Apple's "Boot Camp" will boot XP from Intel Macs

[Silver Bullet]

http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/



This is my favorite quote from that site:

Macs use an ultra-modern industry standard technology called EFI to handle booting. Sadly, Windows XP, and even the upcoming Vista, are stuck in the 1980s with old-fashioned BIOS. But with Boot Camp, the Mac can operate smoothly in both centuries.

   

I'm not sure why someone wants to run Windows on their Mac.  Like someone pointed out, that's like modifying your BMW to look and run like a Toyota Camry.

:/

[Sindawe]

With this advance from Apple, I may consider making my next PC an Intel Mac.  I'm proficient with Win2k/XP/Win2k3, and have been looking for a rational to get a Mac.  This provides one since I can run the tools and toys I've grown accustomed with Windows, and start getting up to speed on Apple products since the last one I really used as a Mac Classic in the early 90s.

[jefnvk]

All I see this doing is killing off what little demand there is for the Mac OS.  If you can port Windows to it, you can probably also port Linux to it.

[Silver Bullet]

All I see this doing is killing off what little demand there is for the Mac OS.

Why ?  The people who buy Macs do so to get OS X and OS X applications; otherwise, theyd go for a cheaper Dell in the first place.  

If a software vendor takes the position that they already have a Windows version of a program out there and so they dont need to port it to OS X, the Mac user will buy a competing software product written for OS X.

There are a lot of folks who run Windows at work and Macintosh at home.  Boot Camp will allow them to use the same laptop both places.  It will also make it easier for Windows-entrenched I.T. folks to purchase Macs for business.

The higher education market is going to love this.  They already were able to consolidate their hardware requirements with the Macs by using them both for Mac OS and for UNIX.  This will allow them one machine that does all three.

I didnt expect Apple to make this product available.  I figured theyd let third parties do this, and thus they would not be responsible for making Windows work.  Apparently theyre having their cake and eating it too:  theyve made it easy(ier) to boot Windows, and theyre still not taking responsibility for Windows.  Note this little snippet from the referenced web page:

Windows running on a Mac is like Windows running on a PC. That means itll be subject to the same attacks that plague the Windows world. So be sure to keep it updated with the latest Microsoft Windows security fixes.

[Standing Wolf]

Well, why not? OS X is nearly as ugly and unstable as Windows, anyway. Might as well go the whole distance downhill.

[Silver Bullet]

Awwwww Riiiight !  Another convert !  

[charby]

Well I'm debating a home purchase of a new computer basically the PC vs MAC. I have been leaning towards the MAC mostly because my wife to be is about computer illiterate as one can be. She opens all attachments, clicks on all the wrong links, etc. So I have been thinking the MAC might be the answer then teach her what is good and what is bad. I'm not sure if the Intel chip is going to allow the same protection that MAC had in the past from most of the viruses and Trojans in the world. I think we are going to see a lot more viruses that sit on the board like in the PRAM than in the hard drive.

Charby

[Dave Markowitz]

All I see this doing is killing off what little demand there is for the Mac OS.  If you can port Windows to it, you can probably also port Linux to it.

Linux has been available for Mac/PPC for years.

This is good for people who have some Windows apps they can't give up, or are still straddling the fence.

FWIW, if anyone here wants to try using Boot Camp, print out the directions and follow them carefully.  We have an Intel iMac in our lab at work and they tried it w/o fully following directions, and got to rebuild the whole thing from scratch to get it booting either XP or OS X.