Apple blesses Windows XP on Macs

[Osiris]

Apple has formally given its thumbs-up to attempts to install and run Windows XP on Intel-based Macs. It has posted a tool called Boot Camp that allows iMac, MacBook Pro and Mac Mini owners to run the Microsoft OS more easily. The company also confirmed the next major Mac OS X release, Leopard, will integrate the twin-OS technology.

The Boot Camp software requires Mac OS X 10.4.6, released yesterday and which has already been hailed by supporters of Windows-on-Mac initiatives as an update that improves the ability to dual-boot their systems. Boot Camp creates a CD with all the Mac-specific XP-compatible hardware drivers then dynamically repartitions the host Mac's hard drive to make room for the XP installation without the need to re-install the native operating system.

It also provides a bootloader to allow users to choose which OS they boot their Intel-based Macs into.

Apple is offering Boot Camp as a public beta, so it remains a 'proceed with caution' utility. But it's still more user-friendly than the third-party solution posted on the web last month. Indeed, the Apple release appears to provide the graphics drivers missing from the system that won a $13,000 prize to get XP on a Mac. Ironically, if Apple had moved more quickly, it might itself have walked away with the bounty.

Either way, anyone who wants to try the code will still need a Windows XP installation disc. Apple confirmed in intends neither to sell nor support the Microsoft OS - it's merely smoothing the path a little for those Mac users who want to run it alongside Mac OS X.

And quite a few do, it seems, particularly those moving across from a Windows box to an Apple-made one. Such a facility is seen by many observers as a crucial move to get businesses buying Macs instead of PCs: it allows them to run Mac OS X to eliminate or at least minimise the security threats they're exposed to under Windows, yet still boot into Windows when necessary for legacy-application compatibility.

Macs also appear, for now, to run XP faster than other machines do.

It's been claimed Mac OS X 10.5 - ie. Leopard - will use processor virtualisation to run multiple x86 operating systems without the need to re-boot. Boot Camp doesn't preclude such a solution - today's release may simply support one of two approaches the final version of the utility will provide once Macs ship with virtualisation-capable processors


http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/

 

[KSoD]

**** this sounds nice. I would like to try this out sometime.

 

[Chazzer3]

very interesting, I'm sure this will help boost apple sales, if word spreads! well done to them I say.

Charlie -

 

[KSoD]

Well plain and simple. I think Apple will end up taking over with this. If Vista is a big a flop as most people think this will help Apple to take over a bigger share fo the market.

 

[Osiris]

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

theres the download, its 83 mb

 

[mikee]

If macs had as big of game selection as windows xp I would just use a mac, thats the only thing preventing me from wanting a mac right now.

 

[Osiris]

While Apple execs declined to talk about when or if "Bootcamp," Apple's software for dual-booting Windows XP and Mac OS X, will ever support any versions of Windows other than pure-vanilla XP, the answer seems to be it already does.

Microsoft execs, according to published reports, have gotten both Windows XP Media Center Edition and beta versions of Windows Vista to boot on Intel-based Macs.

Speaking of Media Center, the Inside Microsoft blog reports that Microsoft has made it official that the "Origami" ultra-mobile PCs will be able to function as Windows Media Extenders, allowing users control all kinds of media wirelessly from their mini-Tablets.

 

[Osiris]

In fact, while running the Texas internal consulting office at Schlumberger in 1984, I bought and evaluated one of the first Apple Macs and was blown away by its power and simplicity. Instead of buying my own Mac at that time, I bought Apple stock, the value of which quickly rose to pay for my own Mac. So armed, and with the passion of a zealot, I preached the Mac's advantage, spurring their adoption in Schlumberger and later Shell. In both companies, Mac adopters battled policy, and the machines invaded small corporate pockets like design and engineering, where they often remain today.

Then I moved to Costain as chief technology officer, which had fully adopted Windows. Poacher turned gamekeeper! My preaching gave way to economic and practical necessity - there was just no compelling (economic or otherwise) reason to disrupt Windows as the corporate standard - essentially a sensible decision and sound investment policy. This was especially the case as Apple had become marginalised. Not just in market share, but the technology itself. Years of in-company squabbling and management change had undermined the Mac's technology advantage - innovators at Apple were replaced by corporate wonks, and the once enjoyed leadership eroded as these same wonks sat on their hands.

By 1995, Windows had matched the original Mac OS features, and Windows PC prices were markedly lower than those of Apple's. When I joined Digital Equipment as the Services business CIO, I pushed the Microsoft message with almost the same passion as I did Apple's 1984 Mac. I quickly moved Digital's service business into beta programs of Exchange (Microsoft's email solution) and Windows 95, with such success that I appeared on stage at the Boston World Trade Centre launch. I counted my success at Digital in terms of displacement of its own email (All-In-One) systems, the penetration of Windows 95 in my part of the business, and the development of a Digital/Microsoft partnership, which my activities strongly influenced. I also got a kick out of the internal hate mail I received from the folks accusing me of technological heresy.

Fast forward to Wang where, as CIO and CTO, and still in the role of Defender of the Microsoft Faith, I noticed the emerging new Apple operating system - OS X. Sitting in a local computer shop, I had a repeat of my 1984 Apple Damascus moment. The elegance and simplicity of what OS X did was mindblowing. I bought an iBook and, with hundreds of thousands of others, rode with Apple to OS X's full realisation. And as Apple wove its capability with those of Windows, I started to use my Mac more and more for work. Strange, given that economic logic and practicality meant I still had to ride shotgun over a corporate Windows-only policy. But I owned the IT organisation, so got a pass.

Now, I advise companies on technology, and yesterday Apple just announced a capability to run Windows on its Intel based new computer models - one of which, being technology self indulgent, I have. So will I add this free Windows capability to my Mac Book Pro? No, because I no longer use anything that needs Windows as, over the years, Apple has done such a great job convincing most main software companies to successfully write their products for the OS X to take advantage of its cool features. Would I advise a wholesale corporate move to Apple - No again.

Few companies can fund a major technology switch, without a significant economic business case. And, truth be told, most corporate folks will continue to do just fine with Windows - hey, email, the typical Microsoft Office suite applications and the odd business system's really don't benefit from change. Even if they did a bit, people don't want change.

After 20 plus years of enforced technology firedrills they've become highly sceptical of technologists' promises of a better life, and rightly don't believe the endless theoretical business cases technologists dream up.

Those ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and CRM (Customer Relationship Management) battles that have raged since the late 1990s have left many of the folks who do the real work in companies, forever scarred. Talk about the thousand yard stare - visit an business accounting office after an implementation of SAP!

So what to do. Well, my advice would be to actually give people the choice. There are unlikely to be support issues, especially with Apple's long-term commitment to support dual Windows and Mac OS. And few extra cost issues. I think we are on the cusp of businesses allowing folks to buy and own their own business PCs and funding them through the expense system. The new Apple world is the perfect reason to accommodate this, and gradually take companies out of PC ownership. You own your own calculator and mobile phone - PC ownership is a natural evolution. And the timing is perfect, especially as Microsoft will be pushing a wholesale move to its much delayed and maligned Windows Vista. Just the thought of which makes me feel a thousand yard stare coming on!

 

[Osiris]

http://wiki.onmac.net/index.php/Triple_Boot_via_BootCamp

Intel-based Macs can now play host to three operating systems and boot into any one of them at will. The triple-boot technique has been outlined on the OnMac.net website, home of the first code to allow the new machines to run Windows XP.

The procedure's not trivial, though it makes use of Apple's BootCamp utility to ease you through the installation of Windows XP. After installing XP, the process walks you through adding a Linux distrubution off a live Linux CD to the dynamically re-partitioned Mac hard drive. This Linux uses a swapfile for virtual memory rather than the more commonplace swap-specific partition due to limitations in the permitted partition structure.

 

[Jorsoft]

Well plain and simple. I think Apple will end up taking over with this. If Vista is a big a flop as most people think this will help Apple to take over a bigger share fo the market.

No Microsoft OS, no matter how bad it is, can truly "flop" anymore. Few people may buy the upgrade edition, but if anyone ever buys new retail pc (most of the world does this) it will come with Vista whether they like it or not. Most typical users aren't tech-saavy enough to change their OS. That's why Windows ME (one of the most god-awful creations of our time) didn't ruin Bill Gates and actually turned out to be pretty profitable. In the end, a huge majority of end-users are stuck with whatever Microsoft OS comes on their Dell/HP/Gateway whether they like it or not.
I do agree that Apple will most likely receive a larger market share, however. Individuals who are better with computers will see the situation for what it is, realize the major benefits of haivng a pc that's able to run both Mac and Windows (and presumably Linux as well), and jump ship over to Apple's new hardware.