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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body bgcolor=white lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Not sure why you want to run Mac OS, but I can tell you that running Windows 7 64-bit under bootcamp on my 13” Macbook Pro makes it just about the perfect laptop. It is very responsive,has excellent battery life, and a beautiful screen. I haven’t tried controlling my new Celestron 11” with AP yet, but it worked fine with my previous mount. Yeah, $1200 was a bit pricey as laptops go these days, but I sure like it. I consider it very much worth the money. Intel Core 2 Duo CPU @ 2.4 ghz, 4gb main memory, 150gb Win partition, 82gb Mac partition.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Gary<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:windowtext'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";color:windowtext'> apbeta-bounces@lists.astroplanner.net [mailto:apbeta-bounces@lists.astroplanner.net] <b>On Behalf Of </b>ron ridge<br><b>Sent:</b> Friday, February 10, 2012 2:03 PM<br><b>To:</b> apbeta@lists.astroplanner.net<br><b>Subject:</b> [APBeta] ... any ideas on the best way to get into a mac?<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>Good afternoon all, I am a long time windows user, a linux user of about three years and do some database administration into a windows server environment using remote desktop. I have both windows 7 and linux mint debian edition machines installed. I have never had a mac of any variety but am considering adding a mac alongside the windows and linux machines. Best guess is that I would want the mac to do the normal internet browsing and email stuff as well as drive the telescope through astroplanner and I hope that I might also be able to remote desktop into the windows server environment. <br><br>Would want sufficient horsepower in the mac that I would feel that the mac performance was better than the windows performance while maybe not being quite as responsive as the linux machines. I haven't the slightest idea of where to start figuring out what the range of macs might be that would not cost too much while being sufficiently powerful and also portable enough to carry outside to use with the telescope. I also have no idea about which version of the operating system I should have as a minimum.<br><br>I think that a lightweight monitor with the mac mini might work in terms of portability and would even consider the imac as it apparently weighs somewhere in the 20 to 25 pound range. A laptop would be the right choice and Apple touts their "new" machines as being "twice as powerful" as the predecessor machines but that means nothing to me because I have no understanding of the predecessor machines. And the new laptops are pretty pricey. There appear to be very few places to buy a new mac so there seems not to be a very wide range of pricing available.<br><br>I know there are several, several mac users among the group and would appreciate hearing your thoughts on how I might go about figuring this out. There may also be some websites that would have information on the topic but I have not found any that have been helpful to me regarding how a windows or linux user might approach this.<br><br>Thank you very much!<o:p></o:p></p><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt'><br><br></span><o:p></o:p></p><pre><span style='font-size:7.5pt'> ~~~ ~~~<o:p></o:p></span></pre><pre><span style='font-size:7.5pt'> </span><span style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Comic Sans MS"'>Ron Ridge</span><span style='font-size:7.5pt'><o:p></o:p></span></pre><pre><span style='font-size:7.5pt'> ~~~ ~~~<o:p></o:p></span></pre><pre><span style='font-size:7.5pt'> </span><span style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Segoe Print"'>Send to:</span><span style='font-size:7.5pt'> <b> </b></span><b><span style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Segoe UI","sans-serif"'><a href="mailto:dblo7.rrr@gmail.com">dblo7.rrr@gmail.com</a></span></b><o:p></o:p></pre></div></div></body></html>