You knew it was coming and its now true. Apple will soon offer Windows XP support on Macintosh systems, a strategy designed to attract new converts. The option, called Boot Camp, is currently in beta form, and allows Windows XP to run on Intel-powered Macs.

"Apple has no desire or plan to sell or support Windows, but many customers have expressed their interest to run Windows on Apple's superior hardware, now that we use Intel processors," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing. "We think Boot Camp makes the Mac even more appealing to Windows users considering making the switch."


Apple Won't Support Windows
Apple's decision to support dual-booting between Windows and Mac OS X was met by immediate jubilation and horror, depending on the crowd. But again, this announcement doesn't really mean much to enterprise customers. That's because Apple is refusing to support Windows on a Mac. Users can download the Boot Camp software, install it, configure their Mac, and then install XP. But if anything goes wrong with Windows, you're on your own.

In my own tests of Boot Camp, the Apple solution appears to work quite well. But the term "no support" should logically send up all kinds of warning signals to IT. You'd have to be a particular kind of crazy to send your employees out the door with unsupported systems, no matter how beautiful that hardware might be. And let's face it, Apple doesn't exactly understand enterprise pricing as it is.

The problem here, of course, is that Apple isn't targeting businesses and likely never will. The company is experiencing a Renaissance thanks to its iPod portable music players and clever marketing. It sells products in shopping malls. It targets teen-agers, women, and college students. And you know what? It's doing quite well, thank you very much. It's just that businesses need not apply.

What It all Means
It's rare to have two significant industry-oriented interoperability events like this occur in one week. It's even rarer, perhaps, for such events to essentially mean nothing to Windows users even though, on the face of things, they seem to affect the Windows world quite a bit. My guess is that corporations will continue to consolidate NT 4.0 servers on Virtual Server and that businesses of all sizes will continue to buy and use PCs not Macs. You know, maybe nothing happened last week at all.

If you have a Mac and want to screw it up, please visit: Mac BootCamp.
What is next, Vista Portable edition on ipods? Crazy world....

god i hope not lol..

macs are ment for tiger and osx there own special versions...

i find macs better for somethings and a few of the things they have to offer its kinda cool

anyways yeah i use pcs cause i play games...

hmm... it might bew a smooth move to attract new converts, but it will also slightly increase the use of XP - for those heathens who download it onto their MACs...

It is nice to know, though, that apple is starting to support other systems aswell...

Almost, you can have linux on your ipod, its called IpodLinux.org. Very cool, i installed it in my nano and know i can play doom, and listen to videos!(+ alot of games, useless 3d cube and stuff)

ipodlinux.org

WOAH! look at that!
http://ipodlinux.org/IZilla

ITS A DESKTOP ON YOUR IPOD!!