Mac and PC Interoperability

My fiancé is a Mac person. She’s a web designer (and a damn good one), so I cut her some slack on that one. This weekend she upgraded her Mac to Panther (OS 10.3). On a lark, I decided to check if the new version supported Windows-based VPNs (PPTP, I guess not strictly Windows-based, but I believe it came out of the Windows world). Lo and behold, it did! I configured it to connect to my company’s VPN (a process that was harder than it should have been – sometimes I think Mac’s reputation for ease of use is overblown). Once configured correctly, it worked like a charm. I installed Microsoft’s remote desktop client for the Mac, and connected to my box at work. Bing, bang, boom, I was seamlessly controlling my XP machine from my fiancé’s Mac.

Very cool. Interoperability is a beautiful thing.

On a side note, when she was shopping for the upgrade, I was initially surprised by the fact that there was no “upgrade license vs new license” pricing. Coming from the PC world, that struck me as odd. Of course, after I thought about it for two seconds I clued in to the fact that all Macs come from Apple, with an Apple OS, so all OS purchases are inherently upgrades. Just like McDonald’s in France – “They got the same stuff over there that they got here, it’s just a little different”.

 

5 Comments

  • Your company actually let you connect to the LAN using Microsoft's PPTP implementation? Cool...

  • Take a close look at all the microsoft OS boxes, they are all Upgrades. Microsoft will only sell upgraded os' as they only sell original copies to OEM's like dell or IBM.



    So if you put together a box from spare parts and try to install a MS OS you bought at the store you are in violation of the license agreement.

  • ...Mac ease of use is not at all overblown in general, but some parts definitively need ironing out. I don't VPN (though I could, being a part-time OS-X "mobile helpdesk") so I couldn't judge on that particular point.



    As for upgrading from Mac OS X 10.2 to 10.3, OS X "Panther" is $129.- for a full retail version (with no authentication number of process whatsoever) shipping with features that XP Home users can only dream about (eg. iPfw, Postix, Apache, full Java implementation, Perl, Python, a cool Bash terminal and a barrel of other free BSD open-source goodies); Apple's XCode development tools install disc (that ships with each copy of Panther) is a great geek-perk that's worth mentioning as well.



    Methinks 129 smackeroos for a full version is pretty in the same ballpark as Windows upgrades (which ship with the pain of Stalin-era authentification), so there!

  • erratum: "...no authentication number of process whatsoever..." should read: "...no authentication number OR process whatsoever..."



    My bad...

  • There's no doubt that OS X is a slick and easy to use OS. But sometimes it's held us as a paragon of usability, and I don't think it always lives up to that. It has its quirks, just as all OSs do. I'll cede the activation point, but that's one of those "victims of their own success" things.



    As for the features, I don't think too many XP Home users are dreaming about Apache, Perl, Python, or much of the other stuff that you mentioned. Those are for developers and power users, and can be easily obtained on the PC for those who need them.



    And I still think Apple is dopey for refusing to ship a two button mouse (and the one button mouse that they ship is ergonomically terrible). Even my Mac addict fiance agrees with me on that one. She long since switched to a third party two-button mouse.

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