[P1] Using a Mac in a Windows office

[good-dog at northshore.net]

On Saturday, February 22, 2003, at 05:34 AM, Charles Martin wrote:
>
>
>> We both are Mac hounds and she has a new iMac set up with
>> Virtual PC.  I contend she can do everything on her Mac and can ditch
>> the laptop she normally works.
>
> Unless she plays a lot of 3D games on that laptop, you are probably 
> right.

She'll be playing a new Windows 3-D Game:  Dell into Dumpster

>>   However, we just don't know how to rig
>> it so she can interface seamlessly with her Windows neighbors.
>
> If she's on Mac OS X (10.2 or higher), there's not a lot to do. She 
> should be able to plug right into the network and share printers and 
> files with the same ease (actually MORE ease) than if she were using a 
> PC. No VirtualPC necessary. Now if they're on some kind of funky 
> network groupware thing like Novell or Citrix, she'll need Mac clients 
> for those, but for plain-jane Windows networks she should be 
> plug-n-play.

I'm assuming, then, that if she has a Mac OS X version of Office she 
can write Excel documents and send them to her Windows cohorts, and her 
Windows cohorts can send her Excel documents and she can read them no 
problem.  What about being able to access the network and work on 
documents, you know, opening them, changing them, saving them? From 
what you say, this should be easy.

Since writing this initial message, there's an outside chance I could 
work on a mac at work, too.  This would resolve many things, including 
the LCD vs CRT issue I've mentioned before.  We work on a Novel network 
with an ever increasing MS products line.  Who knows, the way things 
are going, the server would well become Windows.  Our email system is 
Groupwise.  Familiar with it?  I'm going to pitch my idea about me 
using a Mac (iMac with the fastest processor and most memory it can 
come with) for various Sales Dept. duties involving graphics and 
managing graphics as they transition themselves into the hands of the 
OS X Un-friendly Communications Dept (read Graphics).

Based on what you say, I'd be running VPC 6.  My only concern is if VPC 
would run fast enough on a high end iMac to be usable in everyday 
Windows activities since we are on Novell.

>
> Oh, and if she really wants to fit in to that Windows group, she'd 
> probably better download a copy of Solitaire. :)

I'll tell her about this strategy.  If they see her playing Solitaire 
on the iMac, maybe they'll think she's really on a PC.  Many people at 
her work aren't the swiftest ever hatched.

Thanks.

Mark