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 ArnoldW2
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Most Mac owners getting Windows on the side |
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Posts: 212 10/07/09 02:52:12 Senior Member |
I'm a Mac hobbyist. These two articles are news to me.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/05/npd_2009_household_penetration_study/ http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/10/macs-in-12-of-us-households-majority-also-have-windows-pcs.ars |
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pm4hire |
I believe it | #1 | ||
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Posts: 4653 10/07/09 16:36:48 Senior Member |
Many folks that ditched their PCs for MACs have Windows
on the side b/c it gives them a great deal of flexibility. My brother is a high school teacher and he has several MACs with Windows loaded on all of them. In addition, I know several developers who recently switched to MACs only to later add Windows, mostly b/c work requirements. Of course, among the college crowd, they're buying Windows based PCs b/c they're simply cheaper, from what I've read. Tom Welch
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codger |
#2 | |||
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Posts: 2682 10/07/09 18:02:47 Senior Member |
I have an iMac and PowerPC for over two years. I have never installed any M$ product on either, and never intend to. If I had to have Windoze for compatibility
with a client, I'd buy a cheap PC abd dedicate it to the assignment rather than infecting my pristine Apple environment with M$ crap.
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I D Shukhov |
#3 | |||
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Posts: 2224 10/07/09 21:51:26 Senior Member |
From what I understand about virtualization, I don't think running Windows in a virtual machine would corrupt anything on the Mac. I installed Sun
VirtualBox on my PC and ran Ubuntu in a virtual machine. When I deleted the virtual machine all traces of it and Ubuntu were gone.
He that would live in peace and
at ease must not speak all he knows or all he sees. - Benjamin Franklin
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Peter Codewrite |
I fit this profile | #4 | ||
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Posts: 719 10/08/09 06:31:27 Senior Member |
Mac owners not only swing both ways when it comes to operating systems, they're also more likely to own multiple computers than Windows-only households. NPD's poll showed 66 per cent of homes with an Apple computer owned three or more computers, compared to just 29 per cent of Windows households.1 Mac, 2 PCs and 1 Linux based workstation. I like the Mac however there are things that I find easier to do on Windows. Maybe it's the 20 years experience vs 2 years. In terms of fun - the most fun I have had is hacking FreeBSD, OpenBSD and Linux. I am thinking of new products that will free me from the need to use .NET and Windows and will let me move to Ubuntu as my main platform. There is something very liberating when using PC hardware running AMD and Linux. Of course I am a geek who does not like monopolies - 99.9% of the population doesn't care about this. PC on his Mac |
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codger |
#5 | |||
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Posts: 2684 10/08/09 09:48:44 Senior Member |
I don't need M$. I don't want M$. If, for any reason, I had to use M$, it wouldn't be from my Macs. I'd install it on a POC, dedicated PC.
It sounds as if you're stating that by running M$ Windoze on a virtual machine, that the various intrusive elements (viruses, trojan hourses, etc.) cannot affect your PC. Do you know this to be true? |
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I D Shukhov |
#6 | |||
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Posts: 2226 10/08/09 22:34:50 Senior Member |
It sounds as if you're stating that by running M$ Windoze on a virtual machine, that the various intrusive elements
(viruses, trojan hourses, etc.) cannot affect your PC. Do you know this to be true?
Yes, I believe this to be the case. Only the virtual machine would be corrupted. In fact, I once posted a link on this board about a "virtual honeypot" hobby project whereby you create a virtual PC with no firewall or any protection of any sort to study how viruses get installed on a machine.
He that would live in peace and
at ease must not speak all he knows or all he sees. - Benjamin Franklin
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pxsant |
#7 | |||
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Posts: 714 10/09/09 07:17:44 Senior Member |
Not necessarily true.
It is true that the virtual machine is isolated from the host machine so a virus cannot infect the host because it does not even know it is there. Even if the virus infects the hard drive boot sector, that applies only to the virtual hard drive, not the host. Assuming that the virtual machine is Windows, the one potential opening is if you have the virtual machine as part of your network and workgroup. In that case, a virus which infects other systems on the same network could propagate to all systems it can find on the network including your host machine. |
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I D Shukhov |
#8 | |||
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Posts: 2227 10/09/09 07:59:24 Senior Member |
Good point. So the virtual machine, if it were open to the internet, would have to be isolated and not part of the host's or anybody else's network.
He that would live in peace and
at ease must not speak all he knows or all he sees. - Benjamin Franklin
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Richardk |
#9 | |||
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Posts: 2169 10/09/09 10:34:30 Moderator |
Indeed. If the virtual machines behavior is indistinguishable from a physical box then what's the difference and isn't that the
point of virtualization?
The VM software may directly protect the host but as pxsant points out, the virtual machine could impact the entire network including the host. |
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ilconsiglliere |
I Have A Mac & A PC | #10 | ||
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Posts: 580 10/12/09 13:48:25 Senior Member |
Frankly there is nothing I can do on Windows that I cant do on a Mac. There are no applications on Windows that I need on a Mac.
I dont even need MS Office on the Mac though I have it and never use it. I use iWork for most of everything now, at $39.95 how could I go wrong versus $400 for MS Office. It does everything I need it to do. Word processing, spreadsheets, etc... I also have Adobe Photoshop on my Mac as well as Windows. I use iTunes for all my music and video so that covers just about everything a normal person would do. I have the Mac development environment for bot the Mac and iPhone and I am done. What do I need Windows for? I keep it for the odd case of having Windows for something but I absolutely refuse to load Windows on my Mac though I could. I dont do any Windows development so no reason to have any development environments. |
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| Most Mac owners getting Windows on the side | 10/07/09 02:52:12 | ArnoldW2 |
| I believe it | 10/07/09 16:36:48 | pm4hire |
| Re: Most Mac owners getting Windows on the side | 10/07/09 18:02:47 | codger |
| Re: Most Mac owners getting Windows on the side | 10/07/09 21:51:26 | I D Shukhov |
| Re: Most Mac owners getting Windows on the side | 10/08/09 09:48:44 | codger |
| Re: Most Mac owners getting Windows on the side | 10/08/09 22:34:50 | I D Shukhov |
| Re: Most Mac owners getting Windows on the side | 10/09/09 07:17:44 | pxsant |
| Re: Most Mac owners getting Windows on the side | 10/09/09 07:59:24 | I D Shukhov |
| Re: Most Mac owners getting Windows on the side | 10/09/09 10:34:30 | Richardk |
| I Have A Mac & A PC | 10/12/09 13:48:25 | ilconsiglliere |
| I fit this profile | 10/08/09 06:31:27 | Peter Codewrite |
