Apple recently posted a Support Document on Boot Camp reminding users that Boot Camp is time-limited beta software which expires when Leopard ships. We previously reported on the speculation that Apple was planning to charge for Boot Camp. However, this support document states flatly: "The license to use Boot Camp Beta expires when Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard is available to the public. To continue using Boot Camp at that time, upgrade to Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard."It's not clear that the Boot Camp beta would necessarily stop working with Tiger once Leopard ships, but it does seem that Apple is revoking any license to use it past that point. It's also not clear whether Apple might sell Tiger users a Boot Camp license separately from Leopard (à la iChat AV in Jaguar).
[via MacNN]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
10-01-2007 @ 4:45PM
Philometalist said...
basterds
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10-01-2007 @ 4:52PM
Paul said...
Apple hasn't been making very good customer service decisions recently...
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10-01-2007 @ 5:06PM
mentalsticks said...
Keep the shareholders happy, Steve! We'll gladly pay up!
For now.
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10-01-2007 @ 5:08PM
apeguero said...
Damn! I was only joking when I asked in my other post from earlier today regarding Leopard if Apple was going to lock us out of non-Apple software. I guess my nightmare came true, at least with running Vista on Bootcamp that is. I better be ready to pay the entry fee for Leopard the minute it comes out. Or is Apple at least going to give us a small grace period to go to the Apple Store, pay for Leopard and run the upgrade.
I have in the past performed a fresh install whenever Redmond has released a new version of Windows. This is because I never trusted Windows enough to do an upgrade. Do you all recommend I do the same with Leopard? I mean, this is going to be the first time for me when I'll be upgrading the OS in my Mac.
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10-01-2007 @ 5:12PM
sterling said...
This isn't really news. Apple has been pretty clear on the fact that Boot Camp would require Leopard.
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10-01-2007 @ 5:12PM
Thomas said...
How can anyone be surprised by this? It was always stated that Boot Camp would come with Leopard and that this was a Beta.
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10-01-2007 @ 5:18PM
Bob S. said...
Is the Startup Disk preference pane pinging back to Apple when a Boot Camp volume is selected, or is some other daemon part of a Boot Camp installation? Or is Apple just going to remind us that we're all evil, evil people?
I haven't used any Boot Camp installers in quite a while, so even if an Oct. 31 date is hardwired into the installer or the preference pane, I'm likely at too early a rev for it to include that. I doubt I'll be upgrading to Leopard until there's a .3 or .4 release.
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10-01-2007 @ 5:21PM
Nicholas Arvanitis said...
Also no 3rd party additions such a SafariStand or inquisitor on Safari in Leopard. WTG Apple! Linux is looking ever so tempting lately with this anti-competitve behavior. And yes, Apple kiss asses, I know that locking out 3rd party extensions is safer, but honestly I've never had issues with reliable 3rd parties. It's your computer to risk if you want to IMO.
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10-01-2007 @ 5:46PM
Jon said...
"How can anyone be surprised by this? It was always stated that Boot Camp would come with Leopard and that this was a Beta."
They didn't say that the Tiger one would be inoperable after this date. So you'd be forced to upgrade to Leopard in order to continue using the software. Sounds like a Microsoft tactic.
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10-01-2007 @ 5:48PM
Warranty Void said...
Watch them void your warranty and brick your iMac if you violate their software license agreement.
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10-01-2007 @ 5:52PM
Ian said...
I was actually at an Apple education seminar on dual boot Macs last week, and this topic came up.
Essentially, here's the deal: Boot Camp Assistant (the application that partitions your disk and burns driver CDs) will stop functioning on December 31, 2007. That's it. Everything else will work, your existing Boot Camp partitions will be fine, you can keep on doing your thing. You can even use other tools to partition your disks and install as normal, provided you've got an old Windows driver CD kicking around. If you're late to the Boot Camp party and don't have those things by 2008, you're probably going to be limited to Leopard--they didn't say anything about an upgrade path for Tiger users, nor did they seem particularly concerned that the Boot Camp Assistant was going to stop working.
This information is direct from an Apple representative, Keith Mountin, as of September 25.
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10-01-2007 @ 5:54PM
Steven Fisher said...
Apple's betas ALWAYS expire. (Or, at least, always have in the last decade. I can't speak for before that.)
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10-01-2007 @ 6:35PM
nakedmac said...
It's pretty clear from the Terms and Conditions for Boot Camp:
"Term of License. The term of this License shall commence upon your installation or use of the Apple Software and will terminate automatically without notice from Apple upon the next commercial release of the Apple Software, or December 31, 2007, whichever occurs first. Your rights under this License will also terminate automatically without notice from Apple if you fail to comply with any term(s) of this License. Upon the termination of this License, you shall cease all use of the Apple Software and destroy all copies, full or partial, of the Apple Software."
So, on the day Leopard ships, you legally can no longer use the beta. As Ian said, the only thing that actually stops working is the Boot Camp Beta Assistant.
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10-01-2007 @ 7:25PM
(01) said...
As others have said, this has been the case for months; it's never been a secret that the BC beta would expire when Leopard hit. The real question is why you want to put Windows on your mac in the first place... :-)
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10-01-2007 @ 7:28PM
Big John said...
nakedmac, thank you for finally cutting the crap and leaving a good comment. Bravo.
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10-01-2007 @ 8:05PM
Peter Kirn said...
Oh, come on, unexpected or not, it's still *rightfully* frustrating, because it's software that controls how your operating system boots. And why not at least some grace period between the two? Or leaving it available, unsupported?
There are many, many cases where you wouldn't want to upgrade the OS -- audio, for one -- the day it ships. I understand not supporting it as beta software; that makes sense. But it wasn't a Leopard beta, it was a Boot Camp beta, and for many people, it's working. And Apple had clearly used this as a selling point for their machines. In other words, Apple is breaking functioning software.
Fortunately, there are third-party alternatives, and this really suggests that they're superior to Apple's own software.
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10-01-2007 @ 8:23PM
apeguero said...
Listen people, the quote above is what worried us where it specifically says Bootcamp will stop working once Leopard is released. That would not be good. I can understand Beta software expiring but for one to be told upgrade right away when Leopard ships or lose your Vista install is kind of a bad way to do business don't you think? The statement leads one to believe that I either upgrade my full OS from my currently stable, tried and true 10.4.10 Tiger environment to a totally fresh 10.5.0 Leopard OS or I won't have Bootcamp. I don't know about you but that made me feel a bit nervous as I still have a few programs that I need Windows for and I really don't feel that comfortable installing Apple's version 1.0 software right on release. And to add, Apple hasn't been that rock solid on all of their version 1.0 stuff as of late. Need I mention MacBook Pros, MacBooks, iPod Touch (in Japan at least), and I'm sure there's other stuff out there where it's taken them a couple of updates to straighten shit out.
Again, I'm not saying I resent the requirement to get OS X Leopard in order to keep using Bootcamp to it's full capacity. I will eventually buy Leopard. I'm dying for it to come out already. But I really would feel a lot safer to wait until around December before I can have the warm and fuzzies about Leopard upgrade my Mac Pro with it. Chill out defenders. I'm not bashing Apple on this. My comment might have been a bit harsh in light of recent iPhone events where I was enjoying my 3rd party apps and then, kablamo, gone with 1.1.1. The quote, as I interpreted above, was telling me that come release date of Leopard I would have to kiss my Vista install goodbye unless I upgraded to Leopard right then and there. As it is, I'll still be able to keep using Windows without fear of losing which gives me a couple of months to better judge Leopard.
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10-01-2007 @ 8:23PM
apeguero said...
Listen people, the quote above is what worried us where it specifically says Bootcamp will stop working once Leopard is released. That would not be good. I can understand Beta software expiring but for one to be told upgrade right away when Leopard ships or lose your Vista install is kind of a bad way to do business don't you think? The statement leads one to believe that I either upgrade my full OS from my currently stable, tried and true 10.4.10 Tiger environment to a totally fresh 10.5.0 Leopard OS or I won't have Bootcamp. I don't know about you but that made me feel a bit nervous as I still have a few programs that I need Windows for and I really don't feel that comfortable installing Apple's version 1.0 software right on release. And to add, Apple hasn't been that rock solid on all of their version 1.0 stuff as of late. Need I mention MacBook Pros, MacBooks, iPod Touch (in Japan at least), and I'm sure there's other stuff out there where it's taken them a couple of updates to straighten shit out.
Again, I'm not saying I resent the requirement to get OS X Leopard in order to keep using Bootcamp to it's full capacity. I will eventually buy Leopard. I'm dying for it to come out already. But I really would feel a lot safer to wait until around December before I can have the warm and fuzzies about Leopard upgrade my Mac Pro with it. Chill out defenders. I'm not bashing Apple on this. My comment might have been a bit harsh in light of recent iPhone events where I was enjoying my 3rd party apps and then, kablamo, gone with 1.1.1. The quote, as I interpreted above, was telling me that come release date of Leopard I would have to kiss my Vista install goodbye unless I upgraded to Leopard right then and there. As it is, I'll still be able to keep using Windows without fear of losing which gives me a couple of months to better judge Leopard.
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10-01-2007 @ 8:23PM
apeguero said...
Damn! Double post. Sorry.
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10-01-2007 @ 8:50PM
duscrom said...
(01)
No Mac build of 3DS MAX, or Office 2007... and Working WiFi Drivers.
Those are the reasons I switch over to my Windows Partition. And there are some sites i like to go to that require WMP, or Internet Explorer to use.
Also game performance.. since Apple's execution of inTels' graphics chip on 2nd gen MacBooks sucks compared to Windows'.. Oh.. and Volume.. I can get 2x the volume in wondows that i can under OSX.
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