Mac OS on a PC

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Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
I have a favor asked of me by my uncle..., He wants me to find out if and how it is possible to install a Mac OS on to a PC



according to him it is possible and "says" a friend has it on his comp

My uncle has around 6 OS on his computer and he decided that it would be useful from time to time for graphics stuff, and is planning to get a nice digital camcorder...



No Offense or anything, but I'm not that fond of Macs, although they do seem to have a small upperhand on graphics and arn't that bad.



There are only around 5 reasons why Macs arn't more of the PCs- They tend to be slower, They cost more, They have only one mouse button, the compatiblity (if you have one or two PCs, the next one you get is going to be a PC so they can be used together), and the lack of video games because of DirectX



I have to admit though, they have a few macs for Video editing at school and they arn't too bad at doing so (even though the mouse button does drive me insane)



well the bottom line is: is it possible to put a Mac OS on a PC with a couple other operation systems

uh I guess I wouldn't be surprized if you didn't know how to do it since most of you wouldn't know too much about getting it installed on a PC becasue you don't...



well thanx in advance for all of the help,

Byan
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 64
    chu_bakkachu_bakka Posts: 1,793member
    No you can't run Mac OS X on a PC. Not even in emulation.



    Take him to an apple retail store. You both might learn a bit about macs. And may walk home with one.



    Oh... and you don't seem to know very much about macs... so it would be wise not to come onto an applecentric site and talk about how PC's are better... we've heard it all before... and funny enough... we all keep using Macs.
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  • Reply 2 of 64
    chychchych Posts: 860member
    Basilisk emulates a 68k mac and you can run up to OS 8 I believe. OS 7.6 is a free download. Nothing higher can be emulated.
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  • Reply 3 of 64
    ast3r3xast3r3x Posts: 5,012member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Byan

    1. They tend to be slower

    2. They cost more

    3. They have only one mouse button

    4. The compatiblity (if you have one or two PCs, the next one you get is going to be a PC so they can be used together)

    5. And the lack of video games because of DirectX



    well thanx in advance for all of the help,

    Byan




    1. Not True (specially with the G5)

    2. Perhaps A Problem but most mac users feel that you get what you pay for

    3. True but its not a real problem for most users (plus you can use a two button mouse)

    4. This is true

    5. This is true also but doesn't have to be this way, if games were made with OpenGL (just as advanced as DirectX) then you would have to change hardly any code at all to make a port
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  • Reply 4 of 64
    torifiletorifile Posts: 4,024member
    No is the answer to your question.



    Now, on to your misconceptions:



    ast3r3x answered all but 4 adequately. Ignorance is bliss. You can happily have a network with a mac and a pc. I've got a setup like that right now and it works well. Better than being single platform because each has their strengths. Don't be so close-minded. (And get an OS with system wide spell checking so you don't look like an ass)
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  • Reply 5 of 64
    ast3r3xast3r3x Posts: 5,012member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by torifile

    No is the answer to your question.



    Now, on to your misconceptions:



    ast3r3x answered all but 4 adequately. Ignorance is bliss. You can happily have a network with a mac and a pc. I've got a setup like that right now and it works well. Better than being single platform because each has their strengths. Don't be so close-minded. (And get an OS with system wide spell checking so you don't look like an ass)




    your right, sorry i read it wrong, i didn't read properly and thought he was saying you can use the same software together...not sure why, oh well thanks for correcting me regaurdless
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  • Reply 6 of 64
    futuremacfuturemac Posts: 242member
    im wondering...

    why do these "pc's are better than mac's" types bother to go onto mac boards in the first place? i mean, why do they even care?



    it reminds me of when i told people here that im getting the new g5, they were almost offended! as if. "how dare you get a mac" and i had to hear the constant question of why i was leaving the pc "platform"... i said "does 70,000 virus's sound like a good enough reason? or the almost weekly security warnings from microsoft??



    they can have it...



    almost all of them have dell's and almost none of them know even so much as what speed processer they have, and none of them are trying to learn anything about their systems anytime soon. which means they run to me everytime they get infected, etc. i've had it...



    when i get my g5 i can finally stop being their tech support.

    in fact i think i'll do it now...
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  • Reply 7 of 64
    torifiletorifile Posts: 4,024member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ast3r3x

    your right, sorry i read it wrong, i didn't read properly and thought he was saying you can use the same software together...not sure why, oh well thanks for correcting me regaurdless



    That may have been what he was saying. But that would be PIRACY!!!!1! and that's wrong.
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  • Reply 8 of 64
    dnisbetdnisbet Posts: 201member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by chu_bakka



    Oh... and you don't seem to know very much about macs... so it would be wise not to come onto an applecentric site and talk about how PC's are better... we've heard it all before... and funny enough... we all keep using Macs.




    This is one of the few places where I thought I could get away from all this bickering, it´s like being with my mates. They understand now that i´m a Mac person and accept it. People are afraid of the unfamiliar, we could talk about why we like and use macs till the cows go home, but IMHO this is not the appropriate place.

    What kind of person signs up to a mostly mac rumours forum site to post that, is it likely that ´Byan´ will post again or will we take it upon ourselves to ´turn´ him?
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  • Reply 9 of 64
    chu_bakkachu_bakka Posts: 1,793member
    He's probably in high school... and doesn't get it.
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  • Reply 10 of 64
    You can run os6-8 on a pc through a bit of hardware and emulation.

    emulators.com(think its a .com to lazy tocheck) you can buy an ide card with apple roms stuck on it allowing yu to boot a os7-8 system.

    With this theres 2 ways on running you can boot straight into macos or run it as an app like vmware. though this situation is for the pc head only as you can easily get a decent low end powerpc off ebay for a fraction of the cost this will cost you. last time i checkers it was about $100 for the emulator software and macos and another $100+ for the roms.

    as for X just buy a G3+ and you'll wonder why you used a pc.
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  • Reply 11 of 64
    ast3r3xast3r3x Posts: 5,012member
    for posts like this, just be nice and give the facts with minimal opinions becuse most of us are apple centric so our views are vastly different





    the best u can do is present the facts and hope for the best, because most of the time there is no reasoning with PC bigots, and starting off being defensive is the wrong tactice (belive me i've learned that)







    it seems he is trying to post an honest question, unless he IS a PC bigot just wanting to spout 'problems of macs'
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  • Reply 12 of 64
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    If he wants to 'spout the problems of macs', I'll waste no time 'spouting the problems of PCs'.
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  • Reply 13 of 64
    ast3r3xast3r3x Posts: 5,012member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Placebo

    If he wants to 'spout the problems of macs', I'll waste no time 'spouting the problems of PCs'.





    haha i never said that wasn't allowed give the 5 key problems of pc's
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  • Reply 14 of 64
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ast3r3x

    haha i never said that wasn't allowed give the 5 key problems of pc's



    1: Single tasking

    2: Very unsecure

    3: Modern processors dont last as long as they did.

    4: Having to upgrade. upgrade, upgrade, upgrade, upgrade, upgrade!!!!!

    5: They have higher gigahertz but they cant do 1billion calcs a second(G4)



    Thats just a hardware basis, if i added windows to that list this reply would take up 30 pages!!
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  • Reply 15 of 64
    ast3r3xast3r3x Posts: 5,012member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by cybermonkey

    1: Single tasking

    2: Very unsecure

    3: Modern processors dont last as long as they did.

    4: Having to upgrade. upgrade, upgrade, upgrade, upgrade, upgrade!!!!!

    5: They have higher gigahertz but they cant do 1billion calcs a second(G4)



    Thats just a hardware basis, if i added windows to that list this reply would take up 30 pages!!




    no no the 5 biggest problems with PC's....i'll give it a go



    1. Windows (if you choose to use it)

    2. Lack of control for software developers (have to make generic code)

    3. Lack of software (by this i mean good software...apple and mac developers make some of the best award winning software you can come by but it isn't available on the PC...give me quality over quantity any day!)

    ex. FCP, iTunes(not yet at least), DVDSP...and the biggest problem

    4. Doesn't run OS X



    actually i guess those are the only big problems, i had to say just windows because there are so many problems that i couldn't begin to pick out the worst...i'm not saying OS X doesn't have any problems but its alot better then windows
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  • Reply 16 of 64
    Well seeing as your putting that way i reckon....



    1: Microsoft

    2: The daft buggers that use them, by that i mean the computer virgin opening IE for the first time and then feels he has to teach everyone else and amazingly aquires the knowledge of a proffessor of computing science

    3: intel

    4: squareness,sure theres some nice cases like the shuttle, but that thing is more noisey than a dual G4, and gets so hot it melts the paint of yer walls.

    5: Software, no unix built into the major OS(windows) and heavy licencing.



    8)
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  • Reply 17 of 64
    Wow, I hope others don't come in here spouting zealotry like cybermonkey there. Sorry to pick on you man, but I think anyone else here would also say that those points are all pretty weak. Intel? Upgrades are bad? Can't do a billion calculations? Wow, I'm speechless.



    To any newbies like Byan who are wondering how Mac OS X compares with an OS such as Windows XP on a point-by-point basis, I highly recommend the site:



    OS Shootout: Mac OS X vs. Windows XP



    The guy who runs the site is admittedly a Mac user, but he strives to remain very objective in his comparisons and takes into account recommendations and suggestions by Windows-users in his forums.



    As for Byan's 5 main misconceptions, they've all been answered already, but I'll give my 2¢ on them anyway.



    "They tend to be slower"



    That depends on what you do and whom you ask. By his own testimony, my three-year-old PowerMac easily outpaces my roommate's friend's 6-month old P4 in a number of tasks with apps like, say, iPhoto and GraphicConverter compared to whatever entry-level imaging software he has. He was baffled to hear me say this Mac was so old yet see it run so well. The AltiVec unit on the G4s and G5s allow the processor to breeze through huge streams of calculations on things like image and video manipulation. Doing real-time video effects without a special add-on card on a 3-year-old Windows box would be unheard of.



    "They cost more"



    That depends on how you define cost. When people invest in a more expensive Apple computer, I suspect they usually do so knowing that there'll be a higher "value" return on that investment. Time, for example, is very valuable to people. Ease of use also is very valuable. Security and stability is valuable. These hidden values more than make up for the higher initial monetary costs.



    It's really an issue of paying more for a significantly higher quality *experience*.



    "They have only one mouse button"



    They only *need* one button. The Mac OS has been designed from day-one for ease of use and with streamlined commands in mind. One way of encouraging developers to properly design their menus and commands is by reducing the dependence on contextual menus. Right-clickable, contextual menus are not inherently a bad thing; they're absolutely wonderful in many cases. However, many Windows software developers abuse the contextual menu and fill it with oodles of commands, sometimes even throwing in commands you *can't* get to from other locations.



    Regardless of how you view the menu issue, if you want a multi-button mouse, there's nothing stopping you! Practically any USB mouse will work out-of-the-box on Mac OS X. Right-clicks work. Scroll-wheels work. To configure extra buttons, though, you may need to install a small utility such as USB Overdrive.



    "the compatiblity (if you have one or two PCs, the next one you get is going to be a PC so they can be used together)"



    Networking is fairly easy between Macs and PCs. Is that your problem? Or do you mean file compatibility? Files from any cross-platform titles like Microsoft Office all work fine.



    "the lack of video games because of DirectX"



    The lack of games isn't because of no DirectX. The lack is, I believe, because of Apple's smaller market share. OpenGL is a *very* powerful development tool for gaming and is very well integrated into Mac OS X. Id Software's own John Carmack has called Mac OS X the best game development platform.



    Some of the big software companies aren't developing games for Mac OS because people simply aren't buying them. It's really a chicken-and-the-egg issue here. Some say if they'd put in more resources into make *good* Mac games, more would sell. On the other hand, developers refuse to put make those initial investments if they have small sales to begin with.



    However, you have to look at some of the games we do have. Macs may have fewer games (and software titles overall) BUT the ones we do have are typically higher-quality. Apple has a Games page with a listing of a number of the good games for Mac OS X. Take Ambrosia Software, for example. This Mac-only company (until only very recently) has been wildly successful with developing quality games such as Escape Velocity Nova, so successful that they were convinced to port it to Windows.
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  • Reply 18 of 64
    Just thought of this one while i was having a cig and is a conversion i have to deal with on a daily basis of building them for punters.....



    When your comparing systems or flogging a PC it all boils down to this in the end,



    this pc has this many pci slots, onboard this onboard that and oh onboard thisthat, it can take ata132,132,313,132,123213,2331,3232 blah blah, it has a system bus of that and this, i can overclock, underclock extraclock tell the time clock, its psu is 10000watts, got a fan here there another up there and down there, slot a, socket a socket this blah blah blah!!!!!!!



    theres just too much to remember to stay on top of the tech in the pc world and then just as you get on top of it all, theres a new processor socket or different type of memory with a completly different slot and then microsoft chips in and says right you got to upgrade your 1 year comp so you can run the latest OS and keep getting support cos our product is shit.



    So when someone asks me well macs are expensive compared to pc's i just tell em a mac will last for many years without HAVING to upgrade all the flipping time. When you take in the total cost of upgrading a pc to stay current you could of had 2 macs, not touched the insides at all

    and be a very happy productive person instead of having to reboot, format and memorising the entire oxford dictionary of computing.
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  • Reply 19 of 64
    NP Brad,



    just to make a point on the games issue,

    transgaming has been working with apsyr and more than likely others to get PC games back onto the mac and linux, though this is bad as a development model goes, because mainly its just emulation. We should be seeing those hybrid CDs back in the shops.

    But what many mac people will tell you, i fyou want games buy a ps2.
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  • Reply 20 of 64
    torifiletorifile Posts: 4,024member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by cybermonkey



    But what many mac people will tell you, i fyou want games buy a ps2.




    No. buy a gamecube.
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