The Real Reason Behind Apple's Boot Camp

Anyone remembers Classic? It is a true Install and a true boot in a virtual space. On Intel Macs this is now all over, but Boot Camp can be the resurection of this logic with windows. I think Apple will not simply bundle Boot Camp to 10.5, but integrate it in the system! This gives us the best of both worlds, true boot on the hardware and strong integration. Once booted, switch in a second to the other World. My experience showed me many times that Windows users do not switch because they do not want to go to an unknown future. The first PPC Macs with the compatibility card allowed me to make 11 users move to Macs. After several month, eight of them had aborted Windows, 1 still uses VPC, and one returned to Windows. This is a nice score, 10 of 11 are still Apple customers. If only 11 of 1000 Windows users make the try, and 10 of them are then Apple customers, this means 1% of all Windows customers. At the number they are this is a big deal.

I don't think this is aimed at the education market, though it will certainly help adoption of Macs by students. The target here are the hordes of consumers who have thus far been afraid of jumping over to Macintosh because even though they dislike Windows, they at least are familiar with it.

I think those who fear that dual booting will work to Apple's disadvantage aren't recognizing that there are many, many people out there who are sick and tired of Windows. Microsoft's brand image is shot full of holes these days, and the security/malware issues plaguing XP have created a vast body of consumers ready to try something better.

Support for XP in Intel Macs provides a bridge. Once consumers try OS X and XP side by side, the advantages of OS X and the overall quality of OS X apps rapidly become evident. The fear of flying disappears. The XP partition gets used less and less frequently by new Mac converts. They recognize the quality of OS X apps. Third-party OS X app developers see increased profits. More developers jump on the bandwagon and start creating Mac versions of previously Windows-only apps.

This is a gutsy move by Apple, but I think it's the right thing to do. Making a better mousetrap isn't always enough to get people to switch. Sometimes you have to go further.

"If you look at it aright, this basically forces a day-by-day eval of OS X vs. Windows."

Good point, dude.

Can boot-camp (theoretically) support Vista eventually when it comes out? Cos Leopard and Vista are gonna be released fairly close to each other..

This thought is actually plasible for University environments or sys admins. that are up on malware, viruses, etc. in the windows environment. I am not sure most teachers (I am one myself) are truly up this task of trying to remembere how to boot for which programs. I suppose one easy way to deal with this would be to use mostly windows programs and surf the net on OS X side.

I do think this will end up helping Apple in the short run as many would be willing to try a mac mini and see it work.

This arguement that people won't buy a Mac to run Windows because Apple doesn't support the OS is silly. Do you really think Dell, etc. will SUPPORT you with your Windows problems? No, they will refer you to Microsoft. (And Microsoft will blame it on .... and you tell you to call them.)

Dual-boot is not an IT person's nightmare, WINDOWS is an IT person's nightmare. I've seen it, been around it, troubleshot it. Linux and UNIX are more secure by far. OS X is both more secure and more usable. Dual boot as a nightmare? When your Windows partition is filled with spyware and DLL rot, tell the users to flip to the Mac partition and STAY there. End of problem. And I doubt that this will remain an academic answer for very long. Maybe Apple is actually that confident in their OS? If you look at it aright, this basically forces a day-by-day eval of OS X vs. Windows. And in such a contest, OS X will come through with flying colors.

I have a feeling this dual boot will mature to something a little more than where it is now.

1. you'll be able to set up a "share" partition that's FAT32 which can easily be read/write to from both OSs to easily send files back and forth (imagine a simple size slider in the original setup assistant).
2. you'll be able to "sleep" either OS and switch back and forth easily.

thoughts?

This is bad for Apple. Dual booting gives people an excuse to boot into Windows (which isn't 1/2 as bad as people say it is), and developers an excuse to *NOT* write OS X native apps. Why bother when all your Mac userbase can boot windows?

As a sysadmin standpoint, its a horrible idea. You forget that the PC costs about 1/3 the price of your typical Mac system, plus the fact that PC's are way more network friendly and easier to manage.

My opinion:

http://rambleon.org/2006/04/05/more-of-why-bootcamp-is-a-bad-idea/

No. No. No. No. No.

Dual-boot is, and has always been, an IT person's nightmare.

It's just a bad idea