Upgrades are to be avoided, period. Back it up, slick it via installing new
OS "clean", restore from backup, have at it. Only install Vista Beta builds,
or any Beta build for that matter, on a "SkunkWerks" computer that is not
your everyday bread-and-butter computer. Unless you are the adventurous
(read: reckless) type... ;-D
Lang
I guess rich folks get to take chances by going to Europe and other
exotic places. Poor folks like me get to take chances by installing
Beta OSes on our only production machine(s). In my case, its an Intel
iMac 17" w/ OS 10.4.6, and dualbooting with XP using Apple's BootCamp
software, and soon, hopefully, with Vista Beta 2 and Vista's
Candidate(s).
However, being able to virtualize ANY of the three OSes side by side
would provide a great opportunity to choose between solutions. Three
choices: What a great concept. Three chances to make one or more
Operating Systems our own. Whether we chose only one, or all three,
in the end does not matter.
Even better than virtualizing three OSes would be RUNNING three OSes
NATIVELY side by side each on its own display with all three using the
same CPU. Physically, I am able to tri-boot with three OSes. I could
use a larger internal HD, or a secondary internal HD, or both. But
also as important, I would need a second Duo-Core processor, or a
Quad-Core processor, or even a 64-bit Intel or clone, such as AMD
64-bit processors if I had to. If a PowerPC could run Vista natively,
rather than a software virtualization kludge, it would be possible to
use a Quad-Core PowerPC. If IBM had been willing to change its
priorities, we would have 5 gHZ x86s Quad-Cores today.
But, most important of all, we need support from Apple, since only
they produce BootCamp. If Apple will add support for multi-booting in
BootCamp, many will continue using Apples to run non-Apple, but
hardware compatible, OSes.
The old "carny" was right when he said, "You pays yer dime, and you
takes yer chances". Probably, in his day, the dime you gave him payed
for 3 chances to throw a large ring around a small bottle (and you
NEVER succeeded, but alway wound up, somehow, with a small prize, a
colorful gew-gaw mass-produced in Taiwan). Ah, glorious youth...
Our chances today are not so clearly defined for us. Since there
there are many more choices, there are many more chances to take.
Anyway, whether it's by installing a beta on your only machine, or by
taking a "deluxe" hunting trip to Darkest Africa, we're still all
taking chances in life.
And as long as we are willing to take chances, life will be fun and
others become easier to get along with. Take the chances away, and
life suddenly loses all flavor. Remove the mystery, and life becomes
dark and forboding. Take away all hope, and life simply ends,
forever. Take away all honor, and life has no reward. Take away all
respect, and life becomes bitter and undesirable.
Whether we install a questionable beta OS on our only precious
machine, or install a beta on a thousand replaceable desktops, we are
all taking chances, without which life has no meaning.
The PURPOSE is in taking the best choices for US (and our families and
companies, of course. Nor should we leave out those who cannot defend
and take care of themselves). THAT is the American Dream in a
nutshell.
Hopefully, both Microsoft and Apple will make the best choices for all
of us, and not just themselves.
--
Donald L McDaniel
Please reply to the original newsgroup and thread,
so that the conversation may continue undisturbed.
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