It's over, folks, and the rumors, screenshots, and
videos all appear to be true. Windows XP will soon be able to be installed on several models of Intel Macs and you'll
be able to dual-boot between the two operating systems. From the contest site:Contest has been won - updates to follow shortly. All further donations will go into an account to sustain the open source project that will be launched with the initial solution.
"narf2006" and "blanka", the two programmers who claimed a few days ago to have cracked this nut, appear to have written their own bootloader which allows you to select which OS you want to boot from. Screenshots here.
MacRumors is reporting that the solution will soon be available for download and that it will work with the 17" and 20" iMacs, the MacBook Pro, and the new Mac mini.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
3-16-2006 @ 2:39AM
Brett Berish said...
sweeeeet. Very sweet indeed.
My only worry is that doing this would void the warranty. It would stink to drop the change on an AppleCare plan but because of this stunt, you have to pay for the trouble. Arg.
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3-16-2006 @ 2:44AM
iFelix said...
Well that didn't take too long did it...
Where there's a will there's a way.
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3-16-2006 @ 2:46AM
Jeff Weitzman said...
Cool! I'd still rather have a virtual machine environment, but this opens the floodgates, so to speak, and well, it's just cool that someone did it for the challenge of it.
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3-16-2006 @ 2:47AM
Jeff Weitzman said...
OK, I suppose the reward added a little incentive...
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3-16-2006 @ 4:07AM
Straight Eight said...
I'll believe it when I see a photo of a BSOD!! Then I'll know its windows :D
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3-16-2006 @ 4:35AM
Samual Icky said...
Brett,
I don't see how that could void a warranty... you not doing anyhardware hacks and I don't think it invoolves any firmware hacks... but I could be wrong... we will have to see
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3-16-2006 @ 4:58AM
iRo said...
We just need a VM - Virtual Machine now, to have the XP not only on Dual Boot, but also in a window, running at full speed! :)
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3-16-2006 @ 5:36AM
Bob said...
AutoCAD here i come!
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3-16-2006 @ 6:41AM
aaa said...
Holy Dogcow!
That's great, I can't wait to see the instructions
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3-16-2006 @ 7:09AM
Matt said...
Can someone show me the forum post with detailed instructions as required in rule #4 of the contest? Until that post shows up this contest is not over. Colin is sitting on nearly $14,000 of other people's money and is not following his own rules. This is a serious problem.
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3-16-2006 @ 7:34AM
Steve said...
Wow, pretty cool. A custom bootloader? Seems so simple and obvious. I'm still wondering if XP can access BIOS features. In any case, regardless of what you may think about Windows on a Mac, this will probably sell a few Macs and that's a good thing.
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3-16-2006 @ 7:49AM
decaftim said...
Brett,
Applecare? Why would you buy this why?
Applecare is the worst.
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3-16-2006 @ 8:19AM
Edsel said...
Congrats to the programmers, this is really splendid news for MS stockholders.
Let's see, Apple stock nose dives, Bill Gates buys Apple with cheap money, and Apple becomes an in-house Microsoft design studio designing WMA players and nifty Wintel boxes. Oh yea, Microsoft allows dual booting of Vista and BSD too. Steve Jobs runs Disney - for a dollar/year.
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3-16-2006 @ 8:39AM
Mephistophelian said...
Is it just me or does everyone else feel less violated by this than when the hackers got OS X running on x86 machines?
I wonder whos going to be first to run a hacked copy of OS X in XP on a Mac?
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3-16-2006 @ 8:40AM
Robbie said...
I started using Macs years ago for their OS, if I wanted to use Windows I'd fire up a cheap emachine or something. Why you would want to pay the money for a Mac and run windows on it is beyond me, save yourself the trouble and time and money and just stick with a PC.
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3-16-2006 @ 8:52AM
LD said...
Matt, you don't understand the contest. The details are submitted for peer review first then, once confirmed (as they just were), the details will be posted.
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3-16-2006 @ 8:52AM
Mephistophelian said...
That last bit made no sense really but you get the general idea. I hope?
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3-16-2006 @ 9:18AM
Stephen said...
Crazy. Just crazy, but I agree with needing a in-OS X emulator.
And can you make my Powerbook boot Windows? Thanks....
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3-16-2006 @ 10:58AM
Casey Chiu said...
Has anyone tried wintel as the xp emulator for the macbook? I think that should work like virtualpc
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3-16-2006 @ 11:08AM
chris said...
Running Windows on a Mac is like serving dog food on fine china.
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