Re: Is this true?

["Bryan Villados" <news002@macgeek.org>]

On top of what Byron mentioned...

Referring to partitioning between Windows and Macs, there's another angle to
this. Not only can you partition on a Macintosh, you can also have multiple
system folders on the same partition. And, you can move them around and
place them wherever you want, and doing so won't hurt a thing.

With Windows, you're stuck with fixed everything!!! The boot track is fixed,
the location of the Windows subdirectory is fixed, fixed addressing of
partitions and other storage devices (A:, C:, etc.)

As a matter of fact, I think ProDOS is more flexible than Windows when it
comes to accessing storage devices. You can basically give ProDOS a volume
name, and the Apple II will search all over hell for the device. With
Windows, you have to tell it EXACT where to find a partition.

It's quite possible to install multiple versions of Windows on a single
partition. However, because the PC is only limited to a single boot track
per hard disk, you must go into CMOS and mess with the boot order and tell
it which device you want to boot from. You can work around this by
installing a 3rd-party boot manager, or even mess with Windows' BOOT.INI
file to manage multiple OS's, which is a real pain. On a Macintosh, all you
have to do is tell it which System Folder to boot from using System
Switcher, and it'll program the PRAM to do so. Even with Mac OS X, you can
still manage which System Folder to boot from.

An Apple II may be even more flexible in the area of booting. Even though
the Apple II boots from the first device it finds and only Drive 1
(searching from slot 7 to slot 1), once you're in Applesoft BASIC you can at
least tell it manually which slot to boot from (PR#x). It would be nice to
type to the PC, "I want to boot from the secondary IDE controller, slave
device." It's a bummer PC manufacturers no longer include GWBASIC in their
ROMs, otherwise you could probably do something like that.

Sorry to go off topic, but at least I threw in some Apple II stuff. :P

--- Bryan

"Byron Q. Desnoyers Wimill" <bwinmill@kernigham.sympatico.ca> wrote in
message news:OxVB9.328$8i7.147657@news20.bellglobal.com...

> > Also on the PC I am able to partition a hard drive to use any Windows
> > or DOS OS, but on the Mac this is simply not true.
>
> Actually, your statement is simply not true.  It is easy to install
> several versions of the Macintosh operating system on one partition or
> on several partitions.  Tools like the extension manager make it
> possible to install the same version of the same operating system with
> quite different configurations.  It is also quite easy to install
> different operating systems of different partitions (like Linux or
> NetBSD).
>
> Byron.
>