Comments on: Windowless

By: Dave

Dave — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 14:35:32 +0000

Paul – interesting alternative view! I have a few favoured Windows apps, but I reckon they will work just as well within Parallels on the Mac, or Wine on linux. Not much Mac and linux lovers cann do about your hardware preferences though!

You’re damn right about FeedDemon, the best desktop RSS there is – and free now too! Was seriously disappointed in NetNewsWire, so much so that I am now back on Google Reader.

By: Paul Caplan

Paul Caplan — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 14:18:23 +0000

Always one to be contrary, I’ve gone the other way. My stylish and silver Powerbook is now back in its case and I’m back to XP. A few reasons, should anyone be interested: Dragon Naturally Speaking – being able to rant my reports and Audits is so much more fun and productive; Feeddemon beats the h out of NetNewsWire; Microsoft OneNote – sometimes they can get it right; Suunto – heart rate monitoring for my cycling… but most of all. A TabletPC just is the business. Like a fixed wheel bike, once you’ve been there you wouldn’t go back.

By: Dave

Dave — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 11:19:04 +0000

@ Jeremy – no problems, though this laptop is a bit of a beast to lug around with me!

@ Simon – Yes, and there is real potential now that Linux is getting easier and easier to use – the version that comes with the eeePC is a prime example. For non techies, it’s perfect. Quite a few organisations, though, including (shamefully) the Government, distribute files etc in propriatory formats like .doc which can cause non Windows (or Office owners) problems despite the best efforts of the likes of OpenOffice.org.

@ Steph – I’m going to try and get IE working in Wine, though I haven’t had a proper look at it. I have access to IE at work, anyway, so can check stuff there when I need to in the meantime. Have been looking at Parallels but am not sure my little Macbook could cope with it. I’m eying up a beefy iMac for home for real grunt work – video processing etc – and that could be the machine to run virtual Windows on!

By: Steph

Steph — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 22:50:10 +0000

Interesting: how are you checking that stuff still works in IE – are you running Parallels or Fusion on the Mac?

I once got a secondhand Dell just to be able to run IE on Windows for development purposes. Now I just have two virtual machines in Parallels, one with IE6 and one with IE7 and I’ve not booted up the old laptop in months…

By: Simon Berry

Simon Berry — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 22:12:06 +0000

I think this is really interesting. I’m a Mac user but ended up having to get a PC because I wanted to run a specialist mapping application that was only available for the PC. As the definition of ’specialist’ gets smaller and smaller so will the need to have a Windows machine. A proxy for the measurement of ’specialist’ is the number of applications/services that don’t depend on the underlying operating system eg those delivered through a cross-platform application such as Firefox.

By: Jeremy Gould

Jeremy Gould — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 21:26:50 +0000

Nice one Dave – look forward to seeing it sometime.