Two Macs and an Airport Express

At the same time that I purchased my MacBook, I did some research and went for an Airport Express base station.

Now, through my wireless home network, I am able to log into my Mac Mini and read any file I like (application permitting) from the comfort of any chair in my house! It’s a wonderful luxury, and one that I am not likely to want to give up anytime soon.

However, there are instances when I actually need to be able to open or edit the files that I don't have applications for on my MacBook. I've deliberately kept my Macbook free of unnecessary clutter and have only installed the applications I know that I will use and need most. Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash files are all things I still have to edit on my (soon to be now upgraded) Mac Mini.

For big changes, this is fine. I have somewhere to go and do the work without having other distractions around me. For smaller ones though, this isn’t ideal… which is where a little experiment came into play.

I logged into my Mac Mini via my MacBook and went to the users’ portion of the hard drive and tried to select the applications folder. I wasn’t able to go into it, so I went back a few directories and selected the Macintosh HD drive. From here I was able to select the applications folder and easily browse its contents.

I simply searched for an app my MacBook was missing (Photoshop in this instance) and attempted to open it. To my surprise, Photoshop opened up and was ready within a few minutes. It definitely took longer to get going than it ever has on my Mac Mini, even prior to my RAM upgrade.

It's not something I'm planning to do often, or possibly ever again as every change I have to make seems to be a big one! I'm also not really sure how the license is affected, but it's an option I'm glad I have.