Windoze on the Intel Macs…
Why are people so interested in running Windows on their Intel powered Macs? I just don't get it. The whole reason we have Macs is so that we don't have to run Windows. I don't want to have to put up with all the crap that Windows users have to suffer through. Random wierdness requiring reboots to resolve, mandatory anti-virus software, mandatory anti-spyware software. So news came out today that the first version(s) of Windows vista will not support EFI firmware after all (a requirement if it's going to boot on Apple's Intel Macs) and I suspect many people will be "disappointed" or even upset at this news. Personally, I don't even want to be tempted to try it. Linux maybe, but not Windows. Folks... listen to me... I have the answer...
The answer for all of you with Windows apps that you *have* to run is not to run Windows on your Mac. It's to have the underlying libraries present to handle Windows system calls that those apps require. With those libraries present you can essentially run your app natively under Mac OS X! No need for booting something like Virtual PC or any other Windows emulator. Just double-click the app and it runs... maybe even with native Mac OS X aqua widgets (one can dream). Start googling and learning about things like Wine and Crossover Office. This kind of implementation is going to be trivial under OS X and is probably already happening for all I know.
Please lose the whole "I need to run Windows on my Mac" thing. If anything, it's the apps you need.
March 13th, 2006 - 11:13
Dear Windows Hater,
How can you not admit that the Windows Operating System is the most advanced GUI in the world. I like being able to run applications in full bloated color with shiny things dinging at me. I like being able to watch my system resources from my Task Manager fall to an unusable level even though I only opened my email. The thing I don’t understand about your comments, is the total lack of respect for an operating system that has not been updated for 5 years and no one still has any idea when “Longhorn” oh wait I mean “Vista” oh wait I mean “Microsoft Windows RC1″ is being released and you have to respect that they give you options…7 new versions of one operating system…Wow!! where do I begin? Do not even get me started about sidebar gadgets and the new Internet Explorer 7…were talking freaking tabbed broswing…who else has that? I would like to be the first to say that your comments are outlandish and I personally can not wait to destroy my new MacBook Pro with a Microsoft operating system
yours,
Windoz Microshaft hater Ver. 2
April 5th, 2006 - 10:36
well now you can… Windoze runs on a mac … I hope apple has packaged ad-aware, virus programs, etc along with the drivers in bootcamp… http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2006/apr/05bootcamp.html
to those who want to buy a mac and put windoze on it… goodluck.. have fun… i think you will find that you will use OS X much more frequently than your windoze boot…
April 14th, 2006 - 12:53
Hey, all. I see you’ve got a post up about Boot Camp (or is it BootCamp??), and thought I’d throw my thoughts out there. I agree with James that this type of solution, which requires a reboot to switch OS’s, is less than ideal. In addition, under Boot Camp (and without the use of other software), the Mac OS partition is not available under Windows. So I can’t listen to any of the music in my OSX iTunes library while running Windows. I can’t finish a PowerPoint project that’s saved under the OSX partition. Overall, a pretty inelegant solution.
There’s also a solution by Parallels. Again, it’s not ideal. It allows Windows to run inside of OSX. Better than Boot Camp because it doesn’t require a reboot to switch OS’s, this is sure to be a major resource hog. When running Windows, you’ll also be running OSX. So if I try to use a Windows program, that program has to share memory, CPU, bandwidth, etc with TWO operating systems. Ouch.
Ideally, there will be a WINE-like solution that allows Windows apps to run (without Windows) under OSX. It would be the best of both worlds. Since you’re not having to run software emulation (like Virtual PC) because the processor is x86 instead of PowerPC, you’ll likely see your programs running at full speed. You get the seamless OS trasition of Parallels (read: no reboot) and you’re not wasting resources by running 2 OS’s in parallel. Like James said, it’s not Windows that people want to use. It’s their Windows-only applications.