Using Mac and Windows in parallel
Thread poster: Heinrich Pesch
Heinrich Pesch
Heinrich Pesch  Identity Verified
Finland
Local time: 15:43
Member (2003)
Finnish to German
+ ...
Jan 15, 2006

I'm thinking of buying a Mac laptop and using it for everything except Trados etc. I would keep the Windows PC running and use it when needed.
Can it be done easily? Can I connect both machines to the same monitors and switch to and fro between Mac and PC? The same for mouse and keyboard? The Mac would be connected to the internet and files would be exchanged to the pc if needed.
Has anybody tried this configuration? Or perhaps instead of Mac a Linux laptop? Please tell me about your
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I'm thinking of buying a Mac laptop and using it for everything except Trados etc. I would keep the Windows PC running and use it when needed.
Can it be done easily? Can I connect both machines to the same monitors and switch to and fro between Mac and PC? The same for mouse and keyboard? The Mac would be connected to the internet and files would be exchanged to the pc if needed.
Has anybody tried this configuration? Or perhaps instead of Mac a Linux laptop? Please tell me about your experiences.
Regards
Heinrich
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Jerzy Czopik
Jerzy Czopik  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 14:43
Member (2003)
Polish to German
+ ...
Mac OS X and Windows XP without any problems Jan 15, 2006

When you get a Mac with OS X you will be able to connect a PC and a Mac within minutes. No problems at all, file sharing works. I have not tried a printer sharing yet, as my printer has bot parallel and USB connections, so parallel is used for PC and USB for Mac. The next printer will be a network one, so the problem will be solved then.

I use two desktops - a PowerMAC G4 and a PC - bot connected to one keyboard, one mouse and one monitor, using a KVM switch. This works very well an
... See more
When you get a Mac with OS X you will be able to connect a PC and a Mac within minutes. No problems at all, file sharing works. I have not tried a printer sharing yet, as my printer has bot parallel and USB connections, so parallel is used for PC and USB for Mac. The next printer will be a network one, so the problem will be solved then.

I use two desktops - a PowerMAC G4 and a PC - bot connected to one keyboard, one mouse and one monitor, using a KVM switch. This works very well and allowes you to switch between PC and Mac at any time. The only limitation of my KVM switch is, that it supports only an analog monitor connection. But in the meantime there should be switches for digital connections too.

Regards
Jerzy
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Marc P (X)
Marc P (X)  Identity Verified
Local time: 14:43
German to English
+ ...
Using Mac and Windows in parallel Jan 15, 2006

Heinrich Pesch wrote:

Or perhaps instead of Mac a Linux laptop? Please tell me about your experiences.


You can network a Linux PC or laptop to a Windows PC using Samba, and by all accounts it's very easy to do, although I haven't done it myself (I don't have a Windows PC at all).

If you want to install Linux on a laptop, you need to be very careful about your choice of laptop and (to a lesser degree) your choice of Linux distribution. Various distributions will install on various different models of laptop with varying degrees of difficulty, so get all the necessary information before you buy.

These are good sources of information on installing Linux on laptops generally:

www.linux-laptop.net
www.linux-on-laptops.com

If you're lucky, you might find a suitable (new) laptop with Linux already installed. Whilst it may not now be particularly difficult to find a new laptop model with Linux preinstalled, they are still so uncommon that your choice is limited.

You may also find a laptop with a suitable hardware specification which is sold with Linux preinstalled, but not in your region, or with a Linux distribution you don't want. In this case, you can be reasonably confident of installing Linux yourself and getting it to work with your chosen distribution without too much difficulty.

Marc


 
François Hoareau
François Hoareau
German to French
+ ...
Mac OS and Window in a local network Jan 16, 2006

Hello,
here I use almost exclusively Mac OS, but also have one little Via PC running headless on my network, witch I connect to using the free Microsoft Remote Desktop Client, (I guess another VNC would do, should you use Win 98 for instance).
As for file exchange, I can recommend SharePoints, (it uses the native SMB function of Mac OS 10), even if I now only use my network attached storage.
Regards


 
Heinrich Pesch
Heinrich Pesch  Identity Verified
Finland
Local time: 15:43
Member (2003)
Finnish to German
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thanks for the information! Jan 17, 2006

What kind of Mac would be appropriate? Is 512 Mbyte memory enough?
Regards
Heinrich


 
Jerzy Czopik
Jerzy Czopik  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 14:43
Member (2003)
Polish to German
+ ...
I have a PowerMAC G4 Jan 17, 2006

ith 1,25 GHz single processor, only 256 MB RAM and 60 GB HDD - it was expensive enough

And it is enough for normal working. If you will compliate videos with it, than a double processor machine would be a better choice, but for the usual business it is sufficient.

I´m not using it to work, but to hanlde Mac formats. When I have a big Quark file, it has no problems with it. But the PC doesn´t either...... See more
ith 1,25 GHz single processor, only 256 MB RAM and 60 GB HDD - it was expensive enough

And it is enough for normal working. If you will compliate videos with it, than a double processor machine would be a better choice, but for the usual business it is sufficient.

I´m not using it to work, but to hanlde Mac formats. When I have a big Quark file, it has no problems with it. But the PC doesn´t either...

Regarding the networking: with OS X and Windows XP no extra software is needed to share files. I´m not sure about Internet connection, but I use a router with a 4 port switch - and with this extra the networking between Mac and PC works without any problems. When you downgrade to OS 9 or lower or other older Windows versions, you will need an extra software for networking.

HTH
Jerzy
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Using Mac and Windows in parallel






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