A Digital World

• Keep Your Mac -- It's a Digital World
• Does It Really Work?
• A Moving Target
• A Well-Connected Mac

The computer you're using at work or at home was chosen, more often than not, for political or compatibility reasons. If you have a Mac at the office, for example, you probably wanted a Mac at home. The same goes for Windows. Or, it may have been mandated that you give up your office Mac in the name of corporate-wide consistency. Even more common is the dilemma that I faced: If I buy a Mac, will I be cut off from the Windows world?

Even though I used a Mac at work, I worried that I would be giving up some intangible warm-and-fuzzy safety by giving away my old Windows 3.1-based PC at home and buying a Mac. Could I survive with a Mac in a Microsoft world?

Keep Your Mac -- It's a Digital World

In the end, I bought a Mac -- actually a now-discontinued Mac clone -- with this question still hanging over my head. I soon realized that I felt much better having bought the computer I wanted rather than the computer "they" said I ought to have. Only slowly did it dawn on me that I had been worried about the wrong question. It's not a Microsoft world -- it's a digital world. There are Web TVs, Palm OS organizers, old Commodore Amigas, Newtons, fax machines, UNIX workstations, pagers, cell phones, and even watches out there flourishing and exchanging information -- digital information.

The beauty of digital information is that it all looks the same at the most basic level -- a long series of zeroes and ones. A computer or any digital device works by translating those zeroes and ones into understandable instructions. Understanding information from a similar device -- a Mac talking with a Mac, for example -- is straightforward because both devices speak the same digital language. Exchanging messages between devices that speak different digital languages -- a Mac and a Palm OS organizer, for example -- requires two things: a way to move the zeroes and ones from point A to point B, such as a cable, a disk drive, or network, and software to translate between digital languages.

In some sense, all software performs this digital translation. A word processing program, for example, is the translator that turns keystrokes and mouse clicks into digital information that is both displayed on screen and saved to disk. Software and the proper connections let your Mac send a fax and upload information from your personal digital assistant.

So the right question to ask is really, "Can I survive with a Mac in a digital world?" This book is actually an extended yes answer to that question.

Does It Really Work?

Yes, it works. If you want to get to the good parts and create your cross-platform Mac environment, you can skip ahead to Chapter 2. This section is here to help address any lingering questions about how the tools and techniques in this book were tested. You may have read some of this in the Preface.

The San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) probably has one of the most diverse computing environments around. The staff has UNIX workstations (from IBM, Sun, SGI, Hewlett-Packard, and Compaq/Digital), Windows NT workstations, and Macintosh systems on their desks, and many staffers have two or more systems. The center also operates, as its name implies, high-end computer systems from IBM, Sun Microsystems, Cray, Compaq/Digital, and Tera. All these computers are connected to the center's networks, and the center is linked to the Internet and to several high-speed research networks, such as the National Science Foundation's vBNS and the California Research and Education Network (CalREN). In other words, you won't easily find a more cross-platform, better-connected place, and that's where I work.

I use a Mac as a writer, editor, and Web content provider at SDSC. I interact with co-workers using Macintosh, Windows NT, and UNIX workstations. The Networking group at SDSC has connected all these systems to the building's Ethernet. The Desktop Systems group has the Macs communicating via AppleTalk with one another and with Apple LaserWriters, and via Windows NT Servers with Windows workstations and other printers. All the Windows NT and Macintosh systems are automatically backed up several times a week. The center's e-mail, Web, and ftp services are provided by UNIX servers, while I run a Web server from my own Mac for sharing files and for this book's Web site.

What I'm saying is this: I know that it's not only possible but also straightforward to use a Mac in a cross-platform environment, because I work every day in just such a workplace. And not just a handful of computers, but hundreds of Mac, Windows NT, and UNIX workstations work in concert along with a lot of esoteric, high-end, and one-of-a-kind computer, storage, and network hardware. All the credit for the robust environment's existence and the Mac's acceptance goes to the excellent staff at SDSC.

A Moving Target

Although I did my best to make the information in this book as current as possible, Apple and the many software developers always seemed to be one step ahead of me. To name a few examples in the hardware arena, the iBook portable and the G4 desktop "supercomputers" were announced as the book was going to press. As for software, QuickTime 4 and Mac OS 8.6 arrived, with Mac OS 9 just over the horizon and Mac OS X due next year.

Third-party developers weren't standing still either. A flurry of MP3 players -- both hardware devices and software applications -- made their debuts, and the software houses that released new versions of their applications are too numerous to count.

So keep in mind that the one constant in the digital world is that things change, and this book is just a snapshot of a moving target. Visit the Web site for this book and the Web sites listed throughout the book for updates.

A Well-Connected Mac

By the end of the book, you should have a very well-connected Mac. I have to admit that my quixotic goal in writing this book was that the information in it would help some fellow Mac lovers keep their Macs in the face of pressure to conform. At the very least, I hope the information here pays off for you by making your work a little easier.

Enjoy your Mac. It's a digital world!