Some more Boot Camp Discussion

[sscutchen]

For Apple...

1. Unless they did something in hardware to forbid it, this was going to happen. If it was hack-based, it would be ugly. and Apple doesn't want even hacks to be ugle. So release an Apple version that installes like Apple wants.

2. Now folks that buy PCs can look at Macs... a Mac is not a superset of a PC, not an alternative. That opens market share. My sister is in this boat.

3. Folks that run both will compare both. Leader is NOT afraid of this. Heh.

4. I fully expect Leopard to have Fast OS switching.

For Co-developers like Adobe...

They have an option to stop Mac development. I think if this happens, there will be a big uproar. It will come down to how they see the economics. Plain and Simple.

For porters like Aspyr.

Sucks to be them. My son will be getting an iMac when he heads off to UTexas this Fall. In addition to knowing that he can now run propietary PC software that may be part of his EE curriculum, he's already psyched about games he can now play in Windows.

For PC owners...

They are going to be hit with a hardware upgrade choise for Vista... will they by a new Dell, or buy a Mac that can dual boot? ('cause you know Apple will make dual booting Vista compatible.) Higher end PC users will seriously consider Macs.

For Mac owners...

We have new options for those odd-ball programs. Which is very cool. The ultimate Virtual PC. But except for games, it will be about as important as Virtual PC... After they do what they need to, Mac users will want OUT of Windowsa ASAP.

We also have a much easier Switcher selling job for those of us that evangelize.

[Silencio]

"I'm not a programmer, but with all the virtualization and dual booting that is going around it seems that some technique to run Windows apps at or nearly at native speed within OS X can't be far off. "

Apple's Bootcamp announcement overshadowed the Parallels Workstation 2.1 beta, which is a virtualization package for Intel-based Macs:

http://www.parallels.com/en/products/workstation/mac/

In many ways, I think this will be bigger for corporate/enterprise users than Bootcamp. Of course VMware will enter this market and, eventually, Microsoft will get their VirtualPC act together.

I don't think Apple is going to sell Mac OS X "a la carte" any time soon, but they do have that card to play whenever they think the time is right. I think if they ever do this, it will be their "finishing move" when they have Windows on the ropes. I'm not holding my breath, though...

I think sscutchen is on the right track (point #3 is especially pertinent). However, it doesn't seem that Adobe is in process of stopping Mac development at all: if the rumors are true, they are actually in the process of bringing Premiere back to the Mac, in addition to releasing Mac OS X versions of Encore and Audition for the first time.