Ever since March 16th, there has been a new wave of debate in the age-old PC vs. Mac fight. The idea was that supporters would pledge money to be given to the first person who posted the solution to make an Intel Mac dual-booting (that is, to offer a choice of XP or OSX at startup. Two guys named narf and blanka posted the solution that day, won $13,000, and went down in history.
That is, until Apple announced something else new on its 30th birthday. It released a public beta version of Boot Camp, which basically will do what narf and blanka's maybe slightly less elegant solution would also do. It also mentioned that Boot Camp will come standard with the release of OSX 10.5 Leopard.
Yes, it has been proven since it was released that Boot Camp is not without its bugs (it's beta, after all), but you'd better believe that Apple will have worked those out by the time Leopard is released. I'm not surprised, though, that Mac would run Windows before Windows would run Mac (At least well. Anybody remember MacinDos? Bleccchhhh). They've also proven that it'll run the beta version of Windows Vista, so it's not just a "right now" thing.
Personally, I think it's just another part of the reason I'm already leaning toward a Mac for my next computer. Don't get me wrong, I'm a lifelong PC guy, but I'm getting tired of having to do every little trick I know just to install something that I can simply plug into a Mac and have work flawlessly. With a dual boot option (and hopefully a later option that will let me run both OSs at once and transfer files between them), it means that I could use one computer for everything instead of having two. Nice.
My question is this: Does this spell trouble for the PC community and a big win for Apple? Or does it mean that Apple is going to be selling Macs with Windows someday and the PC community is recognizing Apple's defeat?
4 comments:
. . . Which begs the question: Did Apple succumb to the PC or did the PC succumb to the Apple?
Last fall a collegue mentioned that Mac's were starting to ship with 2 button mice.
"Just like a PC" he said.
"Yeah, seems like that's a pretty common theme lately" was my reply, as Mac dumped IBM for Intel just prior to our conversation.
Anyways, point being, I sort of view it as Mac giving in to the PC. Whatever it means, I'll soon be able to run both!
Which, like you pointed out, is the best thing no matter which side you play for.
Oh yes, once you go Mac, there's no going back.
Of course, we all know the running joke...
"My PC can do something your Mac can never do."
"Oh yeah? What's that?"
"Right click."
But, maybe not for long...
Oddly, my mac at work right click's all the time, though I do have it set up for a left-handed user.
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