I was tempted by Bootcamp (it's free, after all), but I've been put off by the whole "reboot to swap OSes" thing. I was thinking that maybe the $79.99 for Parallels would be a smart investment (seeing as how I'd have to pay for a copy of Vista anyway), because then I could switch instantly between the two.
But here's the thing... in nine months of OSX use, I've never felt the need to use a Windows application. So I'm just not sure it's worth it.
FWIW, I have used Vista a bit on my wife's laptop. It's fine - looks and feels a bit better than XP. But still not as good as OSX. And the applications (particularly Office 2007) just feel a bit... complicated to use.
Dennis Howlett
· 2 years ago
LiveWriter is really good - true WYSIWYG - a small thing that could push me over the edge. Way better than ecto which is the best of the Mac blog writers. IMO.
Al
· 2 years ago
For now I would advise Parallels, it's easy to switch between both platforms. Also when vista gets corrupted/ infected or whatever it's easy to create a new image.
Also don't forget with vista you still have the dreaded anti virus/Spyware/adware issues, those have not gone away. How do I know this, My wife reminds me everyday with here mumbling and cursing at her system.
P.S. She doesn't have a choice as 80% of her work is based on Sage (her customers choices) which will only run on Windows.
regards Al
Al
· 2 years ago
On the blogging subject, I too like yourself have used Ecto in the past. I am not sure why it is but there are some things about Ecto that just don't work for me. As of late I have been experimenting with other ways of composing my posts. Something I have come to like a lot is composing post using Apples built in TextEdit (you will find it in the Applications folder). It is a really nice and really simple editor that also includes basics like spellchecking.
Once a post is composed it can them be copied and pasted into either Ecto (keeping formating like bolds/lists etc..) or directly into the browser based post creator/editor text box.
This works for me (online and offline) largely because my posts are very 'texty' rather than 'pretty'. The biggest issue is lack of hyperlink support, so I follow a link text with the hyper link in brackets, then amend on posting.
I would love to find something like Textedit that supported links.
I am still experimenting with the 'best way'.
regards Al
andyp
· 2 years ago
Like Al, I guess I'm unlikely to go down the BootCamp route since I'd want to remain in the one environment. The guy sat next to me is running Parallels right now and has an XP taskbar and Word Window overlaid on his OS X desktop, and that looks neat... if I could do the same with Live Writer, that would be good.
Basically Live Writer is the only thing I want on OS X at the moment - I don't particularly miss anything else from Windows, apart from some of the development tools I'd need to have access to professionally (which is largely our own problem for not producing OS X versions, and that's more than likely a volume/testing/install base issue, at a guess).
I can't put my finger on exactly what WLW gets right that ecto gets wrong. Certainly the choice of the editing modes is great; the fact that it doesn't cannibalise any HTML I enter manually; it leaves style intact; it has nice plugins... yeah, there are a bunch of things really. Would be nice to know what comes next for ecto.
Dennis Howlett
· 2 years ago
I've got WLW running in Parallels and it's sweet. I like that I have total control over things like image placement. The only thing that's missing for me is a tag list but I can usually remember the ones I need.
What really surprises is me is how fast XP apps run in Parallels. Lightning fast.
ecto seems to be in limbo at the moment which is a shame because other than true WYSIWYG, it is close to my idea of blog editor perfection.
steve clayton
· 2 years ago
Dennis
I have tag list in WLW. Depends on the blog platform you use I think. I'm on community server and WLW just picks up the tags.
You should try some of the plugins for WLW like Flickr, YouTube, emoticons etc.
let me know if you need Vista copy. Sure I can find a way to make this happen :)
All Comments
But here's the thing... in nine months of OSX use, I've never felt the need to use a Windows application. So I'm just not sure it's worth it.
FWIW, I have used Vista a bit on my wife's laptop. It's fine - looks and feels a bit better than XP. But still not as good as OSX. And the applications (particularly Office 2007) just feel a bit... complicated to use.
Also don't forget with vista you still have the dreaded anti virus/Spyware/adware issues, those have not gone away. How do I know this, My wife reminds me everyday with here mumbling and cursing at her system.
P.S. She doesn't have a choice as 80% of her work is based on Sage (her customers choices) which will only run on Windows.
regards
Al
Once a post is composed it can them be copied and pasted into either Ecto (keeping formating like bolds/lists etc..) or directly into the browser based post creator/editor text box.
This works for me (online and offline) largely because my posts are very 'texty' rather than 'pretty'. The biggest issue is lack of hyperlink support, so I follow a link text with the hyper link in brackets, then amend on posting.
I would love to find something like Textedit that supported links.
I am still experimenting with the 'best way'.
regards
Al
Basically Live Writer is the only thing I want on OS X at the moment - I don't particularly miss anything else from Windows, apart from some of the development tools I'd need to have access to professionally (which is largely our own problem for not producing OS X versions, and that's more than likely a volume/testing/install base issue, at a guess).
I can't put my finger on exactly what WLW gets right that ecto gets wrong. Certainly the choice of the editing modes is great; the fact that it doesn't cannibalise any HTML I enter manually; it leaves style intact; it has nice plugins... yeah, there are a bunch of things really. Would be nice to know what comes next for ecto.
What really surprises is me is how fast XP apps run in Parallels. Lightning fast.
ecto seems to be in limbo at the moment which is a shame because other than true WYSIWYG, it is close to my idea of blog editor perfection.
I have tag list in WLW. Depends on the blog platform you use I think. I'm on community server and WLW just picks up the tags.
You should try some of the plugins for WLW like Flickr, YouTube, emoticons etc.
let me know if you need Vista copy. Sure I can find a way to make this happen :)
Steve