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Apple officials,
analysts weigh in on Boot Camp
After Apple
Computer Inc. yesterday unveiled its Boot Camp software,
enabling users of its new Intel-based machines to easily
install Windows XP, the big question was, Why? Ted Schadler,
an analyst at Forrester Research Inc., offered this answer:
“Apple is a hardware company; they build software to sell the
hardware. The question is really, Why not support the
installation of Windows on their computers? This allows them
to sell more hardware.” Actually, two hackers named “narf2006”
and “blanka” had figured out how to dual-boot the Intel Macs a
few weeks ago with a kludgey solution that worked but required
numerous steps and patches. Then came the public beta of Boot
Camp, an easy-to-use, Apple-like system that partitions your
hard drive, allows you to select which partition to boot from
and provides all the necessary drivers on a self-made CD that
auto-installs the drivers once XP is installed. "The means to
do this was already out there and [was] not a seamless
experience," said Schadler.
"By releasing Boot Camp,
Apple regains control of the user experience and ensures it is
seamless.” When asked about the business case for allowing
rival Microsoft’s operating system on Apple hardware, Brian
Croll, senior director for Mac OS X product marketing was
blunt: “Lots of people are sold on the Mac, but they have one
or two applications that must run on Windows -- and that kept
them from the Mac." Apple had also received numerous requests
from Mac users to make Windows available on the new Intel
hardware. Still others had a nonspecific anxiety around not
being able to access a Windows application should they need
one after buying a Mac. Boot Camp worked for all three groups,
said Croll. “Boot Camp makes the Mac way more appealing to
Windows users who are considering the switch by lowering the
barrier to moving to Mac,” he said.
The instructions
for installing Boot Camp are involved, though much less so
than the original hack, and still include the caveat of
correctly identifying the C drive for formatting when doing
the Windows install. Unlike the original solution, Apple's
software allows users to repartition the drive into Mac and
Windows partitions from Mac OS X without having to reformat
the hard drive. David Moody, vice president of hardware
product marketing, reinforced the idea that users move
cautiously. "Apple strongly suggests users print out the
installation instructions and follow them carefully," Moody
said. Boot Camp does not include the Windows XP Service Pack 2
disk needed for running Windows, and Apple does not plan to
sell that operating system. Users who want to dual-boot their
machines are expected to buy Windows like anyone else. “We
want to make clear that Apple is not going to preinstall or
sell Windows," said Croll. "This party is BYOW (bring your own
Windows).” The software is expected to remain in beta through
much of 2006, as it will be formally integrated into Mac OS X
10.5, or Leopard, which isn't due out until at least the end
of this year.
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