Filed under: Hardware, OS, Cult of Mac
Windows on a Mac: This isn't the first time
Before we all
get completely flabbergasted by Apple's efforts to allow users to run Windows on their Macs, let's respect our elders,
shall we? This isn't the first time Apple has supplied Mac owners with an official solution for running Windows. The DOS Compatibility Card was released for the Powermac
6100 series way back in 1995. It actually shipped with an installable version of Windows (3.1) and MS-DOS 6.22. They
featured a i80486 processor that cooked along at an astounding 33MHz.We are standing on the shoulders of DOS compatibility cards.
Thanks to Jotefa for the great image.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Wheels said 7:16PM on 4-05-2006
Windows has been standing "on the shoulders of DOS" since Windows's inception, and look at where it's gotten it! =)
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ben said 7:22PM on 4-05-2006
Wasn't there a version of NT developed to run on the Mac? I thought there was, but it was never released.
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shane said 7:26PM on 4-05-2006
I had one of these... Barely worked at all. Kinda reminded me of the Apple II card in my LC
Shane
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CyBeR said 7:26PM on 4-05-2006
I actually have a DOS-compatibility card with a Pentium 100, that shipped with DOS 6.22 (on floppies).
And while some older versions of NT (up to 4, I think) did run on PowerPC (and Alpha), I don't think they ever actually ran on Macs. As far as I know, the ppc build ran on PReP or CHRP machines like IBM made.
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Galen D. W. said 7:38PM on 4-05-2006
"We are standing on the shoulders of DOS compatibility cards."
I'm not sure that a place I want to be standing.
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Scott said 7:46PM on 4-05-2006
I had a 6100 that came with this card pre-installed. It actually worked quite well from what I remember. You booted up the Mac first and then a certain key stroke would switch the monitor and all peripherals over to the Windows (3.1) side. You could actually copy and paste between environments. Something it doesn't look like you will be able to do with Boot Camp. I had an Apple StyleWriter inkject printer and printing fron the Windows side was somewhat spotty as it first sent it to the Mac OS and then it went to the printer. Formatting often got lost intranslation.
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Peter Payne said 9:11PM on 4-05-2006
And Apple made a computer that had the DOS card already installed, too. Can't remember what it was called. I had one of these cards in my 7500, and it was really not bad at all, really.
God computers sucked back then...
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Ian Betteridge said 7:51AM on 4-06-2006
Actually, even THAT isn't the first time: there was an LC 630 DOS Compatible (http://www.lowendmac.com/quadra/lc630dos.shtml) way back in 1993.
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Mike Shaffer said 8:31AM on 4-06-2006
And before the LC 630 DOS Compatible there was an add-in card for the Mac SE that ran DOS. Worked pretty good, though I don't think they made many of them, seemed like mine was hand assembled. That was '88ish.
And then don't forget MacCharlie for the Macintosh Plus...that was like 1986 or so.
But Boot Camp is certainly the most complete whack at the Windows world
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mewyn said 9:00AM on 4-06-2006
ben,
There was a PowerPC version of Windows NT, but it was not designed to run on a Mac. It could only run on IBM-made PPC systems, the so-called reference system.
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Chris Alford said 9:43AM on 4-06-2006
Wow.. I had forgotten this.
I can remember setting one of these up for our accounts person many moons ago at the former advertising agency I worked at. It worked well.
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EatingPie said 10:32AM on 4-06-2006
I bought one of these, but I forget which Mac I had it in. I don't think it was a PPC. Worked like a charm. Could live switch from the Mac to the PC and back. They didn't share RAM, so sleep had no effect in that regard.
Borrowed a Windows joystick and played the whole X-Wing game, still one of the best ever made. Of course, then X-Wing came out on the Mac, but that was years later.
-Pie
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Larry Friedman said 12:08PM on 4-06-2006
Don't forget that Orange (PC) Micro sold Pentium cards as well; I always wondered why no one was doing modern versions of that solution.
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The Jeremy said 3:20PM on 4-06-2006
I actually speculated that some third-party company would bring out a G5 card for the upcoming Intel based PowerMacs since I doubt Apple will build a machine in these days that include both a PPC G5 and an Intel chip. Even if it would shore up the professional market who want to run programs that are still only optimized for PPC G5 work and not Intel via emulation.
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