DC goes multi-platform

[Uatu]

My consolation is that OS X 10.5 has Boot Camp

[manikus]

Boot Camp is not a VM, right? You have to actually shut down and reboot in Windows?

That must make some things a lot easier, like games.

[Uatu]

Yup, it is just running Windows on an (Intel) Mac. On the upside, rebooting is quite fast on my machine...

And yes, this was the only way to get my Temple of Elemental Evil game working on my Mac...

[manikus]

Another consolation is that dual-booting allows more resources for the OS that is running than a VM would. That means, bigger, faster, better!

[Uatu]

Exactly! Temple of Elemental Evil, at least, is quite fast and loads in a blink now! (3GB of RAM for one OS definitely helps a lot!)

[manikus]

In fact, if you're running XP, 3 GB is the max it will read. (Or maybe it's 4 - dang I should remember this.)

[Uatu]

I think it is something stupid like 3.3253 GB or something like that...

[manikus]

According to MS, it's 4 GB, or 2 to the power of 32. . However, depending on your software configuration it could be as low as 2 GB. It seems that the number you gave, Uatu is around the number that a lot of people get when running 4 GB, but it varies from motherboard to motherboard with some people reporting 3.8 GB or so.

What I need to do is pimp out my Server 2003 - regular has the same limit as XP, but the Enterprise Edition (which I have) supports up to 32 GB of RAM. That would be sweet! Of course, the machine I use only supports 2 GB, but hey, I can always re-install.

If anyone wants to learn more from Microsoft, here is a link -
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system...AE/PAEmem.mspx

[Uatu]

I did consider Windows XP 64-bit, but... Lots of games and other programs do not support it, so we lose compatibility 32 GB of RAM would definitely be sweet (3 GB is still the maximum I have ever had in a PC so far, and I am quite happy with that now, though)...

[manikus]

I can't even imagine running 32 GB of RAM. When I upgraded from 512 MB to 1.5 GB, it pretty much clew me away.

The 64-bit system comes with the ability to supposedly run all 32-bit Windows software. As I understand it, it's like a VM, but handled at the core and hardware levels. I have absolutley no experience with it though. My instructors always said to wait on 64 until the majority of software was for 64 b/c there are compatibility issues. I tend to trust them a little more than the official MS version.