Boot Camp: Apple Enables Windows XP Dual Boot

I think this could be great for Apple, but they must play it perfectly. So far, they're doing great. I've argued this point before; though most people don't seem to get it, I'll explain it again.

A lot of people said, "OMG!! If Apple would just sell OS X for generic PC's that would roxor!! They would sell lots!! I would buy it, LOL!!!1" Of course, what they're forgetting is that they are in about a < 10% minority of users who would actually install a completely different OS. I've seen several studies that say most computers never have the OS changed from what they were factory shipped with (that also means never "upgraded" OS). By most, it's something like 70-75%. So almost 3 out of 4 x86 "PC" computers bought today will never run anything but Windows XP. A significant portion never have any software installed that wasn't shipped with the computer. You see why it's so hard for Firefox to get 15% of the entire computer-using population?

This was a big part of IBM's problem with OS/2 -- you had to install an operating system, something most people feared. The other part was drivers, something that preloads could have greatly helped.

So back to Apple, what boot camp does for them is allow them to attract customers in the "I've never been on a date with a woman" crowd. The ones that play video games all day. And also people like me and quite a few on this board who are tech types but do other things besides tinker with their computer. We may want to do something in windows every once in a great while.

But the thing is, you still have to get a copy of Windows, and you still have to install it. Some people might now buy a Mac because there's a security there that you can run Windows. Then realize that they can do everything on OS X that they can do with Windows, only with a lot less annoyances ("you just connected a network cable. you have lots of {censored} on your desktop! your wife cussed at me and said I was a pain in the ass operating system!") Maybe they end up not installing Windows at all. Or end up installing it and migrating away from it.

Maybe for specialty applications they might install it, but I think it's going to be hard for software companies to tell people, "oh yeah, you can run our software. we don't have a mac version so just download this unsupported beta software from apple. then go out and spend $300 for windows xp. then burn the apple driver cd, update your firmware, and install windows. then install our program." what a pain in the ass for most users who won't have XP installed! So now assume you are the average Joe. You can do everything you want under Mac OS X on your new machine. You really like the OS. You need one certain windows-only app. Then you find out about a Mac OS X alternative (which is important -- people need more info about Mac application software) , even if it's $100 more, it's a much better deal for you than windows software, because you're still ahead $200 and you don't have to deal with all the extra work of installing windows.

I would say Mac OS X market share/user share will be based on how many [hardware] units Apple sells. It will be assumed that most of the computers will be running OS X all or most of the time. Which should get more apps on the OS X platform, which will further drive Apple's market share gains.

Even if people install an illegal copy of Windows, that's still good for apple. they might otherwise have bought a dell and given a nice hunk of change to microsoft. this means money that doesn't go to microsoft's war chest and money that does go to apple. it hurts microsoft and strengthens their competition. which is good for everybody.

So to sum up, using windows on apple hardware needs to not be too hard, but not be too easy.

EFI and BIOS

Macs use an ultra-modern industry standard technology called EFI to handle booting. Sadly, Windows XP, and even the upcoming Vista, are stuck in the 1980s with old-fashioned BIOS. But with Boot Camp, the Mac can operate smoothly in both centuries.

I wonder how long that part will stay up on the site. Microsoft have been saying since 2004 or ealier that Vista (Longhorn at the time) would support both EFI and BIOS.

Well, the bottom line for me. Playing with osx86 for the last few months has been fun. So fun, that even though I used to hate mac users, this morning I returned my Acer 5672 (three weeks old) and bought a MacBook Pro, from which I am posting this message.

I am a happy camper. No more driver hell. So, the next task -- when I get home tonight, get windows running on my new mac.

This is another piece of evidence that Apple should be happy about this forum -- because playing with osx has converted even a dedicated windows guy like me.

They had a special about Boot Camp on Fox News this morining around 7:30 am my time (Eastern Time).

Eh, I see that there's a message in Boot Camp advising people to uninstall it by September 30, 2007 when the next "commercial" release of OS X comes out (or whichever happens first.)

I guess that kills my idea that Leopard will show up by September 2006. Heh...

Aside from that, this whole Boot Camp story is really getting tons of attention. My dad isn't into computers much, and even he asked me "Is it true that Macs can use Windows now? I'm thinking of getting one."

It's sort of bitter-sweet and ironic that so many people I know only now talk about Macs because they can run Windows. But the good part of it all is that each of them said they didn't buy Macs only because they didn't want to loose windows all-together.

So I'd say Apple made a smart move.

Now we just have to wait for DELL or HP to announce their dual boot on MacOSX lol