Since my last article on the Intel transition, something
very interesting has happened on the Apple front. A while ago there was a
public contest to get Windows XP running on new Intel-based Macs and that
contest was won. My prediction was that it would be done eventually, but it happened
a lot quicker than anticipated. Their install process was rather cumbersome and
only the most technically savvy would most likely attempt it. Two weeks later,
Apple released Boot Camp and made the process as easy as a few clicks.
Boot Camp is a simple and free download from
www.apple.com/bootcamp and requires any Intel-based Mac, a blank CD and a
Windows XP SP2 install disk.
Moving to the dark side
The install process was very easy, but since the installer
will repartition your drive (non-destructive) to make room for Windows, I
recommend that you perform a full backup first. After the repartition, Boot
Camp will create a driver CD containing drivers for the Mac hardware for
Windows, then reboot your computer to install Windows from the install CD.
If you’ve ever installed Windows, the process is quite easy,
however, longer than a Mac OS X install. Once up and running, you insert the
driver disk burned in step 2 and it’ll take care of the rest.
The Windows XP experience on a Mac
As with any PC, you’ll need to take some time to personalize
it. Myself, I turn off the Fisher-Price Windows XP look and feel and turn on
file name extensions, etc. The first thing you notice is that Windows feels
extremely fast on these Macs. I’ve installed all sorts of software on mine and
the speed never seems to fade. Perhaps Apple’s hardware is more efficient, but
the jury is still out on this. I gave Windows a really good workout running all
sorts of high-performance games (my only real need for Windows), and it ran
flawlessly. The combination of the excellent Radeon X1600 graphics system in
the iMac made for a very good gaming experience. I couldn’t find any software
that wouldn’t run. After all, Intel Macs are just PCs now, albeit with better
and more reliable hardware.
The only feature of the iMac that Windows would not
recognize was the built-in iSight camera. AirPort wireless, Ethernet,
Bluetooth, USB, and FireWire worked as expected. Booting into Mac OS X or
Windows is as simple as holding down the option key on boot and selecting the
OS you want.
Gotchas
The main downside to Boot Camp right now is the lack of
file-exchange capability between the partitions. If you opt for a larger than
20 gigabyte partition for Windows, it’ll be formatted with NTFS, which Mac OS X
can only read from (under 20GB can be formatted with FAT which is read/writable
in Mac OS X). I expect write capability to NTFS in Mac OS X Leopard. The
Windows side, however, cannot read HFS Mac disks without extra software. For
the time being this is a good thing, since viruses you may contract in Windows
can only affect the Windows partition.
Looking forward
Apple has publicly stated that Boot Camp will be included in
Mac OS X Leopard. I expect the dual boot capability to stay intact, however,
I’d put forward that Apple will take this further. What I think will happen is
that we will see the ability to boot Windows inside Mac OS X (a la Classic) so
we can run Windows applications alongside Mac OS X at the same time. Finally,
the “Holy Grail” of computing will be upon us!
Trevor Page is the Chief Technical Officer of GraphicCARE,
specializing in computer, network and technical support for the graphics
industry.
T: 416-559-4905
E: trevor@graphiccare.ca
