Across the system divide - Power Macintosh 6100 DOS Compatible from Apple - Hardware Review - Evaluation

Home Office Computing, March, 1995 by Chris Sandlund

Rating:***1/2

Power Macintosh 6100 DOS Compatible

Estimated Price: $2,999

Manufacturer: Apple Computer, (408) 996-1010, (800) 776-2333

WIN/DOS/MAC

Force a Macintosh aficionado to use Windows? The inconceivable became a necessity when Microsoft's awkward operating environment took over mainstream personal computing. Although common file formats and support for PC floppy disks help most Macoids, specialized Windows applications now require many Mac diehards to work inside their graphical user interface's ugly cousin.

Apple's $2,999 Power Macintosh 6100 DOS Compatible takes a significant step forward in PC support on the Mac. Unlike the company's first tentative efforts with Insignia Solutions's Windows-emulation software, the new Power Mac includes a complete 66MHz 486DX2 chip on Apple's DOS Compatible add-in card--literally, two machines in one.

Special Apple software allocates the Mac's memory and disk space to the two CPUs churning under the hood, so make sure you purchase plenty of RAM and storage for each operating system--we recommend at least 16MB of RAM and a 500MB hard drive. You use the same keyboard, mouse, and if you choose, monitor. You can even use a single printer, as long as it's Mac compatible.

Getting these operating systems to work with common hardware components creates some unavoidable problems. When printing from Windows, for instance, files must be converted to PostScript first. If you don't have a PostScript printer, not only will your file not print, but you won't even get an error message in Windows--only when you switch to the Mac operating system will you discover the problem.

Also, because the Mac only has a single mouse button, Apple chose to substitute the equal sign on the numeric keypad for Windows's right mouse click. We can't help wonder why Apple didn't substitute the mostly unused Apple Command button to be used as a mouse click.

Rather than Apple's confusing slew of cables to support multiple monitors, we'd prefer to see better support for a single monitor only. The whole point is to switch between operating systems, not monitors. Apple's designers would have spent their time more wisely developing an optimized Windows driver for Apple monitors. The standard Windows VGA driver provided atrocious resolution on the Apple 14-inch monitor that comes with the system.

They'd also do well to improve the floppy situation. In either operating system, insert a disk that isn't write protected and you can't find it when you switch to the other environment. You'll have to eject the disk and reinsert it once you're in the right system.

Switching between the two environments, however, is a dream. Hold Apple's Command button while pressing Return and Mac fades to Windows. Apple even developed a common clipboard application that allows you to copy data between the two operating systems.

For $739, Apple offers the DOS Compatible card as an upgrade option for the 6100 series of both the Power Mac and Performa lines. Despite its flaws, however, the Power Macintosh 6100 DOS Compatible represents the best means to bridge the Mac/Windows divide.

About Our Ratings

  The One-to-four-star
ratings are based on           *          Poor
performance, features,         **         Fair
setup, ease of learning
and use, availability,         ***        Good
warranty support,              ****       Excellent
doucmentation, and price.