hell and it's one of the few things that could force you to format your hard disk and reload the base operating system.
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Ever vigilant for da gooses overhead.

- Silas

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