Spring Break
Boot Camp offers best of PC, Macs
By: Charles Rumford
Issue date: 8/11/06 Section: Sci-Tech
Originally published: 8/11/06 at 11:10 AM EST
Last update: 8/11/06 at 11:09 AM EST
Originally published: 8/11/06 at 11:10 AM EST
Last update: 8/11/06 at 11:09 AM EST
Once Boot Camp was installed, it was your standard Windows installation, except for the pushing of the option key on boot to select the Windows boot Key. While in the installer, the only thing that you really have to make sure of is that you don't select your Mac partition when picking the drive to install on. Windows doesn't know which drive to install on, so a lack of attention could result in it formatting your Mac partition. I suggest that you read the sizes and select your install drive based on the size of the drive. Don't forget to double-check.
The actual Windows installation wasn't longer or shorter than any other Windows installation that I have done. Once Windows was up and running, it ran quite smoothly. After the Mac drivers were installed, wow. I swear that Windows ran better on the Mac than on my old PC laptop. There are, however, many features that I had become accustomed to using in Windows on PC, and my brain tried to use them in Windows on Mac. These features include two-fingered scrolling and the built-in speakers being muted when headphones are plugged in.
Since I don't play games or have high-intensity programs to run, it is hard to judge the performance of the machine compare to other ones. But from what little use I have gotten on Windows via Boot Camp, I'm quite pleased with the results. I can now run those programs that will be required when I reach the upper levels of my degree. Microsoft Visio, for example, is a cool program for making diagrams that can only be used in Windows right now. For the moment, however, there aren't really any programs that I need that only work in Windows, so I'm going to get rid of Boot Camp once I figure out how to.
The final version of Boot Camp will come out when the next version of Mac OS X (10.5) is released.
Charles Rumford is a sophomore majoring in information technology and is the production manager. He can be reached at charles@thetriangle.org.
The actual Windows installation wasn't longer or shorter than any other Windows installation that I have done. Once Windows was up and running, it ran quite smoothly. After the Mac drivers were installed, wow. I swear that Windows ran better on the Mac than on my old PC laptop. There are, however, many features that I had become accustomed to using in Windows on PC, and my brain tried to use them in Windows on Mac. These features include two-fingered scrolling and the built-in speakers being muted when headphones are plugged in.
Since I don't play games or have high-intensity programs to run, it is hard to judge the performance of the machine compare to other ones. But from what little use I have gotten on Windows via Boot Camp, I'm quite pleased with the results. I can now run those programs that will be required when I reach the upper levels of my degree. Microsoft Visio, for example, is a cool program for making diagrams that can only be used in Windows right now. For the moment, however, there aren't really any programs that I need that only work in Windows, so I'm going to get rid of Boot Camp once I figure out how to.
The final version of Boot Camp will come out when the next version of Mac OS X (10.5) is released.
Charles Rumford is a sophomore majoring in information technology and is the production manager. He can be reached at charles@thetriangle.org.
