JPF Home Page Forums General Messages General Message Forum Running a Mac and PC together?

Hi, Donna.
You don't mention which model the Mac is. If your Mac is running Tiger or higher, you should be able to open most files that don't require that you have the original application. For instance it will open pdf, tiff, rich text files, pict, midi, wav etc.

If you have program specific files then you would have to have a current version of that application on your computer. Some applications have both versions of the program on the installer disk and allow you to have it on two computers. Word and Finale and some other programs allow that.

Macs have always been able to "see" and open many common files that it can read regardless of the format of the external storage device.

Some of the older macs do not have a workable audio in and have to rely on USB devices which can cause a little latency. If you want to use the older Mac for recording you may want to rethink that.

I am not going to engage in the Mac Vs PC battle here because it is not the issue. I believe John has one of the very latest models which are very good. The older Mac may not be as good for your needs. If you have dual platform software, then it may suit you. If they are giving the machine away or are selling it for a pittance, then definitely take it, and even if you can't use your music software on it, keep current on your security updates and use it for the Internet or as a back up computer.

However, 4 years old is still pretty old for a computer nowadays, and that is when you began to get some hardware breakdown, regardless of the platform. But if you were the only one who used it and it wasn't used heavily, it may still have a lot of years on it.