how to know the diff between windows and mac computer??

[chicky24112]

I know this may seem like a really dumb question, but I am not used to mac computers, and never seen one that i know of, i only deal with windows. so my question is...when a computer that runs windows boots up you see what windows os it is running, now with macintosh, what do you see during the load up process?? how do i know the difference between the two?? ok also, a friend of mine got a used computer and they dont know alot about computers at all, and i asked them what operating system are they running and they stated windows 98, (remember this is their first computer, so i am not for sure where they got this info from, and now here is the clincher, she said the computer is an apple computer with the word "mac" on it, and the monitor is teal green, and it only has a cd-rom in it!!??? i have only seen one big teal colored monitor and that was a mac computer. but when it loads up they state they see windows 98. can someone help me without me going all the way to their house which is a good way away, and tell me what to have them click on to see what operating system the computer has on it, please??? also, if it is a mac computer, which i have never fooled with at all, can you change a mac computer to a windows computer??

thanks

[sock+_man]

on windows computers you can go into

start->control panel->system

and it will tell you what operating system. There is a big difference between macs and windows. It will tell you when it is starting and macs dont have a big desktop unit they only have a moniter and everything is in there with windows there is a big desktop unit

[Jakobpunkt]

There are pretty major differences between Windows and Mac, and if you're using a Mac for the first time, you'll notice.

Mac:
- Doesn't have a start button or taskbar
- Has the close and minimize boxes on the top left corners of windows
- Automatically bunches icons on the right side of the desktop rather than the left, and automatically names the hard drive "Macintosh HD"
- Doesn't crash every five minutes.

Your friend is using a first-generation iMac. Unless someone did some incredibly adept hardware hacking and replaced all the innards with PC parts (which may not even be possible), then there is no way it's running Windoze 98. Not a chance.

[Melchior912]

Originally Posted by chicky24112

I know this may seem like a really dumb question, but I am not used to mac computers, and never seen one that i know of, i only deal with windows. so my question is...when a computer that runs windows boots up you see what windows os it is running, now with macintosh, what do you see during the load up process?? how do i know the difference between the two?? ok also, a friend of mine got a used computer and they dont know alot about computers at all, and i asked them what operating system are they running and they stated windows 98, (remember this is their first computer, so i am not for sure where they got this info from, and now here is the clincher, she said the computer is an apple computer with the word "mac" on it, and the monitor is teal green, and it only has a cd-rom in it!!??? i have only seen one big teal colored monitor and that was a mac computer. but when it loads up they state they see windows 98. can someone help me without me going all the way to their house which is a good way away, and tell me what to have them click on to see what operating system the computer has on it, please??? also, if it is a mac computer, which i have never fooled with at all, can you change a mac computer to a windows computer??

thanks

yes you can buy software which emulates a pc on a mac.

[Faron]

Some macs are unix based. Windows is dos based (that is why it sucks) Macs are good for multi networks and security. I'm not sure but Winex is a good emulater for linux it might work on macs though.