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Category Archives: Mac vs. PC

Guest Post :: Getting the Most Out of Boot Camp

Posted on October 28, 2008 by Ben Stevens Posted in Guest Posts, How Do I ...?, Mac vs. PC, Software 3 Comments
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Guest post
After reading last week's Guest Post by Todd Juneau, Paul
Meyerson
submitted a comment suggesting some additional ways to get the
most out of Boot Camp.  I asked him to expand his thoughts into a Guest Post, which I am now pleased to share with you:

As a Mac consultant in New York City for Templeton &
Associates
,
I have a number of clients around the city that occasionally require
Mac-PC interactivity.  If at all possible, we try to keep our users on
the Mac side, but occasionally there is an application or two that just
need Windows.  For those clients, I had been recommending Parallels, as
Todd mentioned, although VM Ware's newest offering, Fusion v. 2.0, has
me seriously leaning towards that application.  I've found in personal
use that VM Ware is MUCH faster to boot, takes less of the Mac's
resources (Parallels can slow the Mac to a crawl while it's trying to
load up), and is just more compatible than is Parallels on a wide range
of Windows applications.  However, ultimately, both are emulation
software, and as a result are much slower than even an entry level
PC — even if that PC was running the languid Vista!  

So,
if you're a Mac user and need to run a PC on occasion like a true,
fast, serious work PC, your solution should be Boot Camp.   To their
credit, Macs are able to read and write PC disks generally
"out-of-the-box".  Small devices like flash drives, CDs, and even hard
drives less than 32 GB that are formatted for windows are readable — and
writable — on the Mac natively.  Larger volumes, however, such as any
modern hard drive will show up on the Mac desktop as read-only.  This
is because on the PC side there are two basic ways to format a hard
drive — FAT32 and NTFS.  FAT32 is an old format, and maxes out at a 32
GB partition.  This was not a big deal when we were talking about Windows 95 and a few much smaller application.  However, when you start
installing Windows XP, Service Packs, Office 2007, and all of the
typical additions that you need for a viable, and useful, PC partition,
32 GB is downright puny.  

Enter NTFS, a much
more modern hard drive format, and one that supports today's massive
sized hard drives.  However, NTFS, as mentioned, is natively a
read-only format when you're booted from the Mac side, and it's often
really useful to be able to copy things between your Mac partition and
your PC/Boot Camp partition.  For this, there is a highly useful
application by Paragon Software called NTFS for OS X
that installs as a simple system preference on the Mac side, and after
a simple reboot, all of your previously read-only PC volumes are now
read/write.  

What about when you're on the PC side and want to interact with your
Mac files?  As Todd mentioned regarding sharing iTunes, there are ways
around it, but they're sloppy and inefficient — at worst copying all the
same files to both volumes, and at best using some online substitute
like Pandora or streaming radio.  However, with a lovely little
application by Mediafour called MacDrive,
your Mac volumes become completely read/write on the PC, and you can
simply access your iTunes by setting up iTunes on the PC to just add
your songs to the library, and not copy them to the PC drive.  One copy
of your music and one copy of your data files — multiple platforms on the
same machine.

Stick
with Mac if you can, but in a Windows world, these two pieces of
software can make your forays onto "The Dark Side" almost seamless.

Paul
Meyerson is a Senior Engineer at Templeton &
Associates
, a New
York-based consulting firm that specializes in Macintosh solutions,
including building networks, setting up servers, developing custom
Filemaker solutions, integrating Macs into PC offices, and many other
aspects of the Macintosh world. He has spent more than 10 years
consulting to a major NY-based bankruptcy law firm, among many other
clients, and helping keep them all ahead of the curve in the
technology field by sticking with Macs.

Ad Math Doesn’t Make Sense

Posted on October 26, 2008 by Ben Stevens Posted in Mac vs. PC 1 Comment
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Wile E. Coyote
So let me be sure that I've got this right…  Microsoft decided to sink $300 million into an ad campaign to try to convince people that Vista isn't really the bloated, buggy debacle that everyone knows it to be.  In fact, they have even resorted to calling it by another name (Mojave) to make it seem more palatable.

As if that weren't bad enough, they decided to drag Jerry Seinfeld down with them in this poorly conceived ad campaign.  I will freely acknowledge that I am not a marketing genius, but after viewing their first commercial, even Wile E. Coyote could tell that it stinks.  I have seen it several times, and the only thing that it tells me is that for some reason, Vista makes you want to shop for shoes — huh?!? 

Ad - Vista Shoe Circus

Wouldn't that $300 million have been better spent on actually making Vista better?  Apple seems to think so, and they released their own ad (Bean Counter) recently to make that very point.  This ad (like almost all of the "I'm a Mac" ads) is cleverly written and right on point.  I imagine that the anxiety level of the folks in Redmond must continue to rise as they see Macs' market share increase with every passing month, but throwing money away on a pointless ad campaign seems to be the wrong approach.

Ad - Bean Counter

What do you think?

Guest Post :: Using Windows on a Mac

Posted on October 20, 2008 by Ben Stevens Posted in Guest Posts, Mac vs. PC, Switching to Macs 3 Comments
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Guest post
The following guest post is from Todd Juneau, a registered patent attorney in Alexandria, Virginia:

I wanted to share a recent experience I had loading Windows on my Mac machines.  In summary, I am very pleased with my Mac/Windows setup.  A few years ago, I switched from Windows to Linux to Mac OS.  After a few years, I wanted to install a law office practice management suite.  Unfortunately, the ones I liked, ran on Windows.  After much research trying to find a “work-around”, I tried to load Windows on my various Mac machines.

I used Boot Camp to let me run Windows on my iMac.  It partitions the drive, lets you load Windows XP SP2 (or Vista), and gives you a way to switch OS’s by re-booting.  Which (rebooting) by the way is extremely fast.  Apparently, iMac’s are very happy running XP; my experience has been the same: fast.  I know that Parallels and other VM software lets you run both OS’s at the same time, with fast switching, but I avoided this approach due to concerns I had about having a slow machine.

Once XP SP2 is loaded (you can buy XP SP2 at Best Buy), then you can run all your favorite Windows programs natively.  Of course, you’ll need to do all the XP updates (SP3 works well on my iMac) and you’ll need to get some antivirus software — I used ClamWin since it is free and a fast download.  I didn’t want my XP exposed to the internet without it – since Windows “announces” itself to networks, viruses can infect exposed machines within minutes, or less.

I’d recommend looking into getting the Mac Mini if you already have a flat screen and keyboard/mouse devices,  Get the bigger one (the bigger Mini), with more memory and better combo-drive.  Then, use your own flat screen, and a wireless keyboard/mouse set up — check out Logitech EX110 — it’s about $40.  That way, you’ll have a “Windows” keyboard, which works well on the Mac OS side, instead of a “Mac” keyboard that is missing some of the special Windows functions — sound, shortcuts, etc.  It’s all so very compact.

Continue reading→

How Lawyers Practice Law and Serve Clients with Macs — Really!

Posted on October 6, 2008 by Ben Stevens Posted in How Do I ...?, Mac vs. PC, Office Management, Product Reviews, Software, Switching to Macs 5 Comments
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Apple_logo_2
As my readers are aware, I presented two seminars at the ABA TechShow 2008 this past March in Chicago.  One was "How Lawyers Practice Law and Serve Clients with Macs — Really!" which I co=presented with Jeff Richardson.  Our written materials from that session were recently republished in the September 2008 Law Practice Today webzine, as follows:

While most lawyers are
wedded to the PC, these two lawyers enumerate the advantages of the
Mac, for work, for home, and for the pure enjoyment of it.

For over a decade, every one of the hundreds of press releases issued
by Apple has ended by noting that “Apple ignited the personal computer
revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal
computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh.” Apple’s critical role in the
early days of personal computers is beyond debate, but for a period of
time in the 1990s, Apple seemed to have lost its way. Its computer
lineup was confusing, its market share reached an all time low, the
company’s stock price fell to $5 a share (in current share prices), and
Dell CEO Michael Dell famously quipped that if he owned Apple, “I’d
shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders.” 

Since then, the company has had a resurgence. Apple’s computers and
software have received rave reviews, its market share is at the highest
point since the Mac was first introduced in 1984, Apple has taken over
the digital music market with the ubiquitous iPod, the company is
already a formidable presence in the cell phone market with the iPhone
introduced just last year, and at the time of this writing (January of
2008) Apple’s stock price has risen to over $200 a share.

With a record number of people now switching from PCs to Macs, the
question for lawyers is: should you switch too? And if you do, should
you maybe just switch for your home computer, or also for your office
as well? Most importantly, what do you gain and what do you lose by
making the switch?

Continue reading→

Guest Post :: A Mac Firm’s Survival in a PC World

Posted on July 14, 2008 by Ben Stevens Posted in Guest Posts, Mac vs. PC 2 Comments
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Guest_post
The following is a Guest Post from Lianne Gaunt, the System Administrator for Hutchinson, Cox, Coons,
DuPriest, Orr & Sherlock, P.C.
, a law firm in Eugene, Oregon that primarily
uses Macs.  Her post explains how her firm has operated using Macs and integrating them with PCs when necessary.  Thanks to Ms. Gaunt for her post.

We are an 11-attorney firm where all attorneys, legal assistants, and other staff (with the exception of our accounting department) use Macs.   But sometimes even in a Mac office, you just need (or want) to use a Windows program.  We have been using Macs since the early 90’s.  The first emulator I ever came across was SoftPC.  One of our attorneys brought it in and we played with it.  It worked fairly well, as most programs back then were not too complicated, but we really did not have much use for it.

A few years later we switched our time and billing software to a Windows system that allowed for remote time entry, but only with a proprietary Windows program.  Because the idea of computer time entry was so appealing, we installed VirtualPC with Windows 95 on all Macs used by timekeepers.  This initially worked for us, as the time entry program was simple and Windows 95 was fairly simple as well.  However, as often happens, the time entry program became more complicated and we needed to upgrade our VirtualPC operating systems to Windows 2000 or higher.  Once this happened, things went from bad to worse.  Load times for VirtualPC were ridiculously slow and crashes happened often, sometimes requiring a complete install which of course meant that individual would lose all their timekeeping history.  Frustration increased and many wanted to go back to writing out their time and having it hand entered.

I had been looking into Windows Terminal Server for a while, but the cost was quite high as it includes not only the hardware, but Windows Server, Terminal Server and Terminal Server client access licenses for each user, and at the time the cost just did not seem to be justified.   However, after a while the problems just made it almost impossible to continue on the way we were going, and we went ahead and purchased a new server and installed Microsoft Terminal Server, which was by far one of the best decisions we ever made.  The Remote Desktop software is a small program that loads quickly and can be minimized to the dock when not in use.  The timekeeper (with a few workarounds) works just fine on the Terminal Server, and time entry can be done at the same speed as if sitting directly in front of a PC. 

The other advantage for our firm to the Terminal Server is that we had been using Outlook for Macintosh as a client to our Exchange Server.  With the move to OS X, Microsoft stopped making an Outlook client, and while Entourage is a great product (and is proving quite useful in allowing our iPhone users to sync up with the Exchange server), task sharing is not an option.  We use the task list for our tickle system, and legal assistants need to be able to see and create tasks on their attorney’s task lists.  We used Outlook for Macintosh running in classic mode until we implemented the Terminal Sever and began using Outlook for Windows.  As we have been upgrading to the Intel Macs, running classic is no longer an option, and the Terminal Server has enabled us to continue to use Outlook without having to search for an alternate solution.

Our Mac users also have access to a few additional Windows programs that were originally only used by our accounting department, including direct access to the time and billing system.  Our PC users can access our Mac created documents as well, so it does not matter which computer you are sitting in front of, whether it be Mac or PC, as long as you have user permissions there is no document or application that is unavailable.  People always ask me how come we continue to use Macs when everyone else uses PC’s.  I always tell them it is because so far there is nothing we have wanted to do that we have not been able to do while sitting in front of a Mac.  Perhaps using the Terminal Server is cheating a bit, but if it keeps those users in this office who are comfortable using a Mac continuing to use their computers, then it is well worth it.

Microsoft Should Develop “Windows OS X”

Posted on July 4, 2008 by Ben Stevens Posted in Mac vs. PC Leave a comment
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Mac_v_pc_4
The problem with Microsoft Windows is that it is painfully out of date.  Randall Stross writes in The New York Times that what began as a thin veneer for older software code has had layer upon security plugs, bug fixes, etc. heaped upon it, and its inherent design deficiencies are now painfully
visible.  Ouch!

By way of contrast, Mr. Stross believes that Mac OS X is a vastly superior operating system.  In fact, he said that "Windows seems to move an inch
for every time that Mac OS X or Linux laps it."  He praised Apple’s bold move back in 2001 when it introduced OS X, and he strongly suggest that Windows just completely start over from scratch right now to come up with its own "Windows OS X."

The article is a very interesting read, because it provides a good juxtaposition between the Mac way of getting things done and the Windows method of "same old same old." 

Source:  "Windows Could Use a Rush of Fresh Air" by Randall Stross, published in The New York Times.

PC/Mac Smackdown Discusses “Mac vs. PC” Article

Posted on June 30, 2008 by Ben Stevens Posted in Mac vs. PC Leave a comment
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Mac_v_pc_aba
Last week, PC/Mac Smackdown had an in-depth discussion on their podcast about the "Mac vs. PC" article in the ABA Journal.  The hosts, Cal David and David Flashner, called this article "a really good smackdown read."  It is always interesting to me to hear others discuss my work,
particularly my thoughts on Macs, and I appreciate the nice things to say about me and my portion of the article.  You can access or download their podcast by clicking HERE.

Source:  "Episode #43 – Lawyers in Love" published at PC/Mac Smackdown.

Limited Praise for Mac OS X from ABA’s Law Technology Today

Posted on May 30, 2008 by Ben Stevens Posted in Mac OS X, Mac vs. PC, Other Operating Systems 1 Comment
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Mac_vs_pc_1
In his latest "Technology Update," Joe Kashi bemoans the current state of Microsoft’s operating systems, noting that Vista is "not hot," Windows 7 is "years away," and XP is "being killed off."  In fact, he sounds like he’s "almost" ready to be a Mac convert, when he says

Were I starting over and had no Windows-only legal software
constraints, I’d go with the excellent Mac OS 10 or some form of Linux,
both of which are based upon the powerful Unix operating systems that
have been constantly improved and refined since the late 1960s, an when
Bill Gates had not yet dropped out of Harvard. Unfortunately, most
legal professionals don’t have the luxury of changing operating systems
because we are tied to Windows-only legal software.

I’m glad that Mr. Koshi is such a fan of Mac’s OS X, but I disagree with his assertion that it’s difficult for attorneys who use Windows to switch.  As I’ve written over the years, there are many excellent legal software options available to Mac users, and through the use of virtualization software, Mac users can also run any necessary Windows-only programs.

Source:  ""Technology Update" by Joe Kashi, published in the ABA Law Practice Management Section‘s Law Technology Today.

Former PC Lawyers Discuss Their Switch to Macs

Posted on May 12, 2008 by Ben Stevens Posted in Mac vs. PC, Switching to Macs Leave a comment
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Cba_national_cover
Luigi Benetton published an interesting article in the April/May 2008 edition of The Canadian Bar Association‘s National magazine, which discussed the "Mac conversion" experiences of several former PC-using attorneys and firms.   Some of their reasons given by these professionals are:

  • Rob
    Hyndman
    :: After the latest in a string of
    what he calls “Windows catastrophes” and the 24 hours of work it took
    him to restore his system afterwards, Hyndman made a technological
    u-turn and migrated to the Mac.
  • Damien Fox :: “You want something that just works for you,” he says.
  • Jennifer Gabriel :: Since there is so little actual internal IT support needed, she spends more time spearheading new IT initiatives and staffing
    reception.

The article also discusses some of the hurdles that Mac-using attorneys must deal with in their practices, including the fact that there are fewer Mac-specific software options from which to choose.  If you are considering making the switch, you should read the entire article at the link provided below.

Source:  "Making The Switch to Mac" by Luigi Benetton, published in the National.

Popular Mechanics Rates Macs as Superior to PCs

Posted on April 18, 2008 by Ben Stevens Posted in Hardware, Mac vs. PC, Product Reviews 1 Comment
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Milo_logo
It’s becoming somewhat "old news" nowadays.  Objective testing by yet another highly respected magazine has concluded that Macs are better than PCs — in both desktop and laptop versions. 

This time, it was Popular Mechanics recently ran two comparison tests in its May 2008 edition.  The desktop competition featured the iMac vs. Gateway One, and the notebook version featured the MacBook vs. Asus M51SR.  You can read the full article HERE, but a summary is listed below, in Popular Mechanics’ own words:

In both the laptop and desktop showdowns, Apple’s computers were the winners. Oddly, the big difference didn’t come in our user ratings, where we expected the famously friendly Mac interface to shine. Our respondents liked the look and feel of both operating systems but had a slight preference toward OS X. In our speed trials, however, Leopard OS trounced Vista in all-important tasks such as boot-up, shutdown and program-launch times. We even tested Vista on the Macs using Apple’s platform-switching Boot Camp software–and found that both Apple computers ran Vista faster than our PCs did.

Source:  "Mac vs. PC: The Ultimate Lab Test for New Desktops & Laptops" by Glenn Derene, published in Popular Mechanics.

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