Wednesday, April 05, 2006

WSJ.com - Apple Unveils Software To Run Windows on Macs

WSJ.com - Apple Unveils Software To Run Windows on Macs: "Apple Computer Inc. unveiled software that enables its newer Macintosh computers to run Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system, as it tries to broaden its appeal among PC users.
The software, dubbed 'Boot Camp,' lets users of Mac computers powered by Intel Corp. processors to install and run the Windows XP operating system, which is found on more than 90% of personal computers.
Apple said Boot Camp is available for download starting today, and the application will be a feature in Leopard, the company's next major release of the Mac OS X system."

I suspect that may signal the end of Microsoft Virtual PC for the Mac (for Intel Mac, that is), but it looks like Apple's approach is serial multi-OS only -- i.e., reboot to run Windows apps, reboot again to run Mac apps. Seems pretty limited compared with Virtual PC, imho.

See this Apple press release for more details.

I have a hunch this may backfire on Apple, as I won't be surprised if lots of people opt to buy Macs and use them with Windows exclusively -- especially if Apple doesn't preclude installing Windows Vista when it's finished. (It'd be a pattern similar to Linus Torvalds using Linux on his Mac in some respects -- no Mac OS in that picture.) Potentially bad news for Dell and HP, perhaps, but not so bad news for Microsoft...

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