Re: Question for Ecco Mac users ...

r634718
' .... why?   B/c I am nuts.  Nuttiness may have occurred at birth, but was confirmed about 2 years ago when three networked workstations died within a few weeks of each other -- the XP office computer (QuickBooks, email, Firefox, general printing, etc.), the XP graphics computer (dedicated to visual stuff and may I recommend Xara btw as a great Adobe substitute)  and the XP research computer dedicated to downloads and intensive WWW-based research.  It was not uncommon then - and now - by the end of the day to have Firefox's open on all three computers with 20 to 40 tabs in each .... pushing the 32 bit OS's to the limit on each of three computers.  After loosing three machines within a short time and choosing to rebuild instead of getting a job at Wendy's, the goal was to create a system that would never EVER be dependent on a specific hardware/OS setup again.  IE, I wanted to be cut from the Windows Registry and all the specific driver issues, routing, firewall, networking, etc. stuff that come with a specific marriage between a processor/mobo, a Windows install, and all the hooks a modern program throws into the registry.  And I wanted to be severed from the Mac hardware/software dance that has gone on for 25 years (no Mac doesn't have a registry and yes a specific Mac OS is still tied to specific Mac hardware setup)

Enter VirtualBox. 

I virtualized the HD's on the three failed computers, bought a newer Quad core Dell with 8 GB RAM running Win 7 and bingo!   The system now looks like this:  A basic Win 7 is used mostly as a host to VirtualBox (and handles Firefox/Ecco research overload when necessary).  All Virtual Box XP's, all research data and Ecco data files reside on a single external HD.  Carrying this single hard drive anywhere in the world allows me to - within 5 minutes - be fully up and running with three custom, inter-networked XP's on any single (RAM & processor-equipped) host - be it a Windows, a Mac or a Unix machine.  I like the autonomy of no longer being at the mercy of an OS and a mobo for any of the work I do!   ANd this solution meant the custom XP's which I had been loving and tweaking since 2002, plus all the utilities, drivers, shortcuts, etc. were still in tact and available for continued use.

Now it is time to add a Mac user to the network.  He needs to use Ecco + EE and to have access the same data.  I know the VB (or Parallels) will work in this scenario but he'd need more RAM and HD space.  Hence, wondering/thinking if Wine/Crossroads may substitute?  But only if EE still works and he can move between data between Ecco, his main work surface (Mac) and the repository of data on the external HD attached to the network.   Think Wine/Crossroads is an option or should I stick with the virtual OS routine?

-Mark