My son is taking a web design class at the high school in the fall. All of the
students in the class have MAC computers. My son has cerebral palsy and uses a
PC because of some special software he needs for other classes. I am concerned
on several levels and the school seems to be unable or unwilling to answer my
questions. The very first one is what challenges will he and or the teacher
encounter teaching a class with all students except one using a MAC? Are the
commands the same for MAC versus PC, If there is group work, will what he does
on the PC be able to be switched to a MAC for a "group" presentation? Are the
challenges easy to overcome or should I just request a MAC for this class? The
fact that he uses a PC while others use MACs doesn't really matter in English,
Geometry, Social Studies...etc. But, the whole point of a web design class is
learning how to use Dreamweaver and other programs on the computer. Is the
fact that he has a different computer than everyone else going to be a major
obstacle?

Worried Mom

..oO(21joycea)

>My son is taking a web design class at the high school in the fall. All of the
>students in the class have MAC computers. My son has cerebral palsy and uses a
>PC because of some special software he needs for other classes. I am concerned
>on several levels and the school seems to be unable or unwilling to answer my
>questions. The very first one is what challenges will he and or the teacher
>encounter teaching a class with all students except one using a MAC? Are the
>commands the same for MAC versus PC, If there is group work, will what he does
>on the PC be able to be switched to a MAC for a "group" presentation?

One of the major strengths of the WWW is its complete platform
independence. It doesn't matter where the HTML is created and where it
is rendered. HTML is about content and its structure, not about the used
platform.

>Are the
>challenges easy to overcome or should I just request a MAC for this class?

There shouldn't be any challenge.

>The
>fact that he uses a PC while others use MACs doesn't really matter in English,
>Geometry, Social Studies...etc. But, the whole point of a web design class is
>learning how to use Dreamweaver and other programs on the computer.

DW also runs on the Mac.

>Is the
>fact that he has a different computer than everyone else going to be a major
>obstacle?

I don't think so. There might be some minor differences, but not any
real or unsolvable problem.

Micha

21joycea wrote:
> My son is taking a web design class at the high school in the fall. All of the
> students in the class have MAC computers.

I upgraded from a PC to a Mac some time ago, and I'm still on Cloud 9.
Mac isn't perfect; it has problems of its own. But it lets you escape so
many Microsoft problems - like the endless Vista/Internet Explorer soap
opera.

Overall, I found the Mac easier to adjust to than I expected. Also, are
you aware of a program called Parallels? It lets you run more than one
operating system simultaneously on a Mac. In other words, you could run
Dreamweaver on Windows - on your Mac! I believe there were even reports
that Windows Vista ran better (or just faster?) on a Mac.

What might be really cool, if you can work it out somehow, is to have
TWO Dreamweaver installations on a Mac - a Mac version and a PC version.
Using Parallels, you could then switch back and forth and learn the
differences between working with Dreamweaver on both platforms.

There are advantages to understanding multiple platforms, though I have
to confess, I've pretty much flushed Microsoft down the toilet. I don't
have Parallels installed on my Mac, because I have little need or use
for Microsoft software. The one exception is M$ Excel. I bought a
software program called Microsoft Office for Mac, which includes Excel;
you don't need Parallels to run it, because it's designed to run on Mac
OS X, not Windows.

My son has cerebral palsy and uses a
> PC because of some special software he needs for other classes.

That could throw a kink in things. But are these special programs
available in Mac-friendly versions? If not, could you run them on a Mac
using Parallels?

In fact, I'd be interested in learning more about this - and how you
wind up resolving the problem. If you look at my signature below, you'll
see a link to an article about the endless Mac vs PC debate that I
recently published online.

It's pretty long and very political, and I suspect you really won't get
much out of it. But it might be worth a glance. I'm working on some
related articles and am interested in exploring various facets of the
debate - like the situation you've just described.

Thanks.

--
David Blomstrom: PolITics Expert
http://www.geobop.org/ | http://www.invisible-republic.org/
http://www.billysoft.org/ (M$)
http://www.freedomware.us/Topics/Mac_vs_PC/

Keyboard differences:

(pc) Windows key = Apple key (mac)
(pc) Ctrl key = Command key (mac)

HTML pages work all over the world on many different operating systems,
browsers and languages. I don't think moving a project to DW Mac/PC will be
any problem at all.

Wish him the best of luck,

--Nancy O.
Alt-Web Design & Publishing
www.alt-web.com





"21joycea" <webforumsuser@macromedia.com> wrote in message
news:g1sa76$bpn$1@forums.macromedia.com...
> My son is taking a web design class at the high school in the fall. All
of the
> students in the class have MAC computers. My son has cerebral palsy and
uses a
> PC because of some special software he needs for other classes. I am
concerned
> on several levels and the school seems to be unable or unwilling to answer
my
> questions. The very first one is what challenges will he and or the
teacher
> encounter teaching a class with all students except one using a MAC? Are
the
> commands the same for MAC versus PC, If there is group work, will what he
does
> on the PC be able to be switched to a MAC for a "group" presentation? Are
the
> challenges easy to overcome or should I just request a MAC for this class?
The
> fact that he uses a PC while others use MACs doesn't really matter in
English,
> Geometry, Social Studies...etc. But, the whole point of a web design
class is
> learning how to use Dreamweaver and other programs on the computer. Is
the
> fact that he has a different computer than everyone else going to be a
major
> obstacle?
>
> Worried Mom
>
>

..oO(David Blomstrom)

>21joycea wrote:
>> My son is taking a web design class at the high school in the fall. All of the
>> students in the class have MAC computers.
>
>I upgraded from a PC to a Mac some time ago, and I'm still on Cloud 9.
>Mac isn't perfect; it has problems of its own. But it lets you escape so
>many Microsoft problems - like the endless Vista/Internet Explorer soap
>opera.

Vista and IE are totally crap, no doubt. But you don't have to use them,
there are enough alternatives. As mentioned in another thread, Win 2k or
XP are stable and usable systems, Opera and Firefox are modern browsers.
Most problems on the Win platform are not caused by the OS itself, but
by the bundled crappy software and an insecure default configuration.
Both issues can be solved.

>Overall, I found the Mac easier to adjust to than I expected. Also, are
>you aware of a program called Parallels? It lets you run more than one
>operating system simultaneously on a Mac.

You can also run MacOS on a PC platfom, either with pure software
emulation or with CPU-supported virtualization on modern machines.

>In other words, you could run
>Dreamweaver on Windows - on your Mac! I believe there were even reports
>that Windows Vista ran better (or just faster?) on a Mac.

Still crap, just faster. ;-þ Vista totally sucks, period. There are too
many still unfixed problems. A nice look alone doesn't make a good OS.

>There are advantages to understanding multiple platforms, though I have
>to confess, I've pretty much flushed Microsoft down the toilet. I don't
>have Parallels installed on my Mac, because I have little need or use
>for Microsoft software. The one exception is M$ Excel. I bought a
>software program called Microsoft Office for Mac, which includes Excel;
>you don't need Parallels to run it, because it's designed to run on Mac
>OS X, not Windows.

You know Open Office? If not, give it a try.

Micha

Michael Fesser wrote:
> .oO(David Blomstrom)
>
>> 21joycea wrote:
>>> My son is taking a web design class at the high school in the fall. All of the
>>> students in the class have MAC computers.
>> I upgraded from a PC to a Mac some time ago, and I'm still on Cloud 9.
>> Mac isn't perfect; it has problems of its own. But it lets you escape so
>> many Microsoft problems - like the endless Vista/Internet Explorer soap
>> opera.
>
> Vista and IE are totally crap, no doubt. But you don't have to use them,
> there are enough alternatives. As mentioned in another thread, Win 2k or
> XP are stable and usable systems, Opera and Firefox are modern browsers.
> Most problems on the Win platform are not caused by the OS itself, but
> by the bundled crappy software and an insecure default configuration.
> Both issues can be solved.

That'e the problem - there are so many issues that have to be solved on
a PC, whereas a Mac works right out of the box. That's obviously an
exaggeration, but I do remember having to solve problem after problem
after problem on my PC, compared to a relative handful of problems on my
Mac.

>
>> Overall, I found the Mac easier to adjust to than I expected. Also, are
>> you aware of a program called Parallels? It lets you run more than one
>> operating system simultaneously on a Mac.
>
> You can also run MacOS on a PC platfom, either with pure software
> emulation or with CPU-supported virtualization on modern machines.
>

How widespread is this? Is it easy to do, or is it something only geeks
would tackle?

I do recall reading, just a few months ago, about some guy who was
selling PC's with Mac OS X installed. There was a lot of speculation
about when Apple was going to nail him in court, then the story fell off
the map. I wasn't aware other people were running MacOS on PC's, though
I have heard that you can get a version of Safari for PC's.

>> In other words, you could run
>> Dreamweaver on Windows - on your Mac! I believe there were even reports
>> that Windows Vista ran better (or just faster?) on a Mac.
>
> Still crap, just faster. ;-þ Vista totally sucks, period. There are too
> many still unfixed problems. A nice look alone doesn't make a good OS.
>
>> There are advantages to understanding multiple platforms, though I have
>> to confess, I've pretty much flushed Microsoft down the toilet. I don't
>> have Parallels installed on my Mac, because I have little need or use
>> for Microsoft software. The one exception is M$ Excel. I bought a
>> software program called Microsoft Office for Mac, which includes Excel;
>> you don't need Parallels to run it, because it's designed to run on Mac
>> OS X, not Windows.
>
> You know Open Office? If not, give it a try.

Yes, I tried Open Office, and I found its spreadsheet fairly impressive
but kind of amateurish, too. I also bought Apple's new spreadsheet,
Numbers, and it was really a touch decision. The biggest problem was
that Numbers couldn't open some of my bigger spreadsheets, so I bought
M$ Office for Mac with Excel.

Ironically, I don't even use any of Excel's math/calculation functions.
I just use it for organizing data, but Excel as some nice sorting and
background color functions. Numbers is almost as good, and the first
upgrade should be interesting.

--
David Blomstrom: PolITics Expert
http://www.geobop.org/ | http://www.invisible-republic.org/
http://www.billysoft.org/ (M$)
http://www.freedomware.us/Topics/Mac_vs_PC/

> the
> fact that he has a different computer than everyone else going to be a
> major
> obstacle?

Provided the teacher is at least a bit competant in the software s/he's
using, no, it shouldn't be a problem at all.

Ideally, the teacher would be teaching concepts more than software. Ie,
teaching HTML and image editing rather than Dreamweaver and Photoshop. But,
even then, both programs are available on either platform and the only
difference would really be some key commands and the like.

-Darrel

> How widespread is this? Is it easy to do, or is it something only geeks
> would tackle?

It's relatively easy, but, obviously, completely unsupported by apple.

>>> In other words, you could run Dreamweaver on Windows - on your Mac! I
>>> believe there were even reports that Windows Vista ran better (or just
>>> faster?) on a Mac.

Yea, for a while the MacBook was the fastest Vista laptop one could
purchase.

-Darrel