“With the announcement of the first Intel based Macs yesterday, many users have rejoiced in being able to dual-boot both Mac OS X and Windows. Unfortunately, this is not the case; due to Apple’s use of the extensible firmware interface (EFI) rather than BIOS, current Windows releases will not run on the systems,” Nate Mook reports for BetaNews. “On Tuesday at Macworld, Apple senior vice president of worldwide product marketing Phil Schiller said the company would not specifically block the use of Windows on Mac hardware. Instead, limitations in Windows itself will prevent its use on the new MacBook Pro laptop and iMac.”
“With the switch to Intel processors, Apple also moved from Open Firmware to EFI, which is an updated BIOS specification developed by Intel,” Mook reports. “Microsoft’s 64-bit versions of Windows will also not work despite supporting EFI, because Apple’s Intel platform is strictly 32-bit at the moment. For its part, Microsoft encouraged Apple to build hardware compatible with Windows. ‘We have an open specification and a process for certifying the hardware. We welcome all efforts in this area and we’d support Apple the same way we support every other PC manufacturer,’ a company spokesperson told BetaNews. ‘Anyone, including Apple, can purchase and re-sell Windows for use on their industry-standard hardware.'”
Full article with more details and links here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews reader “sailfish” for the link.]
MacDailyNews Note: Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI): Intel-based Macintosh computers use extensible firmware interface (EFI). EFI provides a flexible and adaptable interface between Mac OS X and the platform firmware. This change should be transparent to most developers, but may affect some, such as those who write boot drivers. Source: Apple Developer Connection.
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