RE: OT:Mac: bootcamp/parallels

["Goddard, Duncan" <goddard.duncan@mtvne.com>]

>>All this is safe on Mac and dead unsafe on PC. I'd even never connect to 
>the internet on windows, its a nightmare.<<

mac & pc spoken here. I am currently using a macbook pro for most things, 
but I have firefox installed both on the mac side & on a w2k build running 
under parallels. so far, the windows build has been fine, despite many 
hours of internet use. 
(I too have seen a new w2k build connected for the first time to the 
internet disappear under a tidal wave of pop-ups & other shite within 20 
seconds. one of the many joys of broadband connectivity is that death 
comes quicker.)

so I think I'm using the mac as a sort of firewall. in other respects, the 
pc build seems more stable too- I have speculated that the registry is 
being interfered with a lot less. I expect it to die eventually, as all 
windows builds seem to, but it does seem to be putting up a decent fight, 
& so one can only conclude that the mac os &/or it's guest status in the 
macbook is somehow conferring it an unfair advantage over the other 
gates-boxes I have. 

I've never tried bootcamp because it's XP-only, & XP is one circle of hell 
too far for me. I don't like to be patronised by a machine, & I find the 
whole "look & feel" (coupland's "microserf" hamsters...) of XP is too 
fisher-price. I know I could reskin it, but there's other things about it 
besides the appearance......

w2k is fine, just so long as 
a) you are always at the back of your mind prepared for sudden & rapid 
death of the build, & consequent loss of time & data, & 
b) you don't connect it directly to the interweb. 

use an old w98 build for browsing- it will attract a lot less undue 
attention & firefox runs fine on it, & you can ghost/restore it quicker.

& always keep important data (audio, artwork) on separate drives whenever 
possible. not just partitions.

I prefer macs to pcs generally because they are better designed- nicer to 
look at. generally. 

the toshiba tecra I'm writing on now is one of the ugliest things ever to 
be shipped in personal computing. in fact, I've yet to see a pc laptop or 
tower that I actually liked the look of, even the sonys. design by 
committee, & I'm not sure "design" is the right word.

the macbook has it's flaws, but they are mainly of execution rather than 
form. the single-piece casing that forms the base of the macbook pro is an 
ambitious & deeply flawed piece of metalwork, but the plastic macbooks & 
the older g4 powerbook are very attractive devices.
anyway.
back to the matter at hand.

I put parallels on the mac so that I could run one or two windows apps I 
have grown fond of. I'm not going to say I couldn't live without them 
because I am trying to stop short of hyperbole these days.
the biggest problems I have with parallels are the memory leak (& so I 
stop what I'm doing & reboot the whole shebang once an hour) & the lack of 
support for writing to cd/dvd.
other than that, it's a pretty good solution.

ym, as always, mv.

d.