I was just pointed to BootCamp (code name) for a new technology Apple will release with 10.5 … this little utility/app/technology will allow you to install Windows XP on your Mac without running all over the Internets looking for stuff. Sort of makes me giggle that people worked so hard to do this the last several weeks. At any rate, think of how this can impact market share … the people who say they can’t get a Mac because of a handful apps, shouldn’t have any real excuse anymore. I wonder how it works … I guess we’ll just have to download it and see. From Apple’s BootCamp page:
Boot Camp lets you install Windows XP without moving your Mac data, though you will need to bring your own copy to the table, as Apple Computer does not sell or support Microsoft Windows.(1) Boot Camp will burn a CD of all the required drivers for Windows so you don’t have to scrounge around the Internet looking for them.
The times they are a changin’ … I would tag this with interestingness. Now, will I run this? Nope, it goes on to say that you need to beware of the typical issues on Windows — you know viruses, trojans, and all the other ugly stuff my Windows using friends deal with. I have lived the last 22 years of my life with a Mac and I’ll stick to that for now. But, if in the future this becomes important, I now have an option that won’t make me feel all dirty. XP on a Mac … unreal.
This sounds very cool! Maybe time to retire the Powerbook for a new MacBookPro?
I love the marketing jab they throw, too:
I’m working on a project with Microsoft, so I need to go XP. Got a MacBook and had Windows running fine using the hacker approach. Did an update to 10.4.6 today, couldn’t see my old Windows partition. Damn…clearly need to go with Bootcamp. Fine. After all, it’s Apple software, so it must work.
Once I reformatted the drive, I was able to do the firmware upgrade. But my XP stuff is on Microsoft Developer DVDs. The Mac recognized that Windows was on it, but it wouldn’t take the keyboard commands to choose XP Pro/SP2. So I spent a few hours trying to get XP off the DVD and onto a CD. Burning Toast ISO 9660 CDs didn’t work. Finally had to resort to grabbing cdrtools with DarwinTools, using mkisofs at the Unix command line. Was looking good for awhile, then the damned Windows installer said it couldn’t find the EULA document (it’s right where it should be from what I can see).
Guess I’ll buy an XP CD tomorrow. Kinda ticked with Apple for breaking my old install. But more pissed with Microsoft for making their OS impossible to install. We need their stuff to do the work we want to do, but I think we’ll spend the summer making Mac drivers so I can avoid looking at XP ever again.
Intel deserves some props for the dual core chips…both OS’s ran stupid fast last week. Nothing works now, but that might get fixed in a few hours. This ought to be easier…wish my computers were as easy to deal with as my microwave oven…
There have been discussions whether this actually voids your warranty. So far Apple has said both that it does void your warranty and as that it doesn’t.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=432346&tstart=0