Apple BootCamp: Windows On the Mac

From The Creative COW Magazine

Ron Lindeboom Cambria California, USA ©2006 Ron Lindeboom and CreativeCOW.net. All rights reserved.

Article Focus: In this OS X review from The Creative COW Magazine, Ron Lindeboom discusses Apple BootCamp and what it brings that older versions did not. While Rosetta wasn't enough to make us jump to an Intel Mac, here's a few reasons why Boot Camp looks a lot more promising...

Well, the news is finally out and it's one for the books: Windows XP now runs on the Mac. Not the kludgey, heavy-handed, ugly reality that awaited users on the other side of the promise of tools like Virtual PC - this is the real deal, at last. And it makes this longtime Apple user - who bought his first Apple Computer back in 1983 - quite the happy geek.

Way back in 1995 when we first started building user communities online, a little company called Connectix birthed Virtual PC (and later sold it to Microsoft) and the first-ever review of the tool written came from our very own John Reginald Harris, who got hold of Virtual PC and tried to push it as far as it could go - which wasn't very far. But Reg and many others cheered on the team because they might get there someday. They never did, at least not in any way usable in strenuous use.


When restarting the Mac, hold the Option key to select either a Mac or Xp start-up.

Over the years, Virtual PC became more useful but never elegant, never anything more than a heavy-handed and rough hewn solution that was used by few and loved by next to none.


COMPUTERS COST MORE THAN THEIR OS

So why would any self-respecting Mac user want to run Windows anyway? Some might ask themselves this question, especially if you are one of the Mac die-hards who views Microsoft as the enemy camp. To answer this, let's get down to the basics, Computers 1.0.

Computers are far more expensive than the OS that runs on them. Anytime that a company can leverage one thing to do two things, that is good math and almost always a good investment. Repurposing existing goods or services to reach into multiple markets is a strategy that many businesses employ, and for good reason - it takes existing expenditures and efforts and gives them a second market without much added cost. That is what I see when considering a machine that can dual-boot multiple OS systems.

As I sometimes quip with users in the Cow: I married Kathlyn, not my OS. When I look at tools, I weigh the return and the ability that they give me. The OS is not particularly important, although it does factor into the decision.

In our studios here at Creative Cow headquarters, we have both Macs and PCs. We do not subscribe to the belief that PCs are better or that Macs are the answer to every computer question. We believe that these things are just silicon, plastic and a little metal - that's it. The real power is in the software and neither side has all the answers when it comes to making great tools. As we always say at the Cow, the tool should drive your purchase, not the platform. Any serious business has to weigh the ROI and that often does not fall with exclusivity to either Macs or PCs.

As a small business ourselves, we like the idea that one machine could boot two differing OS systems. This becomes particularly attractive when you have to travel alot and need to have access to the tools that you use. That is when the new MacBooks look even more attractive, at least to us.

We weren't ready to jump to a MacBook to run our important tools like Photoshop, After Effects and others on the promise of Rosetta emulation. Even Steve Jobs in his Macworld 2006 keynote admitted that working pros who use Photoshop in a workaday environment would probably not be happy with Rosetta emulation. No "probably" about it, when we saw emulation, it was clearly a matter of "no thanks."

But to run our PC versions nearnative under XP running on an Intel Mac sounds a lot more promising. I doubt that they will be as robust as they will be, say on a PC with native ATI-card drivers, OpenGL support, etc., but I am eager to put a new MacBook through its paces to see how much it can get done. Do I think it will be seamless? Hardly. But productivity is rarely without its workarounds, something that I've learned in over a quarter-century of using computers.


COMPANY SUPPORT 1.0

This is the first time that a major manufacturer like Apple has actively supported dual-boot capability - well, at least in an elegant way. For me, that's big news. I am not someone who would easily or quickly throw away years of experience using a computer system to jump to another system for just a single tool or two. This, as there is real demonstrable value in human resource maximization when users know a system well. But that "comfort zone," while a tangible commodity, has to be balanced out when a specific function needs to be run on another platform. Sometimes, to reach new performance abilities and higher feature-set plateaus, you have to leave your platform bias at the door.

In the past, that has meant multiple computers, each running their own specific OS. That is what you see here in the Creative Cow headquarters - Macs and PCs merrily humming along, side-byside. And out on the Net, you will find the Creative Cow site running on Linux-based high performance workstations running on quad Opterons and dual Opterons. As I said, we are less interested in the name tag on the box than we are in what it does.

It made real sense for Apple to switch and it makes even more sense for Apple to support Windows - at least indirectly. Oh, I doubt we'll ever see the Gates and the Jobs couples "double dating" anytime soon. But what we are likely to see is Apple quietly doing everything they can to support Windows without openly championing the Windows OS. Why? Because Apple is out to sell boxes and when you have the system that ships from the factory with what is clearly the most marketable degree of dual-boot ability, you are going to sell boxes.


The Boot Camp "Space Maker" is where you set-up your partitions for each OS.

We are a perfect example of this. We were ready to settle in and milk our G5s until every ounce of value was drawn from them. We were not ready to jump to a platform that didn't have the ability to run our After Effects and Photoshop tools in a native form. But as I mentioned earlier, we already have Windows versions that we run on our PCs. So getting a MacBook and installing these tools on it, is an attractive thing. This, as we can be out on the road with all of our web-based tools on the Mac partition, while Photoshop and After Effects can be booted from the PC partition. That is enough to make me want to make the jump.


KEEPING EXPECTATIONS IN LINE

While many users may expect that the first generation of MacBooks should get it on and bang the gong when it comes to Windows support, I don't. I tend to hold more realistic and sober expectations of these machines. I expect that there will be workarounds and that there will likely be areas or features where things will fall short. But still, this is heady ground and the fact that a major player the size of Apple is getting behind the idea of dualboot capabilities in its product line, is a great idea in my opinion.

I like the idea of buying a single machine that runs two OS systems and allows users to run both Macintosh and Windows programs in their "native tongue."

I've never been one to throw out the baby with the bath water and this is one baby that both Kathlyn and I are looking forward to burping and changing its diapers. We know that there will be a mess at times but this is one addition to the family that we've wanted to see for many years.

The real advantage of a system like this is that finally users get to win because both Steve Jobs and Bill Gates win the same poker hand: Apple gets an advantage that clearly will increase their sales in the days ahead and Bill Gates gets to make sure that most of those boxes has Windows bought to run on them. Microsoft has never been about hardware and I doubt that they are going to start now.

Just as Apple has become Intel's single biggest PC customer, Apple also has the capacity to become Microsoft's largest single computer manufacturer customer.

If it all plays out as it looks to in the days ahead, users can finally have the option of enjoying the merits of each platform without buying two boxes just to do it.


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