I know absolutely nothing about a Mac but I'm required to get one for my college. Therefore I had a few questions.

1. I was told that BootCamp/Leopard OS simulates the vista/xp OS. Does that mean that anything windows based can be runned on a mac with Leopard?

2. Can all Windows based games (Crysis, Gears of War, Live for Speed) be runned with the Leopard OS?

3. How exactly does the BootCamp/Leopard OS work?

Thxs

1. change college this is ridiculous

2. bootcamp is basically just a bios emulator and boot manager
so it wont help you to run windows apps under macos but you will be able to install windows on the mac with bootcamp

Quote from Shotglass :

1. change college this is ridiculous

No, wont matter. The film college world in the States uses Macs (better resolution as I'm told). Even if they dont require it in the film major it'll be pointless not to have it since the entire film world uses Macs. (e.x. Final Cut)

(BTW, only the communications school (which includes film) of my college requires Macs not any other major)

Quote from Shotglass :

2. bootcamp is basically just a bios emulator and boot manager
so it wont help you to run windows apps under macos but you will be able to install windows on the mac with bootcamp

So that means if I buy a Mac Leopard, and upload Vista then I'll be able to install and run any windows program I wish?

Bootcamp partitions your drive, you can then install the Windoze OS of your choice ( XP, preferably ) then it installs all the Win drivers for your machine.
You will need to 'buy' a copy of windoze as the machines do not come with a windoze licence, if your using XP then the disk must be a SP2 version.

You can then choose whether you start in Windoze or OS X.

Also, there is the issue that as windoze and OSX use different systems for working out the time if you frequently swap between the two systems the times always out.
Google one of several fixes.

Quote :

The film college world in the States uses Macs (better resolution as I'm told)

Better resolution?

It is a shame that you can't get Final Cut for Windows, but Adobe Premier will do similar things, and you should be able to import from one platform to the other. Buying a Mac just for Final Cut seems like a waste of money, if that's all you want it for.

Quote from lizardfolk :

No, wont matter. The film college world in the States uses Macs (better resolution as I'm told). Even if they dont require it in the film major it'll be pointless not to have it since the entire film world uses Macs. (e.x. Final Cut)

Wow you've got some idiots teaching you.

Quote from lizardfolk :

So that means if I buy a Mac Leopard, and upload Vista then I'll be able to install and run any windows program I wish?

It's terribly easy too. Once you're in OSX, go to Applications, Utilities, Boot Camp Assistant, follow the easy guide, put in your windows CD (DVD) and boot from it, install Windows normally to that new Partition, and then once in windows, throw your OSX DVD in, and it'll install all the needed drivers. Restart and in Windows you're running, as if you had a PC.

To change what HD to boot from, when it boots and after you hear the boot chime (or the sleep light pulsates), hold the alt(option) key and it'll bring up the boot menu allowing you to select OSX or Windows.

However, to need a Mac for a course is stupid, even as a Mac fanboy. You should use them because you like the way they work, not because you're forced to. Although, once you get some of your crazed windows caveats out of the way while working in OSX, you'll find that you can work a lot more efficiently and quickly across programs, and find yourself seeing how Windows could do things better.

I personally have both my Intel Macs running Boot Camp, my iMac running OSX+Vista, and my MacBook Pro (that I'm using right now) running OSX + XP and both work perfectly fine. The MBP even has 64 bit drivers now as of the latest release (Early 2008 MBP), although it's not flaunted anywhere, they're on the DVD, in the respective x64 folders.

Quote from dawesdust_12 :

and then once in windows, throw your OSX DVD in, and it'll install all the needed drivers.

neat so they already know youre going to want to install a os with better compatibility

Quote :

Restart and in Windows you're running, as if you had a PC.

a mac is a pc for crying out loud
it always has been a pc and it always will be

other than that i agree with electrik and jack but spent too much time shaking my head to type it out myself

Quote from Jakg :

Wow you've got some idiots teaching you.

Aint it so

They just prefer Macs. I have no idea why. Film schools just do, apparently they feel that Macs are a better computer media wise.

But then again, it is the film industry people who still shoot with mms instead of digital....but oh well, I'll deal with it

Quote from dawesdust_12 :

It's terribly easy too. Once you're in OSX, go to Applications, Utilities, Boot Camp Assistant, follow the easy guide, put in your windows CD (DVD) and boot from it, install Windows normally to that new Partition, and then once in windows, throw your OSX DVD in, and it'll install all the needed drivers. Restart and in Windows you're running, as if you had a PC.

To change what HD to boot from, when it boots and after you hear the boot chime (or the sleep light pulsates), hold the alt(option) key and it'll bring up the boot menu allowing you to select OSX or Windows.

However, to need a Mac for a course is stupid, even as a Mac fanboy. You should use them because you like the way they work, not because you're forced to. Although, once you get some of your crazed windows caveats out of the way while working in OSX, you'll find that you can work a lot more efficiently and quickly across programs, and find yourself seeing how Windows could do things better.

I personally have both my Intel Macs running Boot Camp, my iMac running OSX+Vista, and my MacBook Pro (that I'm using right now) running OSX + XP and both work perfectly fine. The MBP even has 64 bit drivers now as of the latest release (Early 2008 MBP), although it's not flaunted anywhere, they're on the DVD, in the respective x64 folders.

Thank you Dustin

I guess I can run Crysis now (getting a mac book with a 8600)

Mine takes Crysis on mostly high settings, although medium and a higher resolution I'd suggest instead (rather than high and 1024x768). Most other recent games it takes head-on and well. Gears of War, Bioshock, UT3 - all on High GFX settings and 1440x900 (max resolution, although windows will report greater, that's nVidia doing, allowing for a larger "virtual" desktop that pans with your mouse cursor.)

Honestly, it's a lovely machine and I'm sure you'll like it as much as I do, seeing I've had it for 2 weeks tomorrow, and it's gone everywhere with me. School, Doctors, Dentists, car-trips, etcera. Only small caveot I have with it is it does get a little warm when it's on your lap, but in OS X using smcFanControl (I think), you can customally change your fan speeds, so my method is:
1) Set fans to desired speed in smcFanControl (I prefer 6000 rpm - Max)
2) Go to System preferences, startup disk, select windows drive and restart
3) Load Windows, and the Mainboard will keep your settings you set in smcFanControl, unless you shutdown

If you have any other questions, you have my MSN address.

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apparently they feel that Macs are a better computer media wise.

I think this used to be more true in the past than it is today. We also have Macs at school, but 90% of the software we use is directly available for Windows (in fact, everything except Final Cut). Photoshop isn't any better on a Mac than it is on PC, apart from some very small keyboard command changes it's basically the same thing.

If you can get accustomed to macs though that will be good, as you'll need to learn how to operate between platforms.

I still prefer the ways I can work with files in OSX, nothing too huge, but then when I try to do it in Windows, I feel lost. There's a few other things that I simply prefer in OSX compared to Windows, little things but they add up.