Re: Power Macintoshes with Dos/Windows Compatibility

[Stuart Blythe <blythes@omni.cc.purdue.edu>]

Hi Denise:

We have one Macintosh with DOS/Windows compatibility (PowerMac 6100) and it 
also never runs correctly.  We spent two semesters trying to get DOS 
software installed, and things kept crashing during the installation.  We 
now use it only as a Mac.

However, another way we've achieved a level of cross-platform
compatibility is through Microsoft Office.  We have three new PowerMac
7200's equipped with Microsoft Office, and I have no problem taking 
Office applications that were written on a PC and opening & working with
them on the PowerMacs (and vice versa).  

Those PowerMacs read PC disks, and the Microsoft Office applications are
so compatible that the only thing I have to watch are fonts (the set of
available PC fonts differs from the set of available Mac fonts, so a file
created on a PC platform may open on a Mac with a different set of fonts). 
Just today I took a PowerPoint presentation that I had created on a PC
(Windows 3.1) and opened it with the Mac's version of PowerPoint.  (I have 
heard, though, that Windows '95 doesn't work as well with this. I have no 
first-hand experience w/ Windows '95, though.)

So, if a majority of users on your campus use Microsoft Office, you may 
achieve a level of compatibility by ordering Microsoft Office and 
PowerMacs.  It's one way around the compatibility dilemma, but I'm sure 
there are others.  

Hope this helps.

Stuart Blythe
blythes@cc.purdue.edu


On Wed, 11 Sep 1996 enpani@alpha.nlu.edu wrote:

> I apologize in advance for those who will receive this message on more than 
> one discussion group, but here goes . . . .
> 
> I have been tossing around the idea of upgrading the computers in our Writing 
> Center to Power Macintoshes with DOS/Windows compatibility.  
> 
> I was wondering if anyone else has that set up for a classroom or a Writing 
> Center and what problems exist with it.
> 
> Presently we have 15 DTK (IBM-compatible, 386's) and 7 Macintosh LC's.  Both 
> are used regularly.  Also, our faculty is split--3/4 use IBM's, 1/4 use 
> Macintoshes, and all the College of Liberal Arts labs are Macintosh. 
> 
> I would appreciate any feedback you can give me.
> 
> Thanks in advance.
> 
> Denise Pani
> 
> enpani@alpha.nlu.edu
> 
> Director,
> The Writing Center
> Northeast Louisiana University
> Monroe, LA 71209
> 
>