[UK-CONTEST] Macs, PCs& Linux

Sat Nov 18 17:44:31 EST 2006

Hi Clive, (and copied to the list in case others are interested) ...

I guess with a question like you posed I had better step forward as a  
mac devotee!

Like you suggest, I have done everything except contest logging on an  
OSX mac for many years now.  I have also been working from time to  
time with Don Agro VE3VRW who does some superb general operating and  
logging software (MacLoggerDX - MLDX) and Satellite Software  
(MacDoppler) to see if he would turn his hand to a killer contest  
logger but our efforts suffer from the fact that there has been  
insufficient demand from the Amateur/Mac community to justify a  
commercial development, and also he is not a contester (and most of  
the decent PC contest logging programs are developed by enthusiastic  
contesters!).   There is some support for the less demanding (mainly  
S&P single-op) contester in MLDX coupled with a post-processing app  
by Scott NE1RD).

So for the past few years I have been employing a Windoze PC to do  
the contest logging.  However with the advent of all Macs with Intel  
Chips now, there are other options.  I have not had an Intel Mac to  
play with in the shack yet but I expect to do this and some serious  
testing in the new year when I plan my next Apple hardware upgrade!   
But to answer your question, there are a number of options for  
running Windows Apps on Macs now...

1) Boot Camp from Apple (http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/) -  
which allows you to install a separate Windows o/s in a partition it  
organises for you and then boot the whole machine into XP (will  
support Vista later too) to run anything you like.  Because its Apple  
they supply all the right drivers to drive the Apple hardware in all  
the machines to work within Boot Camp.  Its a pretty good beta at the  
moment but will be integrated into the next version of OSX  
("Leopard") due Q1 2007.   Because it boots into Windows, everything  
works with no emulation and its very fast on the latest Core 2 Duo  
processor Macs.   The downside is that you have to reboot for Windows  
- I consider this no problem for contest logging.

2) Parallels Desktop for Mac (http://www.parallels.com/en/products/ 
workstation/mac/) - which is an app that runs on OSX (so no  
rebooting) and allows you to run any number of o/s side by side  
(various flavours of Windows or Linux etc.)  providing you have  
enough RAM etc.  Not quite as fast as Boot Camp but still as quick as  
many PCs for many applications.  No good for fast action gaming but  
apparently pretty good for other stuff.   Again like Boot Camp you  
have to install Windows - this time on the virtual machine that  
Parallels creates for you.   There are a few funnies with the Mac  
hardware which have been reported but it gets better with each update  
and seems to be quite popular.

3) CrossOver Mac for OSX by Codeweavers (http://www.codeweavers.com/ 
products/cxmac/) - which allows a very specific but growing set of  
Windows apps to run within OSX without needing any Windows  
installation or a Windows licence at all.  Not much good for amateur  
use (i.e. contest logging apps) but ok if all you need is stuff like  
MS Outlook, MS Visio, or MS  Project etc.

4) VMware (http://www.vmware.com/news/releases/mac.html) - not so  
much known about this product yet but essentially provides a virtual  
machine interface so you canrun an PC o/s on the OSX system.  They  
have a history of providing similar virtualisation software for other  
platforms so no reason to think their new OSX product will be any  
different.

I plan to use Boot Camp in Leopard when released and when I have my  
new Intel mac hardware.  I have no reason to believe it won't run  
stuff like SD, N1MM, TacLog and all the other popular contest  
loggers.  I hope to be able to test these on a borrowed Intel Mac in  
the next month or so.  If anyone else has already done this, I would  
be pleased to know.

Of course, if the fancy takes you, with a Mac you can also open a  
UNIX terminal window if that's your fancy, and also run X11 apps  
(there is a VHF & above contest logger which someone has written for  
X11 for example! ).

Any other questions, don't hesitate to email me.
There is also a pretty useful ham mac mailing list (though US-centric  
at present) - http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/ham-mac

73,
Jonathan G0DVJ
--

On Nov 18, 2006, at 5:22 pm, Clive Whelan wrote:

> A tad off topic, but then perhaps not?
>
> I am increasingly fed up with the Windows OS, in respect of
> instability and other issues. Yes I use XP, an order better
> than Win9x, but still less than satisfactory with the load I
> currently place upon it, particularly of late with so much
> USB stuff strutting its stuff. Now I know that I can do
> virtually all that I need outside of contesting software on
> a Mac or Linux, but of course contesting software is soooo
> heavily biased towards the PC architecture.
>
> Now I know that Linux does have some form of Windows
> emulation, Mac OS I'm unsure about. So my basic question is
> whether either of those systems is currently viable in its
> support of Windows software that it could run say N1MM ( et
> al). I would gladly bin my PC hardware and invest in a Mac
> if that were the case.
>
> Anyone know the score?
>
>
> 73
>
>
> Clive
> GW3NJW
>
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