PC Retail

We try to keep a record of what these callers are looking for in case it requires a follow-up from one of our members or associates. These records clearly show a distinct pattern in the type of calls that we receive.

However, we also get calls from dealers asking us for the solution to questions they can't answer, and these enquiries have started to take an interesting new direction, so I thought I should mention this in a column in case other dealers have been receiving similar questions.

Call One – Return of the Clone Wars
It appears that the rumours were indeed true. An American computer manufacturer called Psystar is once again manufacturing Mac clones, evidently without permission or licence from Apple. Psystar first announced its machines were in development last autumn, and the Mac community didn't believe that Apple would allow it to happen.

Then last April, the first photos and reviews of these very low-cost, well-specified desktop Mac alternatives began to appear, and the company began to accept orders for the machines. But still the channel believed the final day of delivery would never happen.

Well, now they're actually shipping. Two desktop workstations and a 1U server are available, and all are supplied with a boxed retail copy of Mac OSX 10.5 (or OSX Server 10.5 with the server) so there's no danger of Apple getting upset about OS licensing.

But we've spoken to Psystar, and available quantities are very limited; so the chances of these machines appearing in the UK (or anywhere in Europe for that matter) are very slim. We're also pretty certain you won't be able to buy them from the AppleStore, either.

Call Two – Running Mac OS X on non-Apple computers
Yes, Apple has made sure we all know that Windows can run on a Mac, either in virtualisation with Parallels or VMWare's Fusion, or by installing Apple's BootCamp software. But we've recently had a number of calls from resellers with clients wanting advice on running Mac OSX on a Windows PC, mainly thanks to some recent publicity about a new, as yet unreleased product called EFiX.

The wonderfully named 'Hackintosh' community has achieved installing Mac OSX on a PC without a problem, but it does involve quite a bit of coding to change a number of system parameters before it will run.

Now there's going to be EFiX which is apparently a USB dongle that allows a PC user to install Mac OSX on their computer straight from the original DVD without having to worry about patches or replacing files. The website has photos, and some details of specifications, but no pricing or launch date, so they're evidently waiting for the call from Apple legal.

Call Three – Killer Mac-only Apps
Many Windows PC resellers who call us state the single biggest objection that buyers still have against the Mac platform has always been "it doesn't run the software I need to use." This may be true, but there are really very few mainstream software titles that aren't available for both platforms.

On the flip side, there are still some quite significant exceptions that have come to the Mac OS from Unix, and will never appear in a Windows version. We always advise resellers to take some time to investigate these, as they are an excellent opportunity, and I thought I'd list a few of the main ones here:

DayLite from MarketCircle – www.marketcircle.com
Distributed by Softline, this is arguably the finest CRM software available.

LightSpeed from Xsilva – www.xsilva.com – The slickest and easiest to use retail/point-of-sale software you'll ever see.

Rapid Weaver from Real Mac Software – www.realmacsoftware.com – We defy you to find an easier to use, full featured web design software.
 
iWork Suite from Apple – www.apple.com/uk/iwork – Okay, we had to slip this one in, but iWork is a joy to use, and its acceptance as an alternative to Microsoft Office is gaining momentum.
 
Lineform from Freeverse – www.freeverse.com – Now here's a vector drawing program with the simplicity that Freehand and Illustrator left behind years ago!

OmniOutliner from the Omni Group – www.omnigroup.com – A phenomenal way to organise ideas and inspirations, but also check out the whole range of Omni software.

I'll welcome feedback from dealers about other packages out there worthy of mention in future columns, please drop me an email.