Posted on 02/18/2008 8:43:10 AM PST by rivercat
Linux can be installed after BootCamp updates the BIOS, but it would be pointless for most users. Linux is great for servers, and Mac OS X is best for desktop/notebook computer users.
Sorry if I killed your motherboard by bragging about it. In general, there are half a dozen brands that try to maintain an image for quality.
I’m not into bleeding edge speed, so I have tended to go for boards that support ECC memory. It’s slower, but I had a bad experience with CAD file corruption some years back. File corruption can happen without programs knowing about it or crashing.
And the point we Mac users have been making for the last two years is that, for software purposes, it's the Windows machines that are limited. The Mac can run ALL of your Windows programs if necessary at full, native app speed if necessary. However, most switchers who thought they would be using a lot of Windows apps... find they boot the Windows apps less and less because the Mac's apps in the same areas are generally superior.
I don't use it for that... but it can be. It really is easier to hold in the power button for ten seconds... but I have only had to do that once in seven years of Mac OSX use.
I don't use it for that... but it can be. It really is easier to hold in the power button for ten seconds... but I have only had to do that once in seven years of Mac OSX use.
It is one of the two or three trial wares that Apple includes on the Macs. However, the Mac can open a Microsoft Word document in TextEdit with no problem. If you don't want the MS 2004 Office on your computer drag the folder to the trash and get rid of it. Then when you click on the .doc files, it will default to TextEdit or Pages (if you bought iWork) and open the file there.
As to why? MS Office for Mac is still the pre-eminent word process and spread sheet application on the market for Macs. It does work and it works well... most of the time. It can be frustrating, though.
However, most people need Word like you need a jack hammer to drive a brad. The same job can be done with iWork's Pages for a lot less money... and you get the bonus of having Keynote that blows the doors off of Powerpoint included... or even for free with the included TextEdit application that can both read and save in Word's .doc format. You can find iWork08 on the net for as low as $47.50 for a family pack (five install license). Retail for a single install license is $79
And is there a security risk if or once a Microsoft product is installed? Or, is that just if I were to use Explorer to surf the net?
There is a small, very small, risk if you use Word. Word Macro viruses (really trojans masquerading as a macro) can be run on a Mac with Word... but generally they can't do anything malicious because they might, for example, be trying to format the C: drive and Macs don't have one. Most of those Macros won't even hurt a Windows machine anymore.
Also, there have been several cross platform vulnerabilities, such as buffer overflows, in Windows Office applications that could allow "arbitrary code" to be run on the host computer... but those, on the Mac, have usually only crashed the Office app when an exploit is attempted. MS is pretty good about getting on top of those vulnerabilities and patching them.
All in all, compared to Internet Explorer or Outlook, I'd say its safe.
I have Office for Mac 2004 on my computer and have used it for years and Mac Office for X before that and even Mac Office 97 before that. I have never run into one of the macro viruses. I am trying to switch to Pages for my word processing use because I don't need that Jackhammer and I am tired of the little quirks you run into with Word (and I TEACH Word to computer users of both platforms!)
Let me ask you this, and you may not know. Mac used to have some pretty steep fees to get in the game to produce software for Mac. (Unlike IBMs PC open archetecture approach)
Apple ships developers tools with OSX... every package.
Full membership in the Apple Developers Connection is $3499 but that includes at ticket for attending the World Wide Developers' Conference which normally costs about $1695 per person... but that is small. ADC Online membership is free.
Software Development Kits are available here.
Most of the Apple software on the Mac is Open Source.
No, but everything is a file...
There never was a fee, but back in the pre-OS X era, Apple's Macintosh Programmer's Workshop (MPW) system was sold as a commercial product. Several other development systems were also available, like MetroWerks Code Warrior.
Since Mac OS X was released, Apple's software development tools have been available for free. They are included with each Mac computer, and each OS X upgrade. The tools are also available for download, at the location Swordmaker mentioned above.
It is not necessary to pay any fees to obtain the development tools. The fee-based developer programs that Swordmaker mentioned above include extra services, e.g., early access to beta code, direct support, etc., which are not requirements for many developers.
Apple's IDE is XCode, described here - http://www.apple.com/macosx/developertools/xcode.html
Most applications are developed in Objective-C language with the Cocoa framework (formerly known as NeXTSTEP), and several other programming languages are supported too. The tools include debuggers, screen design applications, etc. The compiler used in XCode for languages like C, C++ and Objective-C is the same one used in Linux: gcc.
XCode with Cocoa is certainly one of the best software development environments available today.
So is Fortran IV still around?
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