The Mac Pro is what I use for all my crystallography calculations. The
vast majority of programs run, the one major sticking point being the
older version of HKL but I believe that HKL2000 may well run on OSX now.
I use XDS and/or MOSFLM if I want to reprocess on this machine.
With most packages the bad old days of actually having to edit the
Makefile to install programs is past - you can either install via Fink
(especially with all the fine work from Bill Scott) or via .dmg files
and failing that most packages will compile with not too much pain.
Coot did make the CPU almost glow on my MacBook when I installed all the
dependencies via Fink back in early 2008, however.
The principal problem with the Mac Pro is that it is difficult to get it
to run stereo - the one supported configuration last time I checked was
absurdly expensive. If you need stereo (and can actually find a CRT
monitor) Linux supports a wider array of options, but I enjoy the
relatively seamless integration of a conventional desktop environment
with Unix on the Mac. There are also options for virtualization of
Windoze and Linux via the software Parallels although I have yet to test
this out.
OSX has minor quirks, like the patch to make OSX treat e.g. the
filenames MyJunkData.sca and myjunkdata.sca as the same file rather than
the expected Unix behavior. But in practice I rarely find this to be an
issue.
Phil Jeffrey
Princeton
Sheemei wrote:
Dear all,
I am thinking of getting a apple Mac pro desktop computer. I was
wondering does all crystallography programs run on it? I think there are
Mac OSX version of CCP4, CNS, SHELX etc. But how about programs in the
Uppsala software factory etc?. Also is it difficult to install these
programs - are there problems? Is linux still a safer choice?
sheemei
