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Definitely Yes

2 (28.6%)

Probably

1 (14.3%)

Maybe, or maybe not

0 (0%)

Probably not

3 (42.9%)

Only when sweaters are needed in Hades

1 (14.3%)

Total Members Voted: 7

[glynor]

Well... Not just Media Center, but Windows XP.  As shocking as it may be to some people, Apple has gone ahead and is officially supporting booting Windows XP on your new Intel-Mac.  There was a "hacked" bootloader available for the past few weeks that allowed you to unofficially accomplish the same thing (from onmac.net) but that one didn't support many of the needed drivers (including the all-important video card drivers).

Apple's Boot Camp (as they're calling it) does provide all the needed drivers, which leads to the odd conclusion that Apple may have won this $1600 prize.

It's still in beta, but reports are that it works flawlessly (with one exception about there being no "Delete" key on the standard Mac keyboard so you can't enable the "secure logon" Ctrl-Alt-Del to Logon feature in WinXP).  Apple says that this will be included standard as part of their next version of OSX (Leopard).

I, personally, think this is a great move on Apple's part.  Up until now, while I've dreamed of buying one of the new MacBooks, I never would have.  I love my Macs at home and work, but if I were to buy a laptop, it would need to be able to run MC (among other Windows-only apps and games).  Some nay-sayers say this will harm their current OSX development, but I disagree completely.  This will allow people the ability to "try out" a Mac (and get used to a new OS) without having to worry that they're flushing $2k down the drain if they end up not liking it (or if they need Windows for some critical app -- MC).  This finally presents a "best of both worlds" solution, and really finally justifies the markup that Apple charges for their hardware (which when you really analyze them isn't huge).  Right now, my credit-card hand is twitching...

If only I hadn't just bought a house.

Hmmmm....

[geekbeats2]

You wont need to dual boot or buy a MAC as a new report claims that around the time of OS X 10.5 Leopard's release, Apple will also make available a set of APIs to allow Windows to run Mac Universal Binary applications.

[glynor]

I haven't read any similar reports (and I stay pretty well up-to-date on these things).  Where did you read this?

I find that extremely unlikely.  A huge part of the strength and appeal of Apple's systems is it's OS, and based on the actions they've taken thus far against Maxxus (and others in the OSx86 project) it doesn't seem like they plan to open that up anytime soon.  If they allowed you to run OSX binaries from Windows (nevermind the technical challenges of running these apps without the UNIX back-end, Core Image, or all the other OSX-specific hooks), it would in one fell swoop kill both their hardware and OS-software divisions.

What possible motivation could there be?  I can see them possibly licensing OSX for commodity hardware sometime long in the future, but not that...

[jgreen]

Glynor--
I believe the appropriate rumor is that Apple is working with a company that does stuff similar to VMWare.  If I understand it, Jobs wants to provide a faster way to run windows apps on OSX.x  Maybe that's what geek just said--I don't know, because I don't understand what he said.

[511PF]

Dual booting is too much of a pain to be useful.  It just takes too long to shut down all of your Mac apps, reboot to Windows, login, run your Windows app, shut down, reboot to MacOS, etc.

VMWare already runs on Linux, so I can pretty much guarantee they're working on a MacOSX version.  Virtual Machines will actually be useful in that they don't require you to shut down your existing environment to run a new one.

[glynor]

I agree.  I think this is just one step towards a full virtualization system in Leopard.  I think this is really all a part of Apple really dedicating itself to getting users to switch and to increasing it's market share.

However, there are always going to be applications that won't like a Virtual Machine (at least for a long while).  Intel will need to hardware accelerate virtualization a lot more than has currently been implemented before I'd want to run Call of Duty 2, Oblivion, or Unreal Tournament 2007 (you know... when it's done) from inside a Virtual Machine!  There are other important non-game applications where raw performance still matters too much (AudoCAD, Maya, 3DS, and AVID/Final Cut Pro come to mind among others).

Is it a gamble for Apple?  Absolutely.  It could be that this drives developers who may have considered switching from Windows-only to OSX to hold off.  But that logic only holds assuming that Apple's gambit doesn't pay off.  Even if they only get 5-10% of Windows users to buy a Mac as their next machine (now that they have a safe out and can switch back to Windows if they want to), that's a huge increase in market share for Apple.  And Apple is cool right now with iTunes and the iPod and all, so I think at least that many people will be intrigued.

I bet at least 1/2 of those people will like OSX (probably a lot more).  It is pretty slick to use (I was a die-hard Windows guy before I started my job that required me to use a Mac) after all, and it's very geek-friendly (UNIX shell and all that).   If that happens, and their market share continues up not down, it will drive development, not discourage it.

I'm just frankly stunned with all the changes Apple has been making (this, the Intel switch, the two-button mouse).  They certainly aren't being complacent with their recent successes.  It will be interesting to see where they go.

[geekbeats2]

Link to info about "APIs to allow Windows to run Mac Universal Binary applications"

http://www.macosrumors.com/20060402A.php

I think youll see in the next few years Apple making a shift from Computer company to Media Company and capitalizing on the success of the iPod and iTunes.  Even with the success of the past few years and a failed "SWITCH" campaign, Apple has actually lost market share in relation to the overall growth of the PC market. Apple realizes this and has already started waving the "white flag" when it comes to their computers and OS. Good for apple id rather see them become VERY successful in other areas than to remain basically a niche product when it comes to computers.

[glynor]

You cetainly could be right, but I don't know that I agree with your analysis of the situation.

First off... Apple's computer market share has been going up, not down, of late.  Theres a story about their 2004 year here on Macworld, where it rose from a paltry 2.06% to 2.88%.  Some current estimates show their share (of the US market) at about 3.5-4% now, with predictions of big gains to come (just one example).  They did suffer a dip at the beginning of 2005 though, and they have certainly messed things up before....

Secondly, from the very sentence you are quoting (from a rumor site no less -- which are notorious for making all kinds of crazy predictions about Apple stuff)...

rather than adding Windows application compatibility to OS X or even official dual-boot support to the latest "Macintel" computers....Apple's emphasis in the 10.5 era will be on resurrecting 'Yellow Box for Windows,' a set of Cocoa (and potentially also Carbon) API's for Windows that would allow Universal Binary applications to run on Windows

(emphasis added)

I wouldn't necessarily trust that rumor now!  This current news obviously blows it out of the water.  Either way, I think its great news for those of us who like MacOS and Apple's hardware, but still like/want/need to use Windows.... And a great gamble for Apple.