Filed under: Macworld, Hardware, Rumors, Apple
Run Windows on the new Macs
Looks
like I may have an answer to Scott's question from
yesterday. I'll test this out next week when I walk into an Apple Store and grab my new iMac, but according to a
comment yesterday by Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, reported in this MSNBC article, the new Intel-based MacBook Pro and iMac
will both be capable of running Microsoft Windows. According to the article, Schiller noted that Apple "won't sell or
support Windows itself, but also hasn't done anything to preclude people from loading Windows onto the machines
themselves" and they quote him as saying: "That's fine with us. We don't mind. . . . If there are people who
love our hardware but are forced to put up with a Windows world, then that's OK."Nice. Now we just need a program that will let us access our Windows' partitions via OS X.
Thanks, andras!
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
CALI said 11:11AM on 1-11-2006
Who the F$^?ould seriously want to install Windows on a Mac???
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Dave said 11:14AM on 1-11-2006
This is a key issue. So far reports from the show floor at Macworld say "Windows does NOT run on these intel Macs" from all the Apple reps. Perhaps they mean, "not right now" or "we won't help you" etc. but in fact per Schiller Windows will indeed run. This is a huge question to answer and we won't have a real answer until someone tries it.
For me this is the going to be the seminal moment. I *HAVE* to use Windows for a couple specific programs and I *WANT* to run Windows for games... but I also don't want 4 computers, I want 2... a laptop and a desktop. If Apple can make computers that SEEMLESSLY (it can't be buggy) run Windows XP/Vista and OS X then you can bet ALL my computers will come from Apple. If not then I am forced to buy Dell etc. and maybe if I am inspired buy a low cost Mac mini.
I hope Apple has done the right thing and made this a simple dual boot machine.
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drebes said 11:16AM on 1-11-2006
Can you elaborate on the boot process later? It is supposed to be based on EFI. Does booting with the C key down boot from the CD, with the Option key down shows a menu with possible boot options and so on?
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wastedpuppy said 11:18AM on 1-11-2006
Mac already recognizes NTFS. Why would you need a special program to access the files?
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tom.landy said 11:18AM on 1-11-2006
I'm at college studying computer aplications and support, we do coding in Microsoft Visual Basic, which is shite under virtual pc, thats why I'll be selling my laptop and buying a mac book pro...
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Steven said 11:18AM on 1-11-2006
^ One word: games
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Joshua Ochs said 11:19AM on 1-11-2006
Who would want to install Windows? How about those of us who have to use it for work, and don't want to be switching machines consantly (especially if this is better than our "PC"). What I really can't wait for is VMWare or VirtualPC, so I can run both OS's simultaneously and switch back and forth.
Oh, and CK - both FAT32 and NTFS are built into OS X, so you're already covered there. NTFS is read-only, though.
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Dave said 11:19AM on 1-11-2006
Hey CALI... I would. I *need* Windows to run 2 key programs for scheduling at the airline I fly for. I also really want to play games like Battlefield 2, Microsoft Flight Sim and others than are only available on a Windows PC. Everything else I want to do on a Mac, ie. video editing, internet browsing, etc.
I suppose I could buy up to 3-4 computers, half Macs and half PCs to fit my needs but who the F$^?s you say wants to do that! I would LOVE a real Mac, those classy hardware, the best OS etc. and if it ran Windows on those times I needed Windows... WOW.
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Ryokan said 11:20AM on 1-11-2006
I think if you are careful in setting up your partitions, or if you know anything about unix you should be able to mount your windows partition just fine.
I would only want to install a barebones DOS partition if I needed to run a DOS only game. Otherwise, OS X is far superior to any XP ilk.
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garrett said 11:23AM on 1-11-2006
Many people -- there are many scientific and business applications that do not yet (nor will they ever) run on mac. As a health researcher I have had to keep a windows machine around the office for very specific tasks. Knowing that the new systems will allow us to boot windows is a very very important thing indeed. Many potential switchers will also feel comforted to know that they can do this....
This is terrific news indeed.
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Jacob Varghese said 11:23AM on 1-11-2006
Cali,
Wake up. The majority of Americans work for companies that use strictly Windows. If there was an easy way to run both OSes on a Mac, then this would really help sales. There are tons of essential Microsoft apps (SQL Server) that don't run on Tiger.
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Ken said 11:25AM on 1-11-2006
I still say it'd be sweet if you could run XP as classic runs in OS X now ... Can't imagine apple'd ever do it, but perhaps some tallented individual is already working hard to do that ...
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brian said 11:25AM on 1-11-2006
"SEEMLESSLY"
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Rupert Wilson said 11:26AM on 1-11-2006
OS X can already read NTFS partitions as I understand it. It can certinally read FAT partitions. The real trouble is that Windows currently doesn't support any of the Mac filesystems. There have been drivers and workarounds for Linux filesystems for ages though so it's probably only a matter of time before Windows will have some sort of 3rd party method of reading what's on your OS X partition as well.
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Tomm said 11:28AM on 1-11-2006
"Who the F$^?ould seriously want to install Windows on a Mac???"
Me. Then I could get rid of my PC altogether. Windows XP will run fine on a Fat32 partition, which OSx can read just fine. Apparently it's slightly slower than NTFS, but I wouldn't worry about that - I had my Windows PC on Fat32 for ages and I never noticed it being slow.
Is there actually any evidence that installing Windows on one of these things will be easy? Apple won't stop you, but that doesn't mean it's easy. Shuttle (my PC manufacturer) don't stop you installing OSx on their PCs, but it's far from easy...
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Rolphus said 11:28AM on 1-11-2006
Any .NET developers. (that covers me)
Anyone who develops web applications will need to test on Internet Explorer 6 and 7. (also covers me)
Anyone wanting to run the latest-and-greatest games. (yup, there I am again)
Anyone who has a personal machine that they periodically use for work - some companies have specific software or OS requirements to work remotely. (oh look I fall into this category as well ;)
There you go!
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buy-proxy said 11:33AM on 1-11-2006
CALI, some us have to work wioth programs that are windows only, it will be nice to have everything on one machine.
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I just thought though, this Intel Mac thing ASTOUNDING! Does everyone realise that these machines will be able to run almost any program under the SUN!
Set-up a tri-boot machine (OS X, Windows, Linux) and you can also have a couple of Emulators (PlayStation, PS2 etc), and you'll be able to run almost anything!
Seriously, I am loving this!
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ChillyWilly said 11:39AM on 1-11-2006
On this issue of running Windows on the new Intel Macs, I would much rather have it be more seamless than having to setup a dual boot.
I would like to see the next extension of Virtual PC actually allow you to run a Windows program along side a Mac program without having to go and run Virtual PC and setup a seperate Windows install.
If that were to happen, I could see a lot of sales of new iMacs and future Intel Macs.
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Tomm said 11:40AM on 1-11-2006
P.S. You could always run 3 partitions - One Mac OS partition (with enough space for all your Mac programs), one NTFS for Windows install, and the rest Fat32 for all your documents and whatnot that need to be accessible from both operating systems.
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buzz said 11:43AM on 1-11-2006
Yes, OSX can READ NTFS partitions out of the box but as of right now it can't write to them. Why does this matter when XP supports fat? Vista, at least in the current build only supports NTFS. Therefore you'll be able to see and copy any file on your windows install, but if you want to drop a quicktime movie you made in OSX (etc) onto your windows partiton you are out of luck. I think there is a third party app that will let you write to NTFS partitions.
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