spitty27
Apple Avid
I don't know if any of you saw this article recently, but it irritated me almost as much as the one Jorge Lopez wrote about the Mac Mini last year. Venkat Pullena wrote an article on BootCamp, claiming that it crashes and burns, pulling information out of nowhere, upsetting hardcore Apple fans such as myself. I'm not much of a writer, in fact, I'm only 17 1/2 but I felt as if I had to respond and let him know that there are more intelligent people in this world and we have something to say. Below is a copy of the email I sent him. Let me know what you think and pass it all on to all your mac enthusiast friends...
Dear supposed UC Davis student,
Being an Apple fan myself, I tend to follow up on most news and rumors sites daily, if not more than once daily. Today I stumbled upon TUAW's post which linked me to your article on why you think BootCamp sucks. Let me first start out by telling you that I am a proud owner of a 17" iMac Intel, successfully enabled to dual boot between Windows XP Pro SP2 and mac os x tiger.
Let's get on with it, shall we?
Nowhere in your article did you ever state that you personally tested BootCamp, let alone a MacIntel. I have absolutely no reason to believe any word you have been pathetically granted to post in public web space. Firstly, I'd like to know where you pulled the information that "Macs operate at a lower CPU temperature than PCs," aside from your behind. Perhaps the thought that Apple engineers ensure that the computer does not overheat would make it quite obvious as to why they might operate at lower temperatures...wait, no, that makes too much sense.
Let me also inform you that BootCamp, is not, in any way, shape, or form, an emulator. No, suffice it to say, that BootCamp is in fact (1) an assistant which burns the necessary drivers for the Apple hardware to be recognized by Windows XP, (2) an assistant that will partition your current harddrive in the FAT32 format so as to enable Windows XP to be installed. Yes, that's quite right...we're not emulating the operating system, we're actually installing it on a separate partition, which means the user must boot up from that partition in order to use the operating system. Allow me to inform you that now that Apple has switched to Intel processors, there is absolutely no difference, aside from the default partition scheme on the Mac (Mac OS Extended), between a PC and a Mac. This means that when installing Windows, through the assistance of BootCamp, one is essentially running a Windows PC on a box with a little grey Apple on it.
"Second, why did you get a Mac? Because you don't possess savvy computer skills or you don't play games." - Actually, Mac OS X is built on the most stable and powerful subsystem ever created - UNIX - which renders Mac OS X just as - if not more - stable and powerful. Just because us Mac users don't enjoy screwing with the Registry and having to reformat our computers doesn't mean we're not computer savvy..it means we're smart. Smart people also don't buy computers to play games...they buy console systems like the Gamecube or the PS2 or the XBOX 360 (which runs on the PowerPC chip manufactured in every PowerMac G5 - yes, Microsoft used to buy G5s to build prototypes of their XBOX machines).
Installing BootCamp requires almost no knowledge at all except that of possessing the ability to read the English language. The assistant is so clear and tells you exactly what its doing at every given moment and what you will need to do once you finish your installation of Windows (which requires you to sit through the entire installation because it bugs you midway to create an account and specify how it will connect to the internet). It is true that Apple is lacking in their ability to provide the latest advancements in the graphics industry in the customization of their products, but as I said before, if you want graphics, you would be better off with a game console.
Next, Apple is not (as I said before) emulating the operating system of its enemy. In fact, it in no way endorses Windows nor sells it. They just provide the option to install it on their machines in order to switch over those last candidates who were still debating whether or not to buy a Mac and hope that now this will cast away any last doubts. I'd also like to commend you for your knowledge about how Windows was based off of the first Mac OS (actually..as I was reading your article that's what I expected you to write but instead you had it reversed). The only way Microsoft is able to alter its software so it will not be able to run on any new Intel Mac is if they discontinue Windows. Why? Because Intel manufactures the Pentium processor, the leading chip in the PC market..Microsoft would have to be out of their minds to disable Intel chips.
As far as software developers go, I'm afraid you have it backwards. BootCamp requires that the user have Mac OS X installed, which means OS X is still the default system. Now that Apple computers run the best of both worlds, OS X and Windows, and PC boxes can only run Windows, it would be in the developers' best interests to develop either for both platforms, or just for OS X.
"For reiteration, Macs cannot run Windows like PCs can." - You're absolutely right..they run Windows better. Benchmarking tests have shown that the Intel Macs "emulating" Windows outperformed Windows PCs. - Go to http://www.hardmac.com/news/2006-04-10/ and scroll down to "Some benchmarks of a MBPro running WinXP"
Basically Venkat, I'm having my cake...I'm also eating it too. I got my mac for internet, productivity, graphics editing, video editing, web design, and even some enjoyable Mac games.
I look forward to hearing from you soon,
Yoav