Apple cold-boots XP

11.05.2006
Apple Computer Inc. has a history of surprising industry pundits. Its move to Intel Corp.'s Duo Core chipsets earlier this year (months ahead of the announced June rollout), was joined by Apple's recently released 'Boot Camp': a boot utility that allows Windows XP to run natively on Intel-based Macs (although currently a 'beta, time-limited software meant for evaluation purposes only,' integrated into the next OS X 10.5 is planned). You can now run both OSs on an Apple-built machine, if you like.

Apple and Microsoft Corp.: strange bedfellows? Hardly. Office remains the dominant office productivity suite on Macs and while Microsoft may not consider Mac users their most loyal adherents, 'the Macintosh Business Unit (MacBU) at Microsoft is the largest, 100 percent, Mac-focused developer of Mac software outside of Apple itself,' said Adam Anger, director, Business and Marketing Organization, Microsoft Hong Kong. 'We have a long-standing history of collaboration with Apple and a continuing commitment to research and development.'

And the MacBU does some fascinating things with Macs (check employee David Weiss's blog'http://davidweiss.blogspot.com/2006/04/tour-of-microsofts-mac-lab.html'for examples).

Now we have Apple allowing an OS from another vendor to run natively on its hardware. But if you want to run XP, why not just buy another box? Interchangeability these days means you could even use the same keyboard, monitor and mouse if you wanted.

'Let me give you a real world example,' wrote Ken Mingis for IDG publication Computerworld (US online). 'My partner is a real estate agent and longtime Mac fan. Two years ago, he had to get rid of his PowerBook G4 because software he needs is specifically coded for Windows XP (and even more horrifying, requires Internet Explorer). He had a choice: Keep doing real estate or keep his laptop. He wound up with a Sony Vaio.'

Wrote Mingis: 'Apple's release of Boot Camp, which allows users of its Intel-based hardware to install Windows XP natively on their computer, now gives him'and the rest of us'the best of both worlds: A stylish Apple computer with a solid operating system that also does Windows. No emulation. No pokey performance.'