anyone know if there is an emulator to try mac osx on a windows pc? I'm thiking of going to a mac but i'd like to try before i buy. Thanks, Nick

PearPC is a open source PowerPC emulator which allows you to run Darwin, OS X 10 and various other PowerPC OSs.

http://pearpc.sourceforge.net/

Its a bit slow - not really usable but certainly good enough to experiment. Its pretty feature complete though - I installed OSX, got networking sorted (it could see my network and access the internet), got sound working, all in full screen. Ignoring the speed, you couldn't tell it was an emulator.

Needs a certain degree of computer knowledge, but not too much.

There are other emulators also - see the 'links' section on the PearPC page. None work as good as PearPC in my experience.

Technically, Mac OS X is based on the FreeBSD core, with OS X 10.3 based on FreeBSD 5.x. It is, however, extremely customized beyond the base BSD code. The key benefit with Mac OS X is the Aqua GUI that allows OS X to operate like the original Mac OS operating system but still have all the benefits and flexibility of an efficient BSD kernel. You could try installing Free BSD as that would function better.

but that wouldnt let the original poster try out OSX tho will it?

Thanks for the reply. I know my way round a windows machine quite well, but i really like these new imac g5's and i'm not sure if i could get on with osx. I dont really want to do anything with the emulator, just to see if i can work it. cheers I'll try pear pc. Nick.