PC / Mac Computer Question....(PC Emulator) ...help plz!

Im thinking of getting a new (to me) computer.

I've heard Mac's are great for things like editing video.

I've also heard that there is a "PC Emulator" (no marvin the martian jokes plz) so that software that is made for the PC can be run on Mac.

Is this true?

....If so why would anybody get a PC when you can have the best of both worlds.

TIA

There may be some software that tries to do it, but it doesn't work well and will not work in all cases.

Macs used to be the leaders in audio and video. This is no longer true. They are still somewhat of the industry standard but that too is changing.

In terms of professional usage this is still true.

Protools and many video editing apps used by professionals are on Mac.

So it is entrenched in certain industries as the profession tool of choice.

Including ProTools work on PCs now too. Which is why the Mac dominance is slowly starting to erode. It may take a few more years but it will eventually happen.

Hey, I used to have an Amiga back when they blew away Macs and PCs both when it came to video and music. I could multitask in 512 K of memory and I didn't even have a hard drive. But that was then. :)

They ruled, didn't they?

The PC eventually caught up (by 1999), but the Amiga did have significant advantages, even after Commodore kicked the bucket...

But times have changed and now an Amiga can be emulated with ease on a PC using UAE for Linux (much faster than WinUAE, of course)

I had a 1000 and a 500 until about 1990 when I switched to a PC.

I still believe the Amiga 1000 will go down in history as the computer that changed the world.

:toast:

on Mac OS X. Let me add that the top editing program, Final Cut Pro, doesn't do windows. Uh, yeah, Macs are a little bit more than industry standard. Go to your top media outlets, about 90% of them run Macs. And innovation, give me a @$$%^$%^ing break, windows has always been a cheap rip-off of Mac OS, about 6 years behind, though.

Don't give me your "we are windows, you will be assimulated" line. The shear fact is that windows got where they are today by monopolization and superior marketing, oh yes, not to mention buying DOS for $50K. There are EXTREMELY few things that Windows has innovated, and not bought/stolen. There are quite a few that they take credit for.

As far as winblows/Mac arguments, they do VERY much resemble the arguments between Freepers and DU's, with Macs being the DU's, in most cases(AS FAR AS WINDOWS/MAC ARGUMENTS).

I'm driving home, should you desire to reach me, email.

can toggle back and forth between operating systems. So basically you would have windows, UNIX, Mac OS X(GUI on top of UNIX)Mac OS 9.x and I think you can also run Linux, if you wish.

Why would anyone use windows? Why do most people in amurka believe that Sadamm had something to do with 9/11? MARKETING! MARKETING! MARKETING! Or if you prefer, monopolization and propaganda, along with a stupid mistake of Apple being too trusting of Bill Gates, a while back.

First of all, what NotMyPresident said is nonsense. Nobody is doing serious AV on Windows. They are using Macs, then Solaris, then LINUX, in that order. The Two Towers was composited on Macs running Shake for Macintosh. Every record you can buy in a store was mixed on a Macintosh. Plus, Mac OS X is a far more advanced UNIX-based OS than anything you can get on an Intel machine.

Virtual PC works very well, and can even network with the Mac its running on, complete with its own IP address.

The only drawback is that it's slower than a real PC.

If you're going to buy a mac, wait three weeks until the G5 is shipping. Fastest PC on Earth.

If G4 Macs still sell for $2000, how much will the G5 Macs cost? :scared:

That's a lot of money for something that becomes obselete in 3 years.

:toast:

and the speeds are so fast now that you'll have a fast PC on your mac.

However it may not support all of the hardware like PCI cards, etc,.
(it may though).

People get what someone they trust tells them to get and the Mac world (i.e. as a home computer) died a long time ago and has only been propped up by Microsoft to give the illusion that there is no monopoly.

I forget what the emulator is called on Mac. Bvut it has been aroung for years and years and I'm sure it's great...

I don't know what you do about two buttons on the mouse since the mac only has one button.

If you only have a one button mouse, you can Control-click to emulate a right click.

OR, you can just go get a two button USB mouse (with a scroll wheel), like I did. More and more Mac OS X programs have useful things happen when you right click anyway, so it's worth it.

claiming that for years and i guess it's part of the myth now...

"I don't know what you do about two buttons on the mouse since the mac only has one button. "

you can use 2/3 button mice on the mac

"I forget what the emulator is called on Mac."

VirtualPC - and it works well albiet slower though perfectly acceptable for most applications.

If you want a powerful machine that is easy to use, powerfull, and as a bonus nice to look at you wont be disapointed with a mac.

i use *NIX, WINDOWS, and MACs and macs are by far my fav though they all do the job oneway or another macs usually do it BETTER ;-)

peace

It actually does a good job of emulating a PC. It emulates the wintel hardware, not windows, so you can install any wintel operating system you want on it.

I've installed W2K, NT, RedHat, and years ago: Rhapsody Developer Release 2 for Intel (what became Mac OS X later on).

It's slower than a wintel with the same Mhz as your Mac, of course, but it's certainly usable. I haven't found much that WON'T run in it, although most games are not worth the frustration (software rendering for OpenGL, for example).

The main reason I use it at all is to convert windows media files to a more usable format (such as quicktime).

Macs are EXCELLENT for editing and producing audio and video. In fact, I'd say that MacOS X has finally gotten better than MacOS 9 for doing so. They come with everything you need (software wise) for editing videos and making DVDs out of them, and the Pro-level tools for doing those things (Final Cut Pro and DVD Studio Pro, which aren't cheap) are quickly becoming the industry standards. Avid better watch out! :)

Steinberg has abandoned the Windows platform for their high-end professional audio mixing program "Reason", and all future releases will be for the Mac only. So I'd say AV is alive and well on the Mac, especially since they continue to release computers and software that blow PCs away in every category. I don't have any Mac experience-- I truly wish I did. Hopefully in the next year or so I'll be able to start studying Macs.

Where did you hear about Reason being phased out for the PC?

I think you're right-- it's currently Propellerhead, which makes me think it may be a spinoff from Steinberg. I could easily be proven wrong in all that-- it won't be the first time. Doing a google does give me quite a few Steinberg Reason items.

I read a thread about it being phased out in a usenet music group-- from what I recall, V2.5 was to be the last PC release. Again, as I said before, this could be the years of medication talking, and have nothing to do with this little head trip I like to call "reality". ;-)

Reason can currently use them via rewire. Maybe they're phasing that out? Not a big deal IMO, as I've been using Cakewalk Sonar for awhile for almost everything music related. Reason has a certain wow factor, but in reality it seems geared mostly toward electronica which I'm not interested in. Regardless, it's currently available for both Mac and PC, which was the original topic of this thread. :)

I would of course love to get everyone using a Mac -

but if you think you will be using Windows most of the time, either due to work needs or just familiarity, I'd get a PC.

VirtualPC works great, but it is slower than most cheap PC's. How much slower depends on how good the Mac is you load it on. I have it on an 800mhz iMac, and it is OK but no match for my Dell 2ghz at work.

I do edit a LOT of video, and burn DVDs, and i would recommend the Mac for those uses for sure.

By the way, my cubemate didn't listen to me, he said that he thought Macs were too expensive, so he bought a Dell for $2300. I guess he thought that was cheaper than my $1600 iMac - and my iMac has a DVD burner, and his Dell doesn't.

Besides, I do video editing on the PC and don't see at all why the Mac is overhyped.

A Mac is simply living off the urban legend that it developed the GUI (ux, Xerox did - all Apple did was hijack it.)

Virtual PC emulates Windows on a Mac, and works for almost all Windows software, with a few caveats. The newest version has been engineered to work best on Mac OS X systems.

http://www.connectix.com/products/vpc6m.html

VPC was recently bought by Microsoft. Another company that makes emulation products was talking about bringing their emulation product out of mothballs and updating it to provide some competition to Microsoft, but I don't know how that's working out.

http://www.fwb.com/html/realpc.html

For all non-chip intensive applications, emulation is a workable solutions. Where emulation doesn't work as well is in primarily three areas that I can find:

1. Graphics-intense gaming.
2. Processor-intense graphics.
3. Some API specific application calls, but it's hit and miss.

Connectix sponsored forums where people could discuss their issues with VPC and find solutions. My feeling is that now that Microsoft has taken over, the forum moderators have either been let go or have become more unresponsive. You can check out the forum for VPC for Mac at:
http://forum.connectix.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?category=1

Most high-intensity graphic work done on the Macintosh is done in applications written for the Mac, on the other hand. Likewise, many applications have a Mac version, thus eliminating the need for an emulation solution.

http://www.apple.com/switch/questions/applications/index.html

Apple also has produced industry-best applications and hardware solutions for home-users as well. iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, KeyNote, Safari, iDVD, and iPod are all best in the field. Despite Microsoft's obviously overbearing monopoly, it took Apple to make the world's best hard-disk based portable MP3 player, the iPod for Windows.

For editing video, the Mac represents the best of all possible solutions. iMovie, Final Cut Express, and Final Cut Pro give you three levels of video editing professionalism, and all seemlessly integrate into your other applications, letting you pull music from iTunes, and still shots from iPhoto without ever leaving your application. You can then burn your creation onto a DVD from within your application, using the power of iDVD.

Start here, to take a look at the amazing software Apple has made available to make your video editing adventures a breeze.

http://www.apple.com/software/

Or go directly to the video editing pages at:

http://www.apple.com/imovie/
http://www.apple.com/finalcutexpress/
http://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/

Even my Linux buddies have glowing things to say about the Mac.

The bottom line (well, one of them, anyway) is that the way of the future is in UNIX variants and open source. Microsoft is the opposite of that - all proprietary and seeking to pollute open source to drive people onto its proprietary software. My "X" friends all tell me that Apple has taken the best of UNIX and put the best User Interface on it, while leaving the command line there for the experts.

It doesn't get better than that. Even UNIX apps can be converted to run on the Mac.

The only reasons anyone uses a Windows machine anymore is fear of change, a boss that makes them use one at work, or some unfounded belief that they have to support a company that's been adjudicated an overbearing, lawbreaking monopolist and that supports monstrosities like Michael "Savage" Weiner.

Oh, and did I mention Apple's CEO only donates to Democrats?

Get a Mac. You'll never look back.

Dan Brown
Saint Paul, Minnesota

Thanks for the reply....I'm looking for a mac now....how does this one look?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2745272064&category=14909

or here


http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2745276147&category=14909

They came back as invalid (I figure sold) on ebay.