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Chris Shiflett

Chris Shiflett is an author and speaker who leads the web application security practice at OmniTI.

Windows on Mac

I've been too busy to blog this past week, but Apple's Boot Camp seems particularly noteworthy. If you have an Intel-based Mac, you can run Windows XP without having to do anything complicated. From Apple's announcement:

More and more people are buying and loving Macs. To make this choice simply irresistible, Apple will include technology in the next major release of Mac OS X, Leopard, that lets you install and run the Windows XP operating system on your Mac. Called Boot Camp (for now), you can download a public beta today.

Very cool. Now, back to work. :-)

About This Post

Windows on Mac was posted on Wed, 05 Apr 2006 at 13:23:46 GMT.

10 Comments

1. Rob Allen's GravatarRob Allen said:

Just need someone to confirm that Oblivion runs smoothly and then all I need is a lot of cash!

(btw, the "remember info" checkbox doesn't!)

Wed, 05 Apr 2006 at 15:35:59 GMT Link

2. greenr's Gravatargreenr said:

This has to be the best news in the computer industry in the last 10 years. I've wanted something like this since Tiger came out. As a diehard XP user that is Apple curious, I could never really afford to make the jump. But now my next laptop will absolutely be a Mac.

Wed, 05 Apr 2006 at 16:00:14 GMT Link

3. Chris Shiflett's GravatarChris Shiflett said:

This comment on Slashdot is pretty funny:

"t's sorta like batman, all boring in the day at work. Then at night he's off in the cool car, with the toys/gadgets saving lives."

I'll fix that bug, Rob. Thanks for pointing it out.

Wed, 05 Apr 2006 at 16:27:15 GMT Link

4. Chris Shiflett's GravatarChris Shiflett said:

Here are some other good quotes from Apple's Boot Camp page:

"Macs use an ultra-modern industry standard technology called EFI to handle booting. Sadly, Windows XP, and even the upcoming Vista, are stuck in the 1980s with old-fashioned BIOS. But with Boot Camp, the Mac can operate smoothly in both centuries."

"Windows running on a Mac is like Windows running on a PC. That means it’ll be subject to the same attacks that plague the Windows world."

Wed, 05 Apr 2006 at 16:30:39 GMT Link

5. Nate Klaiber's GravatarNate Klaiber said:

I think this is great! Will be interesting to see how everything pans out.

Personally, I have no NEED for windows - but I know there are many out there who would have switched a LONG time ago if they just had (insert windows based application here) on a MAC. For instance, we have some here who wouldnt switch because they couldnt get MS Access on a MAC.

In other news, thanks to my amazon credit card rewards, my copy of Essential PHP Security should be showing up any minute.

Wed, 05 Apr 2006 at 18:22:54 GMT Link

6. Christine K's GravatarChristine K said:

I installed Windows XP on my MacBook Pro today using Boot Camp and it worked 100% flawlessly. Unless you count that if you try to access the iSight camera in Windows you BSOD.

Wed, 05 Apr 2006 at 22:01:32 GMT Link

7. Chris Shiflett's GravatarChris Shiflett said:

"In other news, thanks to my amazon credit card rewards, my copy of Essential PHP Security should be showing up any minute."

I'll be interested to hear what you think once you've read it - keep me posted. :-)

Thu, 06 Apr 2006 at 14:07:15 GMT Link

8. pento's Gravatarpento said:

I think it's simply idiocy! What advantages it will make for Apple ?!

Fri, 07 Apr 2006 at 08:50:51 GMT Link

9. Keith Casey's GravatarKeith Casey said:

Pento,

It starts to degrade the classic argument of "I can't run my software on it!". I would suspect that the next step would be a Virtual Machine to support Windows software without actually having to reboot... with the ideal being running the software natively.

Fri, 07 Apr 2006 at 15:34:18 GMT Link

10. Nate Klaiber's GravatarNate Klaiber said:

Well, we just bought a new iMac at work and our network tech just HAD to boot it to windows (hes an anti-mac guy -hehe). I must say, windows on a mac looks/runs alot better than I ever remember it running on my old PC. I guess only time will really tell with the use/performance of it. I will be getting a new iMac at work here soon - and the ONLY reason I would consider dual booting is to check sites in IE7 and on the windows platform (however, I may just stick to using synergy).

Oh, and Chris, I emailed you my thoughts after reading your book the other night!

Peace,

Nate

Mon, 10 Apr 2006 at 13:49:18 GMT Link

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