BootCamp run Windows on Mac

How is that better than having a PC sitting next to you for testing purposes, fully booted, ready-to-go?
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Saves space on my desk and ~$ 1,000.- and will someone please think of the child... er, laptop users? :)

Or VirtualPC, booted and running IE?
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At the very least it saves me the Virtual PC license. Also, I'd like you to try running Autocad, 3DSMax, or any other 3D graphical program (including games) in VPC.

I'm not just talking about wesite testing, but also about cross-platform developing. I does prevent the necessity of having to actually buy, install and maintain a second machine for quite a number of people.

Moreover, just you wait until we get virtualisation and the other OS (whatever it may be), is just a cube effect away or runs like Classic.

BTW. I guess people will be able to run various flavors of linux within a week using Boot Camp.
 
serpicolugnut said:
On the down side, it may mean that developers may choose not develop for Mac OS X, instead pushing people to "just install Windows" to run their app/view their website.
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And that's precisely why I'm having a hard time getting excited about this. I hope Apple has already planned to invest even more heavily in pro-Apps now that developers actually have a reason to "restructure" in a more efficient manner.

I hope I'm wrong.
 
This is good news for me as I try to use Mac applications as much as possible, but some excellent Windows apps that I use for work don't have a Mac equivalent unfortunately. This means that before, I couldn't just "buy a cheap biege box" but had to buy an expensive PC because they're pretty demanding. Now I can sell my PowerBook, buy a MacBook Pro and sell my two other Windows laptops. When the Intel PowerMacs come out, I can sell my PowerMac and my desktop PC and buy an Intel PowerMac. Obviously, this would save a lot of money.

When I mention to people that I have two Macs, they say that they're gorgeous machines. They never express any interest in buying one though, and I think that's because of their unfamiliarity with Mac OS X. If a major retailer started selling Mac Intels that boot into Windows, I think a lot of people would buy them in order to run Windows. The fact that Mac OS is also running on their system would encourage them to play with it and it could result in them switching.

This is great news for Apple but I reckon game developers may be lazy and stop porting to Mac. When the average person thinks of Macs, he immediately thinks that they don't play games, and moves on.
 
Current Mac users and developers aren't going to switch from being mac users and developers to Windows users and developers just from this. People develop for and use the platform that they love (let's exclude money out of this...it will come back in a minute ;)). They develop for and use the platform that they are most comfortable with. Truly, it depends on the person.

As far as the money thing is concerned, sure there might be more money in Windows developent, but consider that you'll be developing on a platform that's COMPLETELY inundated with software at the moment, good and bad. You'll be a speck in the sea of other software developers even though you were one of the greats in the Mac area. This is something that I only see possible with large software manufacturers like Adobe and others, not with smaller devs. Plus, if it's not your preferred platform, why would you suddenly dump the one you DO prefer in order to make money? That's like taking a job that you despise only for the money. Sure, you'll be stinkin' rich, but you won't find any pleasure in it and it will diminish your desire to continue on.

Just my two cents on the subject...
 
On the down side, it may mean that developers may choose not develop for Mac OS X, instead pushing people to "just install Windows" to run their app/view their website.
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This is also what I was thinking about. Why develop software for multiple OS (Windows and OS X) when you can simply stick in a little Mac OS X paragraph in the back of your manual saying 'boot into Windows now'. Especially if we see some sort of fast user switching that will simultaneously switch OS, I mean, you wouldn't even have to reboot.

I can also see a lot of new OS X users who have only ever used Windows before not giving OS X a real chance. For me it took a few weeks atleast getting used to OS X before I felt comfortable using it, in those first couple of weeks if I had the option of just saying f it ill just run windows instead, I can't say for sure that I wouldn't have done it. Don't get me wrong I now don't think I could stand using Windows on a daily basis again but at the time it was the only OS I was really familiar with.

A lot of people don't like change (changing OS for example) but do like Apple's 'pretty' hardware.
 
I thought from day 1 that this would be a good idea.

My brother is looking to buy a computer soon. He doesn't have one at all at the moment. He uses Windows at work all day; nothing he can do about that. He told me he would probably buy a PC, not a Mac, because at this point that's what he's more used to, and it'll integrate better with his work. :(

But now, I don't think it will take much convincing to get him to buy a Mac, because he can just run Windows on it if necessary. Best of both worlds.

I think a lot of users will feel more confident in buying Macs because they know they can boot Windows. People are afraid to buy Macs now because...well, there IS no "because" a lot of the time; they're afraid because they don't know better. Knowing that a Mac can run Windows will be a big security net for these people (that's gotta be the best way you can fit "Windows" and "security" in the same sentence :)). I mean, why would anyone by "just another PC", when Macs can do everything any PC can, and much more.

And after buying a Mac, nobody will be quick to install Windows for two main reasons:
1. It'll cost money. Windows is not cheap.
2. It'll take effort. Many users never even update their OS after buying a machine.

These are two real barriers. I think they're big enough to stop a lot of people from installing Windows, but not big enough to keep them from buying the Mac in the first place. This is very marketable. It will reel in a lot of Windows users, and a lot of them will never be Windows users again.
 
I don't have a USB mouse and keyboard, So....I guess I am out. (Apple wireless keyboard and mouse) :D

I don't think developers are going to abandon OS X....if anything this prompts developers TO develop for OS X (and Linux). As someone else mentioned, why be a small fish in a big pond?

Just my opinion, but I think this is going to open the market up to Apple, and I'm sure they think so.....otherwise this wouldn't be happening. Apple has made the right call in a number of areas over the last few years. Some mistakes yes, but overall....not to shabby. It's going to be interesting to see what happens.

I wonder.....how long do you think Apple was planning on doing this? Since the intel announcement, or more recently?
 
Waaaah! The world's end is nigh! RacerX was wrong!! A Mac *IS* a PC after all!!! ;) ... Oh well... I saw some "people" on CNBC talk about this "issue", and apparently, Apple is "going to offer Windows on Macs", that you wouldn't have to reboot into Windows and that Apple would make sure you wouldn't get Windows viruses etc. Can CNBC be sued for saying this? Ah, no. It's TV. It's their job to disinform...
 
I think this is a good thing for many reasons. I have met a ton of people who have always loved Apple hardware, but for whatever reason wanted Windows. They can now buy a Mac, dual boot it, even if always in Windows and guess who just got a slice of the Wintel pie, Apple did.

If anything, they might "play" with OS X on the weekends or fiddle around with it for fun and actually enjoy it.

I also need a Windows box around for one purpose or another (rarely, but when I do, I do) and this presents the best of all the worlds to me. Once I upgrade to a Intel Mac, I can take my Intel Dell (which is aged) and give it to the trash man. Once system, all operating systems... and its all from Apple, who could be happier?
 
This will have another advantage: market share. Every Mac sold, even if it's only used for Windows, will count toward the Mac's market share, not Windows'. Market share numbers have been skewed to favor Windows for years; this might knock 'em a little closer to the truth.

And higher market share numbers means more respect in the business world. Even though market share numbers are not reliable, businesses act like they are.
 
Of course you'll have to buy a separate copy of Windows, but in my opinion that's better than just having those recovery disks provided with most PCs. I'd rather just have a clean disk with the entire O.S in its normal form.
 
I'm not saying that this is a bad thing -- I'm with the rest of you in believing this is a good thing. It's just not a phenomenal, ground-breaking thing. The way this thread started, you'd think that Apple was giving away free PowerMacs or something the way people were getting over-excited. Hell, we here didn't get that excited here when Tiger made its debut, but we're going to shout from the top of the hills now that we can put the worst OS in the world on our Macs? Yikes... are you Mac users or not?!
 
it's really good news because we don't need that windows pc anymore. we won't have any temptation to buy a dell any longer. Half Life on an apple cinema display. (without the dell)
 
I am waiting for the day that a Rosette style integration with Windows on OS X. That would be the killer app.
 
I can see myself doing this (having a dual boot Mac), but it just doesn't seem right... I am so used to my Macs running this beautiful powerful OS, so to see the same machine now run Windows is, well, it seems a sin and an insult to the Mac! I may just keep my cheap PC on the side! Then again, do you think we will someday see, "Fast OS switching" complete with the rotating screen effect?
 
It's a master stroke by Apple.

iLife is GIVEN away with the OS X.

iLife is pound-for-pound the best value piece of software available for the home user.

The ability to create music and combine it with your existing music collection, photos and video, then easily share it DVD or on-line, can make anyone with even the most limited amount of creativity into an artist.

People keep going on here about "the OS X", yes it's beautiful and sturdy, but it's the stuff you get free with your mac these days that sets it head and shoulders above the rest, and when your average switcher/PC user realises what his new computer can do in "OSX mode" there will be no going back to grey boxes.

Good work Apple, goodbye Dell.
 
Yikes... are you Mac users or not?!
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You know, El Diablo, I have been thinking, ... I think we should see other peopl.... er, OSes. Given the possibility of booting into Windows when required/desired gives the users a lot of interesting options.

According to http://www.macitynet.it/macity/ , after the firmware upgrade and running the BC assistant, Linux live DVD's also work like a charm.

Apple/Steve did the right thing: release windows compatible macs and enable normal users to run windows, instead of waiting like a sitting duck that Leopard comes out and "evil hackers" do the same thing to OSX86 as they did to win-on-Mac, namely succesfully making it work. By the time Leppy comes out, people are not going to try to hack it and install it on PC's because a lot of interested folks will already own a Mac. This way Apple earns a lot of cash on hardware instead of a little cash on software. Moreover this would increas the marketshare, while the other way round it would probably decline.

Also Apple is doing this now from a position of (relative) strenght instead as from a position of weakness and necessity. It will help grow marketshare and overall awareness and appreciation of the platform. This will lure developers _to_ Apple instead of driving them away.
 
On the other hand, 80% of people will get it wrong. They think Apple has "given in" and I wouldn't be surprised if we'd hear about customers being p** off because Windows apps didn't run on Macs "out of the box" etc. Yeah I know: It's not Apple's problem, but then again, it suddenly is... So what's the next step: Really having to bundle Windows with Macs or at least offer the option at the Apple Store? Ugh...

Still: I think it was generally the right thing to do.
 
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