New Macbook Air and Windows XP
- Thread starter stampedeadam
- Start date
barnsley
born in a.....
I might like to add that Macs (excluding my ol' MBA) last for ages. My old, crusty, Power Mac only died thanks to my sister's idiocy. How old was it? 11 years old. Old enough that it had 1gb ram, Power PC cpu, 6800gt and more dust then most libraries. It was quieter than the laptop it replaced and booted up quicker than my ol' win 7 desktop did. Not to mention the Power Mac looks fantastic.
Alright that laptop lasted for ages, and yes apple products do have quite good build quility, but honestly, how many people use the same laptop for 11 years?
I know, I know, target audience etc. etc, but really, who?
barnsley
born in a.....
Alright that laptop lasted for ages, and yes apple products do have quite good build quility, but honestly, how many people use the same laptop for 11 years?
*desktop mate
.
gee, I wonder who inspired Lian Li
Surely though its an excellent example of how well made they are?
SuB
The Webmaster
The bigger question is, how many laptops with new hardware have xp drivers out the box with little/no hassle?
It's an odd mix, but in some ways an old refurb mac (to save money) might be better, because apple will make a driver disc for windows for you.
It's up to the OP here really if his heart is set on a mac with xp.. so be it. He needs it for checking out cars and stuff which means it really will need to be portable, and pretty rugged to boot. not sure an air is all of those things, but it's certainly portable lol
*desktop mate
gee, I wonder who inspired Lian Li
Surely though its an excellent example of how well made they are?
Whoops, I get confused by Apple naming all the time
SuB
The Webmaster
Whoops, I get confused by Apple naming all the time
Mac Pro = desktop
Mac Book Pro = laptop
not that difficult
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WeLikeLead
New member
stampedeadam
New member
Well thanks for all the replies, chaps. A lot to think about. With the help of some gaffa tape and epoxy resin I think I will be able to eke another month or so out of the old Dell Vostro, which will give me time to check out some of the competition. If loading XP on the Macbook is going to be a chore/unlikely to work without serious hacking etc, then I'll have to look elsewhere anyway.
I do think a lot of the Apple hate is unfair though. I have had nothing but good experiences with Apple mobile stuff, (three iphones and two ipads so far) and a laptop for me is just another mobile device. I don't expect or need the same number crunching/graphics power I would get from my desktop. I need something with quick i/o (so SSD is essential) and good battery life. And yes, it needs to look smart too and give a professional image. I am plugging in to people's pride and joy and changing settings on their ECUs, and I've had a couple of people looking sideways at the battered old Dell I use at the mo - so it has to go, no questions. What I use has to inspire confidence
I do wish that XP virtualisation under Windows 7/8/8.1 etc. would do the job, sadly it won't. The kit I use needs precise timing of signals over USB to work properly and this is something that virtualisation has trouble with - I have tried - and even if it did work by some miracle I wouldn't trust it. Imagine an ECU re-program like a BIOS flash for a car - get it wrong and you might have a 1 1/2 ton brick
I do think a lot of the Apple hate is unfair though. I have had nothing but good experiences with Apple mobile stuff, (three iphones and two ipads so far) and a laptop for me is just another mobile device. I don't expect or need the same number crunching/graphics power I would get from my desktop. I need something with quick i/o (so SSD is essential) and good battery life. And yes, it needs to look smart too and give a professional image. I am plugging in to people's pride and joy and changing settings on their ECUs, and I've had a couple of people looking sideways at the battered old Dell I use at the mo - so it has to go, no questions. What I use has to inspire confidence
I do wish that XP virtualisation under Windows 7/8/8.1 etc. would do the job, sadly it won't. The kit I use needs precise timing of signals over USB to work properly and this is something that virtualisation has trouble with - I have tried - and even if it did work by some miracle I wouldn't trust it. Imagine an ECU re-program like a BIOS flash for a car - get it wrong and you might have a 1 1/2 ton brick
barnsley
born in a.....
Maybe get a reconditioned ex business laptop to run XP?
Something like a lenovo Thinkpad X201?
Something like a lenovo Thinkpad X201?
stampedeadam
New member
Wow, that's cheap!
Could easily put an SSD in it and job done... wow... thanks for the headsup
barnsley
born in a.....
Wow, that's cheap!
You might want to check if it has sata support but yeah, ex buisness lenovos are great value! Been using them for years without issue
.NeverBackDown
AMD Enthusiast
Well i will say this again.. can't you get a newer version of the software that runs on a newer OS? You could get a newer laptop with better support for the software with drivers and all.
stampedeadam
New member
Nope. Unfortunately not. I have looked into all that in some detail. It absolutely positively needs Windows XP, a particular version of Java and Microsoft .NET framework and internet explorer 6. Or it will either not run at all or will malfunction. And the consequences of it going wrong can get really very expensive.
It's hard to get across the challenges of running very specialist expert systems to people. A lot of software in common use is made for millions of users and the developers making updates for it is just a matter of course. But when you run stuff made by very small developers (one of which has now gone out of business I think), catering to maybe a few hundred/thousand users, expecting updates to get the latest n greatest operating system is unrealistic. They will have sunk massive amounts into developing for a specific platform, and just won't be able to redo it all.
There are alternatives to some of the stuff I use but they don't work quite as well and cost serious £££££. Either I accept the quirks of the software/hardware in exchange for the pretty impressive stuff it allows me to do, or I lay out serious wedge on getting something not quite as good.
And whatever laptop I do get to replace this - I am absolutely dreading installing it all and making it work again
I had to modify the registry myself to get some of it to work last time. And the USB to serial converter is the touchiest thing ever to plug into a USB port and once it's set up, the device communicates with it at a massive 115200 baud - so reprogramming a 32MB flashcard takes about 35 mins.Not ideal but - there you are!
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RamboOC
Suspended By Request of Police
Windows xp can be easily loaded onto a mac by using bootcamp without any hacks. however it will be bad for graphically intensive tasks. it will also perform slightly worse than a laptop with the same specs running windows as native os
It was such a pain switching from windows to os x(hackingtosh) for me. some of the applications available for OS X lack basic features that were available ages ago on windows pc's, for example utorrent didn't have auto shut down feature when download complete on os x. Also no one should bother buying an os x machine if they plan to game. Steam and humble bundle statistics just amaze me. To add to that there were a few programs that i used regularly available for windows that were not available on os x, however there were alternatives but they were not as good as the windows programs. Lastly, some of the os x software is overpriced too.
Im guessing that you flash ECU's?
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When running bootcamp, you are running native. You shouldn't see any performance difference. You aren't virtualizing/emulating or running on top of OSX. I gamed fine in Win7 on my last MBP and do the same with Win8 on the new MBP. The only real issue is graphics switching doesn't work within Windows so your battery life will suffer compared to OSX. Models with only one GPU though don't have to worry.
XP does work with bootcamp right now, but support has ended so if if quits working in the future it will not be fixed. In this user's instance I would definitely look for something else.
If you want something that look similar to an Apple with similar build quality, HP Elitebooks look nice. Not sure how well XP will run on the new models though and if there are drivers available.
stampedeadam
New member
I saw this on the Dell website and thought it was too good an offer not to take up... If it doesn't suit, I'll just give it to my parents etc. Brand new Dell with Bay Trail celeron N2830, 500gb hard disc, 4gb RAM, windows 8.1, 15.6" screen... after a voucher code I found on the web... guess how much?
£166.47.
I am half expecting them to call me tomorrow and tell me it's a mistake and give me my £ back.
£166.47.
I am half expecting them to call me tomorrow and tell me it's a mistake and give me my £ back.
RamboOC
Suspended By Request of Police
I saw this on the Dell website and thought it was too good an offer not to take up... If it doesn't suit, I'll just give it to my parents etc. Brand new Dell with Bay Trail celeron N2830, 500gb hard disc, 4gb RAM, windows 8.1, 15.6" screen... after a voucher code I found on the web... guess how much?
£166.47.
I am half expecting them to call me tomorrow and tell me it's a mistake and give me my £ back.
That sounds about right after discount. If you bought a mac branded laptop with theese specs you would have to pay like £800
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barnsley
born in a.....
More like £200 with a high res screen if we're going to go down that route
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