“For anyone who’s familiar with the old Mac versus Microsoft saga, it’s slightly surreal to hear the Windows start-up jingle on a Macintosh computer,” Jonathan Parkyn reports for Computeract!ve. “Boot Camp [is] a small Apple-developed software utility that effectively allows us to run Windows XP on Intel-powered Macs. Boot Camp is only a public Beta, which means that it’s free to download but is more of a work in progress than a finished product. That said, it’s surprisingly easy to set up and use and, during our tests, it didn’t demonstrate any of the glitches you might expect from software that’s still in development. The idea is frighteningly simple. Once you’ve set it up, just hold down the Alt key as you switch your computer on and you get the choice between either booting to Apple’s own [Mac OS X] operating system or to Windows.”
MacDailyNews Note: Techinically, it’s the “Option” key you hold down – Parkyn gives away his “Windowsness” by calling it the “Alt” key, but whatever – he’ll be a Mac user soon enough.
Parkyn continues, “It’s a shame you can’t have both running at the same time, but having the choice between the two systems basically offers the best of both worlds. Apple’s operating system is easy to use and comes with great programs like the iLife 06 suite of photo-editing, video-editing and music-making tools. Windows XP, on the other hand, has lots more software available for it, games in particular. For those migrating from a Windows PC to a Mac it’s also handy to have your old system available as you make the transition.”
Parkyn reports, “In our labs, we ran some performance tests and found that the iMac running Windows actually outpaced several similarly specified PCs. And what’s more, you’ve got Windows running on a great-looking computer – whether than be a Mac Mini, iMac or MacBook.”
Full article here.
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