Intel Macs won't run Windows - for now
by Volker Weber
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. 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.
Comments
Shouldn't be a (big) problem to dual-boot Linux, then. This would at least allow to run VMware on Linux.
Sooner or later there will be VMware (or something like that) running natively on the new intelmacs.
OSX inside VMware on Linux anyone? Please report :)
Olav, sooner or later something might be available. Or maybe not. What everybody seems to be forgetting: VMware needs to find enough paying customers to make this worthwhile. I am sure they are looking into this, but so far there is not a single hint that they are tempted to actually do it.
There is VirtualPC for the Mac. I would be surprised if MS would not port this to the Intel platform. It looks much easier than on a PowerPC, but what do I know?
Re Windows/Mac OS X multiboot: I have been through WinOS2 times. Dual booting your work machine makes things very complicated. Where is your email, how do you get to your data from two environments ...
Operating systems are a means and not an end. If your application only works on Windows, use Windows. If Windows does not run on a Mac, get a Thinkpad. They are really nice.
The founder of Parallels Workstations says, that ones the Mac OSX hits x86 mainstream, they will be creating a host and guest support for OSX.
Booting Windows (or any other OS that needs a "plain old BIOS" in order to get started) will come. The new Macs my not support it out of the box. But: IMHO is there already a BIOS emulation inside EFI. And even if Apple is blocking such a thing, sooner or later there will be a smart guy around to solve it.
The more important question: Why should I try to install an operating system I actually try to escape from with hardware to a noticeable higher price? :-)
As far as I've seen, Vista is featuring the same "malware-friendly" foundation as its predecessors. It just sports an even more ugly GUI (personal opinion). If there will be ever a reason to run a Windows Programm on my Mac, I will delegate that stuff to VPC, Xen, Wine or a similar solution. I makes me feel better to know Windows sort of locked in. :-)
That's no surprise to me. Apple has always kept its architecture closed. That is probably why they lost the competition against Wintel. And this proprietary approach could mess up their iPod business as well (see Clayton Christensen's analysis.
You are often right. But not this time. Apple has no problem with Windows. Windows XP has a problem with the machine. Windows Vista won't.
There is rumours at Engadget ...
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