OT: Intel Macs - Official dual boot for XP

No, I mentioned that he should try it.

There's quite alot of info on

Any of them that can connect to a LAN and map a network drive.

That's rather a large set, so I'll narrow it down. They want to read and write Word and Excel documents. I have more up my sleeve when you move the goalposts in response. :)

Quite a few servers have been exploited in the past.

How the f*ck else are you going to run another OS on a completely locked down NT client?

You can't. You have to pay for new versions of OSX. The point releases are nothing more than bugfixes.

Play games.

Eh? Who said it had to be on that box? If that particular PC were configured properly, I'd not expect to be able to boot from CD or get into the BIOS to change the boot options so running a LiveCD on that particular box would be a moot point would it not?

Exsqueeze me? Baking Soda?

Apples are the epiphany of mass produced overpriced plastic.

Can you upgrade from MAC OS9 to MACOS X for free? Upgrading from MAC OS X 10.x.x to 10.x.x+1 is NOT an OS upgrade - merely a bugfix.

I have shitloads of software on my PC-all legal. I've only paid for the games.

Yes. If not, how the f*ck can you buy software online and download/install it?

Nethier can you. You can only do the ones that are bundled in MAC OS X.

There are a variety of choices from bright white mac style to matt black and looking very much like a standard DVD player.

Jesus. You're *really* dense when it comes to this stuff, aren't you?

For a start, I'd need the MAC addy of the network card in my desktop PC

- which would probably involve doing something likely to get me sacked if I tried to find it. Other than that, I'd also need the IP addy for my particular machine, the domain, the DNS and countless other info that isn't readily available.

It's not as simple as it may first appear - believe me, I've tried it with a previous employer.

Wow. More Amiga than Linux.

You can, obviously, upgrade for free between point releases over the network.

Since the major releases of OS X have included significant kernel changes, unless you count installing over a network as some amazing benefit, I think you're grabbing for inexplicably negative things to say here ;)

Richard (who frankly would rather be at the mercy of people who rely on being able to provide a product that I will spend money on to survive, instead of a bunch of nerds developing something free as they see fit, for enterprise clients to resell at insane prices).

That's not what I mean. Mapping drives is for computer geeks. I want to be able to easily upgrade all of the software on my machine, OS and applications, over the Internet, for free, with a three word command or a few (read about five) mouse clicks.

I want to be able to install, use and upgrade fifteen thousand software packages with the same ease. From image manipulation to audio / MIDI recording, desktop publishing to software development in many languages, telephone PBX to fax send / receive, emulators to web, email, database, groupware servers and clients, spam filters to virus scanners, games to OCR software, typesetting to PVR, periodic file snapshots and other backup solutions to scientific and mathematical packages, with the same ease. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.

I want to be able to do all the above on several different hardware platforms.

I want to interoperate with proprietary systems and networks.

I want an open quality policy to guarantee that the software is up to scratch.

I want timely security patches.

I don't want arbitrary limitations or boundaries.

I don't want the hand that feeds me to bite me.

If any Mac or Windows computer can do all of this, please advise how. I'm done. Furthermore, for those of you who claim that you can't be bothered to go through the install "hassle" and have already participated in this thread, I make you a one-off offer.

Send a spare PC (or Mac) to me at work and I'll install Ubuntu Linux for you, gratis. You will of course have to pay for carriage in both directions. You may have to wait a week or two as I will be prioritising work that actually makes money. All I ask is that you give me some honest feedback on the installed system. This offer is open for one week only from the time of this post.

Amazing isn't it. You don't get this freedom with commercial software. Email if you want to have a go. I'm out of here until one of my cars breaks (still drilling out brake pipe unions on the Golf, I have no time to work on it).

You missed my sarcasm.

I think you've confused me with a Mac afficionado. Oh the shame!

Appleworks does that. Also, they have the ability to download NeoOffice, or use X11 and get real OpenOffice.

Richard