Apple introduces dual-boot software
Seems Apple wasn’t too worried about folks hacking their new Intel Macs to boot windows. They’ve been working on a solution themselves and it appears to be much more polished than anything a guy who never sees the sun could ever hope to create.
Apple today introduced Boot Camp, public beta software that enables Intel-based Macs to run Windows XP. Available as a download beginning today, Boot Camp allows users with a Microsoft Windows XP installation disc to install Windows XP on an Intel-based Mac, and once installation is complete, users can restart their computer to run either Mac OS X or Windows XP. Boot Camp will be a feature in “Leopard,” Apple’s next major release of Mac OS X, that will be previewed at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference in August.
I can hear a whole bunch of people wondering why they bothered installing the hacked-together method that came out a couple of weeks ago. Hopefully they can rollback and give this a shot instead. At least Apple was able to provide all the necessary drivers that haven’t been available for the hacked version.
Michael Dell may not be worried yet, but depending on how this plays out he might be soon.
Nice job Apple. Way to listen to your customers.
Some not too kind things have been said about John C. Dvorak around here, much of it well deserved. But I'm wondering if his assertion that Apple is steering towards Windows is so far off base. I stand by my disagreement with him on why he thinks it's a done…
I wish they would listen more and add a DL DVD burner to the MBP
How long will it be before someone hacks OS X and BootCamp to run on non-Apple hardware? Should we start a pool?
Found on the Net...
We've got a whole pile of Mac nerds in the office who spent all day busily installing Boot Camp, and now that they've realized that... hey, it's just Windows,
Funny.
… hey, it’s just Windows,
Windows running on Apple hardware. That is huge (take a look at what has happened to Apple's stock price since this announcement.) And you can boot it from one to the other and back again with the usual Apple aplomb.
The next trick? Windows, Linux and Mac OS X on the same machine. I can hear Joe drooling from here.