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Vista SP1 to support EFI booting standard - what does this mean for Boot Camp?

by David Chartier Aug 30th 2007 at 7:30PM



Rounding up on 9 months of Vista being on the market, Microsoft is of course at work on Service Pack 1 which is slated for an early 2008 release. At the official Windows Vista blog, Brandon LeBlanc has offered extensive details on what the focus of Service Pack 1 is, and while much of it is targeted at businesses and independent software vendors, an interesting section outlining some of the fundamentals mentions that support for the EFI booting standard is on its way (under the Introducing Windows Vista Service Pack 1 section; there aren't any anchors I can link in this extensive post, so you'll have to search for that title or simply 'EFI').

In their hype and marketing for Boot Camp, Apple makes a pretty big deal about Intel-based Macs supporting EFI while "Windows XP, and even Vista, are stuck in the 1980s with old-fashioned BIOS" (check the sidebar of the Boot Camp page). So what could it mean if Vista catches up to the EFI bandwagon? I'm not quite sure yet. It could likely make the Boot Camp engineers' lives a lot easier, and while I know less about virtualization software like Parallels Desktop and VMware Fusion, they might be able to sleep better at night as well. Ultimately, if EFI support in Vista makes it easier for Apple to support running Windows on a Mac, this could likely yield even more sales from swtichers - especially those who need Vista for things like work or gaming. As to speculation on whether this could bring some of the wilder stuff like running Windows apps in Mac OS X without the need for the Windows OS or virtualization tools, I'll leave that to the tin foil hat enthusiasts in the audience.

Thanks Adam

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Rounding up on 9 months of Vista being on the market, Microsoft is of course at work on Service Pack 1 which is slated for an early 2008...
 

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16 Comments

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ggolinsky

Only 20 years in the past? Windows, using old, outdated technology for years? Nowai! ;)
Anyway, I see this as another "me 2!" from windows. Yeah, they finally caught on, but who wants to wait that long for them to catch up to Apple all the time?

September 03 2007 at 1:15 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Adam

Dont you just love the asshats that post comments here. Somebody needs to get laid...

August 31 2007 at 1:15 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
nTuX

Quote from the article :
"[...]those who need Vista for things like work or gaming.[...]"

I think there is a problem with that sentence. ;)

August 31 2007 at 10:47 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
!!!!!

TUAW's comment system is reminiscent of a torture trap from some Ballmerian fantasy. Of course, you tasteless dweebs here at TUAW probably can't even perceive the shit in which you wade knee deep, so it's not surprising you don't care.

August 31 2007 at 10:22 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
!!!!

Who gives a flying fuck? How is Windows news of any interest to Mac users? Oh, right--this is TUAW, hivemind of switcheurs who really would have been better off sticking with Windows.

If you're the type who just doesn't feel comfortable without SquareSoft Accountancy 2000 or whatever PC apps it is you people need so badly, perhaps you should have thought of that before you bought your shiny new Mac. As the saying goes, you can take the PC from the user...

August 31 2007 at 10:19 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
itsmeee

lol where is the "edit for grammar" function?

August 31 2007 at 12:08 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Steve

There is a misconception that Apple's "Boot Camp" is what lets an Apple Mac boot Windows. You can take a Windows XP SP2 CD into any Apple store, turn any system off, pop your CD in and boot up and install XP onto that system. Boot Camp is not required.

Boot Camp contains a GUI interface to partitioning toos to make that easier (though they are already there from the command line) and it contains the Windows driver disk.

The booting capability has been in all Intel Macs since April 2005 and a firmware update updated older Intel Macs (thats why it was a requirement to have that firmware before you used Boot Camp)

Steve

August 31 2007 at 12:02 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
itsmeee

Take from Paul Thurrot's walkthrough of SP1...

"In the initial shipping version of Windows Vista, 64-bit (x64) versions of the OS could boot on EFI-compliant PCs, which replace ancient BIOS technology with a more modern solution. With SP1, EFI-based x64 Vista systems can also support network boot, a feature that was previously available only on 32-bit (x86) Vista versions on BIOS-based PCs."

To me this reads that you need two things for EFI, a 64bit system (which all new macs can put a check mark down for), and the x64 version of Vista which is a piece of crap because of device drivers (for printers, scanners etc).

So basically if I'm correct all that will change is... well nothing since the x64 Vista is a piece of crap.

August 30 2007 at 11:50 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
raf

This means nothing for BootCamp. Now, if XP SP3 supports EFI, BootCamp is done for!

August 30 2007 at 11:34 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Johnny Thrash

Microsoft... pathetic. As always.

August 30 2007 at 11:22 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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