The Why of Apple’s Bootcamp
By Angsuman Chakraborty, Gaea News NetworkMonday, April 10, 2006
Why did Apple, after all these years, finally decide to support Windows on their machines?
It is surely not because they have grown a friendship with Microsoft. As Bootcamp website stated: “More and more people are buying and loving Macs. To make this choice simply irresistible, Apple will include technology in the next major release of Mac OS X, Leopard, that lets you install and run the Windows XP operating system on your Mac.”
They have rightly inferred the key reason why more people are not adopting Mac. Almost everyone knows Mac’s are cooler (perception), easier, more friendlier than Windows and more secure. However most of us made an investment on Windows. Our day-to-day applications run on windows and windows only. It is inconceivable (for many) to throw all of that away despite the benefits.
Unfortunately Apple only went halfway. A significant step forward but halfway nevertheless. The people who have made strong investment on windows over the years will continue to use windows for their day-to-day work. Switching to a Mac requires a reboot, no less. Also having a dual operating system makes Mac partition susceptible to corruption / damage by windows based viruses, thereby potentially impacting the security perception of Mac.
I think Apple should actually promote / develop thin windows emulator to natively run windows applications with Mac finesse.
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September 25, 2009: 2:33 am
I’ll tell you why I like the “Why Apple’s Bootcamp”. |
 George Lien |
April 11, 2006: 7:15 am
“I think Apple should actually promote / develop thin windows emulator to natively run windows applications with Mac finesse.” I think your wish might just come true in the next version of Mac OS X. |
 John Barleycorn |
April 10, 2006: 3:47 pm
Do a little research, and you will find that this beta is only a first step. The next iteration of OS X due out this fall will include full virtualization, which means you will be able to run windows programs inside of Mac OS X. |
 Javier |
April 10, 2006: 1:09 pm
Boot Camp won’t work on PowerPC chips. Apple has produced a reason for PowerMac owners to upgrade to Macintels. |
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April 10, 2006: 11:52 am
True. But there were several emulators available for quite some time. AFAIK Apple never officially approved / blessed them. Apple could easily have adopted one of them and bundled with their machine as they are doing now. |
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April 10, 2006: 10:08 am
Because Apple finally added Intel-based processors to their Macs, which made the process of running Windows on Mac hardware far more simple than it would have been otherwise. |
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