“Simplicity. OS X’s built-in dictionary (based on the Oxford American Dictionary) defines simplicity as “The quality or condition of being easy to understand or do.” The thesaurus gives words like ease, clarity and effortlessness,” Chris Howard writes for Apple Matters.
“In the last day or so, I have used a PowerBook G4 1GHz, an eMac G4 800Mhz and an iMac G3 400Mhz (on which I’m writing this). On all three computers, I’ve run the same system. I’ve been running off an external hard disk drive that has my operating system, my applications and my files on it,” Howard writes.
Howard writes, “I’ve been working this way for about six months, ever since my PowerBook’s hard drive gave up the ghost. And every time I switch to another computer, I’m amazed all over again.”
“All I have to do is plug the hard drive into a Mac and boot from it. (Hold the Option key at boot-up to see a list of bootable drives.) No configuration or reconfiguration necessary. ZERO. Zilch. Nil. Nada.” Howard writes. “I can plug my external hard drive into any Mac with Firewire and it will boot up fine. Try that on a PC!”
Full article here.
“I can plug my external hard drive into any Mac with Firewire and it will boot up fine. Try that on a PC!”
Not really “news” but what the hey.
Rock on Chris!
Yup, not a chance on a PC. In fact, everything on a PC is a pain in the ass. But I’m preaching to the choir here.
Now if I could just afford another iMac for home
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Man, I’ll tell you what.
If anyone doubts the tide is turning, let ’em short Apple stock (thus, providing more liquidity) and I’LL KEEP BUYING!
A Mac is a PC. Same processor, graphics card, disk drive, DVD burner, networking chip, bluetooth, firewire and wireless. I think he means, “try that with Windows”.
My brother and sister in law ran an older model G4 off an external Firewire HD for over a year before the hard drive finally gave out.
They called the manufacturer who was surprised they were able to get it to work for that long. Apparently the hard drive was not designed to function as a system volume.
I’d be careful of doing this with an external Firewire HD, and I’d make sure to check with the manufacturer if this is a recommended practice.
System volumes go through more wear and tear than external storage volumes.
Ignore the last poster – there’s no difference between external hard drives and internal hard drives, whether used as a system volume or not.
There are SCSI and SAS drives for server use, which are actually the same drives as the cheaper SATA… except tested and certified, and not pushing the limits like consumer drives.
A bad external enclosure can definitely shorten the life of a drive. I picked up a couple of Welland ME-740J enclosures today and they seem OK.
It’s a little misleading too. Yes, it works on all those macs he mentions, but will not work for across the PowerPC/Intel mac divide.
Isn’t this the kind of innacuracy MDN would yell from the rooftops about if it was ont the other side / written by Thurrot/Enderle / syndicated to AP ?
Not any just Mac with FireWire–you must use a PowerPC Mac. You cannot boot any Intel-based Macs using the installation for a PowerPC Mac. The applications can be Universal, but the entire OS installation is not. I don’t believe it is even an option to have such an installation with Apple’s installers.
It’s for good reason, too because so much of the OS installation consists of executable code, which would require both versions side by side, that most users wouldn’t want the extra bloat.
Technicalities aside, the author’s sentiment still rings clear. You can’t do that with Windows–even if the processors are the same.
Hywel,
The footnote clearly states that it doesn’t:
“Because of the significantly different architecture and totally different partion scheme of the Intel Macs, you cannot yet boot an Intel Mac from a boot disk created on a PowerPC Mac – and vice-versa.”
Perhaps MDN should have inluded this in their selection.
Of course the author said basically the same thing in the footnotes.
Macosxhints has the good oil on how to have both intel and powerpc boot from a single drive
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=2006061610374449&query=powerpc+intel+boot
this is the direct link
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=2006061610374449&query=powerpc+intel+boot
So it’s worse than I thought (having not clicked through to the article). It’s MDN’s own anti-FUD at work, glossing over the truth. Shocking !
What’s wrong with you geekoids?
MDN word
“seem”
Seems like your all nuts.
Do you people sleep?
“Seems like your all nuts.”
It seems like too many people confuse “you’re” with “your.”
Thank you, duper.
You are correct, of course.
Precisely why I changed my name from “Always Right” to “Usually Right”!
Have you tried using it to define “PODCAST”?
It isn’t in the Apple Dictionary. That’s odd. It’s in the Oxford American one: “Personal On-demand broadcasts.”
;~)
If you try that with a Windows PC, Windows will recognize hardware configuration changes and make you re-activate the system. HA HA HA
SUCKERS!
Apple, you won me over 3 years ago and I’ve regretted 0 seconds of that decision.
I think most people didn’t read the article. I can’t believe no one has mentioned the other isssue he raised. i.e the confusing Dell online ordering system and its EIGHTY TRILLION configuration options for one computer alone.
80,000,000,000,000
That is so laughable it’s sad. I pit poor Dell shoppers.
pit=pity of course
And I had to post again, i got the best Magic Word: why
As in why would you subject yourself to that?!
should we care if someone uses your instead of you’re, or to instead of too intead of two, etc.? We’re not journalists. Posting is more like conversation. Due ewe get confused if eye ewes the wrong word? If ewe due, then your knot very smart.
I can’t be the only person who uses his firewire iPod this way. . .am I? My 4G 40 GB iPod only has music on about 15 GB. The rest is data, including a copy of OS X and my home folder. It works great, both as a backup and as an emergency desktop.
Yeah, I’m so glad that Tiger brought out a built-in dictionary and thesaurus. I have loved using Mac OS X’s built-in spell-checker, but the dictionary/thesaurus is fantastic. Thank you again Apple.
Yes, I’m constantly amazed how the Mac does things easily and simply. I hate having to be like a rocket scientist to get things to work on other computers. Granted, if I knew a little more about Windows and Linux, I might be able to appreciate what it can do versus what I have not been able to get it to do.
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The earlier comment about external Firewire drives not being designed for use as a startup drive is nonsense. They have the same type of drives as installed internally. However,
> I can’t be the only person who uses his firewire iPod this way. . .am I?
The tiny drives in iPods are less rugged. It’s fine for limited use, but I wouldn’t want to run it that way too often.