Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, OS
TUAW Poll: Will you dual-boot your Mac?
Now that
it's easier than ever, will you dual-boot your
Mac? By the time Leopard is available, this will be a piece of cake (can you imagine hopping from OS to OS as easily as
Fast User Switching? A guy can dream). I know that it all depends on things like compatibility, ease etc. But all
things being equal: What's your decision? Cast your vote in our poll below and check back tomorrow for the results.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)


Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Kernel Dan said 4:08PM on 4-05-2006
Absolutely.... NOT
I will not vandalize my new MacBook Pro =|
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Jeff Weitzman said 4:11PM on 4-05-2006
Absolutely, because there are a few things I can only do in Windows, unfortunately. But I would still prefer a virtual machine.
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Chris Koerner said 4:24PM on 4-05-2006
Will I dual-boot? How about "Have you dual-booted your Mac? HELL YEAH! This is so neat and geeky. Half-Life 2 runs very nice at native res on a 1.83 MBP!
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David said 4:25PM on 4-05-2006
now that Apple has officially relased something to allow Windows to run on Mac's I am considering a Macbook Pro even more now, so if I do decide to buy one WinXP is going to go on it so I can do some things I need.
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Jay Contonio said 4:27PM on 4-05-2006
I am buying the macbook today solely based off this news. I was a little nervous about using a hack to do it.
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Derek said 4:27PM on 4-05-2006
Who would want to taint their machine like that? I mean seriously. It's like a virgin going to a gang-bang, your guaranteed to catch something.
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Jon said 4:32PM on 4-05-2006
I'd rather wait for a decent virtualization option. Unless I could dedicate another HD to run windows.
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Bdude said 4:33PM on 4-05-2006
Heh, and yet on Apple's site:
"Windows running on a Mac is like Windows running on a PC. That means itll be subject to the same attacks that plague the Windows world. So be sure to keep it updated with the latest Microsoft Windows security fixes."
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Blue Balloon said 4:36PM on 4-05-2006
I rather to have one program I would care about need is..
real IE in windows view. That make perfect tool for web design.
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gsf1980 said 4:38PM on 4-05-2006
you forgot the option..."only for gaming!"
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Dennis said 4:51PM on 4-05-2006
Absolutely, this is the reason I am noe going to switch away from PC and get a 17" Powerbook when they are available in Intel. However I am going to have to stop reading this blog as attitude of alot of people leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Reminds me of the South Park episode about hybrid cars.
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Sean D. said 4:54PM on 4-05-2006
Does anyone know if you can assign a USB drive as a boot device for windows? If so, I'd love to dedicate a 60GB external drive for windows and a few key aps and some games. Don't want to take up any of the precious 100GB of the internal.
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Jason Lee said 4:58PM on 4-05-2006
I do not plan on dual booting - it would be a waste of time rebooting to get into windows. I am waiting for QEMU to be faster or DarWINE to work better and with VISIO :(
There are better solutions than to just dual boot!
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Kenny said 5:09PM on 4-05-2006
I will definitely dual boot -- until Intuit releases a decent version of Quicken for the Mac.
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Quicksilver801 said 5:24PM on 4-05-2006
This has confirmed my purchase of a new intel mac pretty soon. As long as a can get an extra hd in the comp so one can be dedicated to windows and one dedicated to osx, just in case those nasty windows viruses attempt to run a riot i will have no problem using my mac like always.
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Mark D. said 5:24PM on 4-05-2006
Definately will, should be a great work-around for the slow Adobe speed through Rosetta, I mean it runs okay, but it feels like usign a 1Ghzish G4 at best, and really slugs on some heavy resizing and even saving. I'd rather switch the OS when I really really need heavy preformance, that and... well... games that aren't Universal.
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Christopher Williams said 5:27PM on 4-05-2006
What are the phantom "things one can only do in Windows?" Besides gaming (for which there are consoles which do a far superior job than PCs) and the occasional in-house application that a particular business/ organization may use, what can you do on a PC that can't be done in OS X?
I can't think of a single thing. In fact, as I was going through my Applications menu, I have found that only a very select few are cross-platform applications. That list is MS Office, Cisco's VPN client, realPlayer, oXygen XML editor, Dreamweaver, Adobe products (I have Adobe Acrobat Pro and Photoshop CS). Most of my apps are OS X only. And I even have OS X only apps which perform the same functions as its cross-platform counterpart (I use Mellel rather than Word for instance).
(I fully acknowledge the lack of CAD software on OS X, but how many of us really use CAD software . . .)
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mrtotes said 5:27PM on 4-05-2006
I have no need for Windows expect perhaps syncing PocketPC - but I'm hoping for future versions of iSync!
I assume that when Dual-Booting Windoze that connecting it to the Tinterweb could quickly result in viruses attacking any files on the hard disk including the OS X system.
Apple are obviously confident that with Windoze and OS X side-by-side users will use OS X more.
Interesting (I think) that usually it's the hardware OEM that must support Windows issues rather than Microsoft so I take it that this is going to be totally unsupported by outside agencies - meaning it's not aimed at the casual home user at this time.
I'd be surprised if we don't see this integrated 'Classic' or 'Fast USer Switching' Style in 10.5.
No. 10: Intel Macs can use USB as boot drives unlike PPC which are limited to Firewire.
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Adam said 5:35PM on 4-05-2006
As much as I hate to admit it, on my upcoming MBP I will dual boot primarily for gaming (every once in a while for the offbeat program I want/need to run in XP).
My current Windows box is now just a "Wintendo" with some minor usage for Windows-only TiVo programs, and will probably become a Linux server when I get my MBP.
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Tom said 5:40PM on 4-05-2006
I voted "I have no need" even though I've already installed it...
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