May 25, 2012 - 05:30 PM EDT — AAPL: 562.29 (-3.03, -0.54%) | NASDAQ: 2837.53 (-1.85, -0.07%)

A switcher’s guide to Windows, Mac OS X

Tuesday, April 25, 2006 · 1:59 pm · 23 Comments

“It seems like every other blog, forum, or tech enthusiast site is talking about Apple’s new Boot Camp beta, which makes it extremely easy to dual-boot to Windows XP on Intel-based Macs. There are tons of opinion pieces about what this means for the industry, what it means for Apple or Microsoft, how it’s going to impact game developers—you name it. It seems as though more and more users are making the switch—the most vocal are the Windows users buying Macs for the first time (or the first time in years) now that they can easily run all their Windows apps. Less vocal, but definitely out there, are the Mac users making a Windows partition to gain access to that handful of programs their Windows-using buddies are always talking about,” Jason Cross writes for Extreme Tech.

“Whether you’re a Mac user delving into Windows XP or a Windows user trying out your first Mac, our guide will help you get started. We’ll try not to bog you down with too many little details; after all, exploring is half the fun,” Cross writes.

Full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Jeremy" for the heads up.]

MacDailyNews Take: Thanks to being stuck with them at work, most Mac users are all too familiar with Windows; which is why we choose Macs for our own use. But, no matter, humor them for now. Remember, we’re in the very early stage of the “embrace” part of our “embrace and extinguish” journey. First job: get ‘em on Macs and let ‘em run Windows if that’s what they think they want to do right now. They’ll learn soon enough and naturally “extinguish” Windows all by themselves. Patience, grasshoppers. For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to embrace and a time to extinguish. Think about the end game and put on a happy face while reading Cross’s guide for switchers.

Advertisements:
• Get the new iMac with Intel Core Duo for as low as $31 A MONTH with Free shipping!
• Get the MacBook Pro with Intel Core Duo for as low as $47 A MONTH with Free Shipping!
• Apple’s new Mac mini. Intel Core, up to 4 times faster. Starting at just $599. Free shipping.
• Apple’s brand new iPod Hi-Fi speaker system. Home stereo. Reinvented. Available now for $349 with free shipping.
• iPod. 15,000 songs. 25,000 photos. 150 hours of video. The new iPod. 30GB and 60GB models start at just $299. Free shipping.
• Connect iPod to your television set with the iPod AV Cable. Just $19.
• iPod Radio Remote. Listen to FM radio on your iPod and control everything with a convenient wired remote. Just $49.

Categories: All Sites, News

Thank You for supporting MacDailyNews!

♥ Adobe Photoshop CS6 Extended for Mac - Student and Teacher Edition DVD (65171323) only $249!
♥ Blowout: Apple 15.4" MacBook Pro i7/4Core/2.0GHz/4GB/500GB (MC721LL/A) only $1,549.99 + Free Shipping from MacMall
♥ Mac Madness Save 25% on Parallels Desktop 7!
♥ 15% Off Compatible Ink. 10% Off All Others (excludes OEMs). Free Shipping over $55. Coupon: 123BLOSSOM, Expires 6.18.12
♥ Save up to 60% at the Hammacher Schlemmer Special Values Sale-While supplies last.
♥ Dragon Dictate for Mac 2.5 - New! Simply Smarter Speech Recognition
♥ Up to 30% OFF Accessories from Verizon Wireless
♥ Limited Time Offer: Get free ZAGGsmartbuds when you buy a ZAGGsparq!

Comment Feed

23 Comments

1 2 Next »

Mr. Peabody

Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 3:28 pm · Reply

Yes I’ll say it again, we will not succeed in getting Windows out of our lives my being over accomodating on Apple hardware.

BootCamp blows – I’m sorry, but that’s what I believe. Best case scenario out of BC is, we haven’t shot ourselves in the foot bad enough to bleed to death.

Could I possibly be wrong – Damn I hope so.
LaserKun

Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 3:31 pm · Reply

MDN Magic Word: (sshhhh… quiet, please) “distance”, as in I keep a great distance between Windows and me…
mudflapper

Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 3:42 pm · Reply

I think Boot Camp is great. It does what it does, quite well, even for a beta release.

Boot camp lets me run Swish, which is not available for OSX. In fact, nothing like it is available for OSX. I’ve written emails to developers begging for Mac versions of their software to let them know that we’re out there, but those requests always fall on deaf ears. (Hopefully as we gain market share, this may change.)

VPC doesn’t work on Intel Imacs. Parallels is beta. Boot Camp is reliable. It’s the only viable solution for me right now. I hate using Windows. I hate that when I’m using XP, I try to engage Expose so I can find a window on the desktop, and of course, it doesn’t work. I hate nearly everything about Windows. But I’m forced to use it sometimes. Nothing else I can do.

If you don’t like Boot Camp, fine. But saying it blows implies that it doesnt work. It does work, well. It just does something you don’t want it to do.

Kinda like me thinking Phish sucks. Of course they don’t suck. They are very good at what they do—they are great musicians. However, I find WHAT they do just terrible. I hate that noodling, meandering, boring music. So I just avoid that kind of music whenever possible.

In other words, if you don’t like Boot Camp, don’t use it. It’s only going to be around a few months anyway, until Leopard lets you run Windows apps natively or with a VPC-style non-rebooting kinda way.

m
Bob

Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 3:45 pm · Reply

And that, Mr. Peabody, is why YOU aren’t running Apple, ye of little faith….
max

Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 3:48 pm · Reply

The only people who need a switchers guide to XP are grandparents and kids in families where son/dad or daughter/mum has been sensible and started them off with a mac. Everyone else will have been cursed with Windows at some point in their education / work
Mr. Peabody

Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 3:50 pm · Reply

Ok, I confess – Allowing Windows to run so well (some say better than on a traditional Windows box) on a Mac just makes me sick to my stomach – I can’t help it – what can I do.

I promise that when Macs can run most Windows apps without running Windows I will be positive, happy, and excited. Indeed, if that happens the game will pretty much be over for MSW.
Tom Cruise

Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 3:51 pm · Reply

You don’t know the history of crappy GUIs. I do.
rasterbator

Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 3:52 pm · Reply

These losers think they can switch Mac users to Windoze users. That is the best joke of the day.
iDon't

Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 3:55 pm · Reply

Pretty good article for anyone that only uses just one OS and want to try the other. My experience has been that experienced MS Windows users become frustrated the first time they use OSX unless you are there to hold their hand. OSX is fun and a lot easier than Windows – but if you been trained on Windows, OSX can be frustrating for first time users. I don’t have much experience with people going backwards (i.e., OSX to M$).

The word-ads annoy me also.
pog

Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 4:00 pm · Reply

The article writer’s heart is in the right place, but it all comes across as rather pointless.

I would like to think that there are Mac users out there who know nothing of Windows, but my guess is that we all have to deal with Windows at some point in our lives, and those of us who are lucky enough not to, are probably not going to be bothering to shell out hundreds of dollars to install it on our Macs.
Moron in a hurry

Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 4:14 pm · Reply

I will sell my XP laptop and get a 17″ MacBook Pro for that one, XP only program I need for my business.

I don’t know if I will go with dual booting though. It is amazing how many anti malware, communication, printing and other support programs, not to mention the monolithic operating system I have to buy and support just to run that one program. On top of all that the program itself that I have to use is $2500.00.

Virtualization will allow me to run my XP program in complete isolation and use the Mac side for communication, printing et cetera.

The Mac side just works.
Malthus

Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 4:47 pm · Reply

Most Mac users who will run Windows under BootCamp in order to fulfill some task that can only be done that way are like the sports-car driver who rents a pick-up to haul some trash. It gets that job done better than your daily driver, but that doesn’t mean you want one…
mugwump

Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 4:57 pm · Reply

Heheheeh

I gotta say that MDN “take” made me laugh –

“For everything there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to embrace and a time to extinguish.” ????

It all sounds so… demented! What are we, insane fanatics? Okay, well, don’t answer that one…
Just passing through

Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 5:43 pm · Reply

“My father always told me keep you friends close, and your enemies even closer.” – Michael Corleone

word=methods, as in there are many methods to SJ’s madness
eli

Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 6:20 pm · Reply

I’d like to comment on your take. Relax a little, it is a wonderful computer company, not life itself.
OzzysCross101

Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 6:21 pm · Reply

This has probably been said somewhere already, but I think the road Apple is going to take is virtualization. I think something similar to Rosetta will be introduced in Leopard. Then, after awhile, maybe come next year’s WWDC, Apple announces that they’ve worked [into XCode] a relatively simple way for Windows developers to get their apps to run natively on the Mac (the reason they would wait is to obviously get enough people switched to make it worthwhile for the developers). This would create apps that are truly Universal. I don’t think the Windows users will be doing the “extinguishing” directly. I think they’re going to have the developers help them. Then, all Apple has to do is pull the rug out under their feet, drop the Windows OS, and show the people that the Windows software will run on Macs, without Windows.

A very clever strategy that I know Apple could pull off.
dogfriend

Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 6:51 pm · Reply

“I would like to think that there are Mac users out there who know nothing of Windows, but my guess is that we all have to deal with Windows at some point in our lives”

If you use a Mac, but have no experience with Windows, I can sum it up for you in one short sentence:

Its like using a really f!cked up Mac.
Ampar

Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 6:57 pm · Reply

Here’s the plan. It’s quite simple.
1. Curious Windows user buys a Mac to dual boot.
2. Flips back and forth and is intrigued by OS X.
3. Virus, spyware or whatever Windows malware flavor of the month bogs down or kills Windows.
4. Reload Windows? Nope. OS X is more reliable.
5. Profit.
6. The DOJ grows a pair and indicts the upper management of MS for fraud and theft by deception.

Wait. Forget the last one. There is no step 6.
Cubert

Tuesday, April 25, 2006 - 7:21 pm · Reply

Mr. Peabody,
You are wrong. Time will prove it, too.
Greg Nacu

Wednesday, April 26, 2006 - 2:44 am · Reply

I’ve seen windows users get really frustrated when they try a mac for the first time. But it’s usually because they’re trying to do something through some completely insane, loopy, lengthy procedure that could have been done the mac way in like 2 seconds. But they just aren’t aware of the mac way to do it. Like, they’re in an app, and they have a finder window open elsewhere on the screen that’s in some deeply nested folder. In the app they choose File > Open. Then they start using the open dialog box to burrow down to find the file. But meanwhile the file is staring them in the face in the finder window. (The reason they don’t just double click the file may be because it’s default application is some other app.) But what they don’t realize is you could just grab the file from the finder and drop it on the Dock icon. OR, after the app’s open dialog is showing, they could drag the file from the finder to the open dialog box. Either would take about 2 seconds to accomplish. But instead they scroll and click 50 times inside a little dialog box, cursing Apple’s name.

It’s sad. But that’s been my experience with windows users. They just don’t know about the brazillion shortcuts that seasoned mac users live and breath.