2 replies to this topic

[Newhotness]

Hi experts, this is more of a general interest question, I was questioned about whether a Mac os could be placed on a PC, and if so, what kind of problems could result from it, and while we're on the topic, would it be the same with putting a windows os on a mac?

PS: is it better to post these general questions in the lounge or somewhere else, or is this fine here?

thankx

[Tarun]

Newhotness, on Jun 16 2005, 02:38 PM, said:

Hi experts, this is more of a general interest question, I was questioned about whether a Mac os could be placed on a PC, and if so, what kind of problems could result from it, and while we're on the topic, would it be the same with putting a windows os on a mac?

PS: is it better to post these general questions in the lounge or somewhere else, or is this fine here?

thankx

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I believe you would have a lot of conflicts if you tried to put a Mac OS onto a system that at one time had Windows. Mac's are very tightly interwoven with their hardware (from what my professor said).

Also, this is more of a software question, since OS' are software.

[DjLizard]

For one thing, you can't put Mac OS on a PC, nor Windows on a Mac. Apple writes all of the drivers for Mac OS, and it won't recognize anything other than for-Apple hardware. Second, the current architecture is PPC (PowerPC) which is quite radically different than IA-32 (intel x86), especially when it comes to endianess.

This is changing -- Apple is going to use x86 processors (Pentium D and up, to be exact (P-D is dual core ;)) in their future computers, which allows kernel hackers to make Mac OS work on it -- this will be a totally pirate thing -- Apple does not want OS X to run on a PC, as much as MS wouldn't want Windows to work on a Mac. Either way, it'll be a really dirty, unstable hack, that will barely support any hardware. It's a crapshoot and you're going to lose almost every shot.