“A long-held dream of experienced computer users and IT departments was finally fulfilled last week by Apple Computer Inc. with the beta release of its Boot Camp software. Apple has given Windows and Mac users the first realistic way to run both OS X Tiger and Windows XP on a Macintosh computer. Although other products, including Microsoft’s $130 Virtual PC for Mac, have employed different means to accomplish the deed, in real-world use they’ve been less than satisfactory,” Scot Finnie writes for Computerworld.
“Apple has dramatically improved on the Windows-on-a-Mac experience over emulation-based solutions. After completing Boot Camp, Windows XP runs extremely fast on the Mac with very few quirks or issues — so fast and well, in fact, that the notion of having your cake and eating it too comes to mind. That decades-old fork in the road between being forced to choose either the Mac for its superior design or Windows for its wealth of available software has disappeared. With a recent-model Mac, a large hard-drive — and for the cost of a full-install version of Windows XP — you can have both operating systems on the same computer — the best of both worlds,” Finnie writes.
“The first thing you’ll notice about running Windows XP on an Intel-based Macintosh is how very fast it is. This is the way Windows XP was meant to perform. It may not sound like a good thing to some people, but after only a few minutes of working with Boot Camp-installed XP, you may entirely forget that you’re using a Mac. Windows XP works exactly like it should when Boot Camp installs it,” Finnie writes. “Apple has done a great job with drivers it has supplied for the video, audio, wireless networking, Ethernet, Bluetooth, the eject button,and others. The mission critical hardware works well under XP. Although this is beta software, Apple hasn’t publicly committed to further hardware support, and was cagey on this point when I asked about it in an interview. In case it’s not clear: Windows users would like more hardware driver support from Apple with Boot Camp. A MacBook Pro TrackPad driver is required, and the ability to use the wireless input devices, iSight, motion sensor and so forth is highly desirable.”
“Apple has also done good work on the process of initiating a switch between the two operating systems… By comparison, the Windows way of managing multiple-boot options is inelegant. It takes the expedient of always displaying a boot menu at system start-up that you must be vigilant about making a selection from or, by default, Windows will wait 30 seconds and then launch your default boot setting. Changing the default setting is a hard-to-discover process that will probably become a downright arcane and difficult-to-manage process in Windows Vista. Apple’s solution is far better,” Finnie writes. “What’s Apple’s next step? The company certainly has my attention.”
Much more in the full article here.
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And so it begins…
As more and more IT managers get their hands on the new Mac, they will realize that they can get the most options from one source, while still justifying their Windows-based bloat in the department. CFOs will eventually realize that the folks who run the Mac OS have far fewer problems, and that a great deal of wasted money could be saved by having more employees learn and use OS X, booting into Windows only when necessary.
It’s an awesome ploy and one of the Apple decisions that will make history.
Have you applied your 14 new security patched to your XP partition? Microsoft just issued them today. Welcome to Windoze.
it’s a BETA … dummy !!
Excellent read, this writer is smart, and I agree with him on just about every point. I hope Steve reads it….(and fixes the mighty mouse)
When I bought Virtual PC (a few years back) it came with a copy of Windows. (Separate Windows OS cd).
Is it cheaper to buy Virtual PC, take the Windows OS disk and install it then go buy a separate copy of Windows? Or does Virutal PC still have a separae Windows OS cd?
From article: “The first thing you’ll notice about running Windows XP on an Intel-based Macintosh is how very fast it is.”
That´s what we have always commented about Windows XP – how fast it is compared to OSX.
I like the way this guy talks. He’s no dummy, he speaks with purpose. There are all of these articles that come in and people sound like 6th graders….I think that’s what windows users need to hear because it’s not as critical, just informative.
“Another change Apple should make is to build cheaper hardware. The company’s industrial design has always been first class. On the MacBook Pro, the Apple logo is made of a translucent material that glows because it allows light from the LCD’s backlight to pass through. The LCD cover and bezel comprise the thinnest computer LCD I’ve ever seen. Engineering and manufacturing hardware with these aesthetics costs a lot of money — money that enterprises and small businesses just aren’t willing to have passed along to them. Apple is building a Maserati instead of a Ford Model T. But what if the company set its sights on building a low-cost “Business Mac”? I’m not talking about the ubiquitous white box computer, because that wouldn’t be a Mac. But isn’t Apple smart enough to engineer something with a modicum of style that doesn’t cost that much to build?”
Right on.
Apple? Cagey??
Shurely shome mishtake.
I don’t agree with his every point. I get SO SICK of the “Windows has all the applications, Mac has very few” crap!!
I’ve been using Macs for over 20 years for my multi-million dollar business. With the exception of one little program that we use for 2 minutes a day that our bank requires we use which is Windows only, we have ZERO need for Windoze or Microsoft. Period.
Over the years I’ve blown away most all of my business competition BECAUSE we all use Macs here and certainly not because of some supposed dearth of available apps. That’s complete and utter B.S. and I wish the media would stop poisoning the minds of the public with this garbage!
Me Likey MDN – there´s a zillion gamers out there that have to own a windows PC to run the newest computer games. (Will they buy a Mac to run Windows – I doubt it. But a Mac owner will upgrade to an Intel Mac just to put Windows on it to play games.)
More money is spent on computer/video games each year than on movie tickets.
———
u wrote: “Over the years I’ve blown away most all of my business competition BECAUSE we all use Macs here”
So its just the Macs, not any talent or expertise on your part???
LOL – computers are a tool, not a talent.
Just think of all the school boards that have parents saying their kids need to learn windows. These school can purchase new Mac and give the teachers the discretion as to which OS to work in on a class by class basis. One class might be on keeping Windows safe, a lucrative career choice, or creating exciting movies & music in iLife, also lucrative and far less frustrating.
Scot Finnie is one of the best tech gurus out there for Doze. I read his columns for years before I switched. He is very knowlegeble and fair in his reviews.
It’s guys like Finnie that Apple to needs to get on board; the fair, open-minded tech types, not the ones that are obviously anti-Apple and allways will be.
This is much better news than anything positive from Thurott with his seeming love-hate relationship for Apple will ever be.
@ I agree>
Two words: Mac Mini.
The only things Apple needs to do to make these units acceptable to business is to provide lockdown capabilities for Bluetooth and (although I suspect this is already there) Wi-Fi.
Saying XP is fast compared to OSX is like saying that living on a diet MacDonalds is good for you because you don’t spend some much time eating.
For me, I’ll stick with a gourmet diet of OS X, enjoyed at leisure and with far greater productivity.
You Win users can have your bloat, your viruses and your carcass of Longhorn…
XP is certainly much faster than OS X when it comes to:
– installing malware and utterly f’ing the system.
– encountering an error that results in a crash
Boot Camp is BETA
When Mac OS X “Lepoard” is released it will deal with Windows API’s directly, much like Rosetta.
We won’t need to run Windows to run Windows apps. Vista is another story of course.
In the meanwhile it’s a great switcher tactic.
Just think what Windows users will think that they can run their Windows apps safe and secure in Mac OS X?
No viruses, no malware. After all it’s Windows that’s the problem, not the apps mostly.
XP – old busted OS X “Lepoard” – New hotness
Consider that Boot Camp provides the minimum configuration to run Windows XP. Yes, it’s beta. But it could also be an indicator that Apple’s ultimate goal is a virtualization solution. Why provide drivers for the Mighty Mouse, iSight, and Sudden Motion Sensor if your ultimate goal is to sequester Windows in a sandbox of its own? You need to be able to partition the drive to install it, and a small number of drivers to handle input and output. Those are the very drivers that would be used to pass data from XP to OS X. You don’t need the others, because OS X will remain in control.
What a fortuitous coincidence that the disk partitioning package and these drivers could be bundled together and released as a beta product–just days after Microsoft announced a delay in the release of Windows Vista. It’s very little extra work on Apple’s part as they just repackaged some parts of Leopard. But look at what they’ve gained in publicity. It also put the world on notice that one company can REALLY be innovative AND release software on time.
Anybody here remember “Sputnik,” the guy from the “real IT world”? He’s been VERY quiet since the “Boot Camp” announcement.
I wonder what he thinks about this article?
“you may entirely forget that you’re using a Mac”
But,I bought a Mac to use OS X…
Too much of that and the SW makers can just send you to boot camp…
And except for Apple and maybe Adobe, no NATIVE OS X apps.
Not what I want.
M$ should let go of its Windows Vista development team, fire Ballmerman, and hire Apple to develop OS for them! Hello, Enderle, Turd-rot, are you listening? Another tech topic for you to embellish. Do you BS on my suggestion and get paid you second class “tech writers’!!!
We have an IT guy who comes to our Real Estate office a couple times a month to clean up the Dells because they’re so full of malware, and the pop ups are unbearable. He spreads the same ol bull$hit about how Mac’s are only good for artist.
Doe’s anyone really think the IT comunity would ever recomend Mac and find them selves out of a job?
Forgive my spelling, I’ve become dependant on Safari’s spell check and I’m at work. Dell/IE
opps, another Pop up!
“A long-held dream of experienced computer users and IT departments was finally fulfilled last week by Apple Computer Inc…” What the_____ is this? I know of no IT managers that dream of using anything made by Apple, hard or soft, and I’ve been working with IT managers before the term “IT Manager” was even thought of. I have run into a very few closet Mac User IT types who use Macs at home, and sign-off on those who want them within the company, but they will not actually promote anything except Windows.
I’m with -Me Likey MDN-. I’ve been using pc and microcomputers since 1985 at home and in the workplace, and the number of times I’ve had to use Windows in over 20 years in the workforce can be counted on three fingers, and indeed, these times required the running of some very small Windows app. I’ve never needed to upgrade past Win95 to run the teenie weenie Win Apps that I’ve needed, and over the last five years most of those have been or are being ported to OS X anyway.
I still want to believe that Apple knows what its doing.
Ok, now back to everything other than Boot Camp and freakin Wonderblows.
Everybody, but everybody – even the most intelligent tech writers, like this guy – seem to overlook one obvious but inevitable development:-
At first portable computers and then desktops will increasingly use NAND flash memory instead of hard disks. It’s already started. NAND is getting cheaper and this change will only accelerate the trend.
This means that in the near future (ca. one to two years) booting will take just a few seconds and the disadvantage of rebooting into a different OS will be a thing of the past.
Apple will then be alone in being able to offer the two (or three) most important OS’s on their computers, and it’ll be no hassle using them. This is a huge advantage.
Apple’s made!
In a few years they’ll have over 20% of the market.