I returned from a short holiday to find an unexpected release from Apple – Boot Camp. Following on with the ‘making Windows run on an Intel Mac’ thing, Apple decided to join in and make its own program to do this. Having probably been in the works since Apple decided to use Intel, which is since the birth of OS X, Boot Camp is a way for ‘normal people’ (I say normal I mean people who have at least used a computer once or twice in their lives) to boot XP on an Intel Mac. Why people would want to do this is quite beyond me as thinking about it, there aren’t really any reasons for anyone to use Windows when they have Mac, except possibly the games, but most civilised people have gone beyond that stage. If there are any reasons why someone should use Windows when they have a Mac then let me know as I will be interested…
The results of this could be variable. What Apple (or at least Steve) wants is for Windows people to realise that they can now run any of their old software if they really want to on a Mac using Boot Camp (which by the way will be built into 10.5 Leopard) so these people will buy a new Mac, use Windows on it to do their old boring things, and finally, somewhere along the way see the light and begin to use OS X more and more until they see how great it is… Thus causing Apple to get more money thru new people buying their hardware, then getting even more support for their OS thru converts and getting a larger customer base. The release of Boot Camp could also result in many other things, some not so probable as others, such as hardware manufacturers, e.g. Dell, HP, Sony that make PCs for use with Windows losing market share to Apple as people realise how ugly, old, crappy looking and derivative their hardware is, and thus dont buy it anymore in favour of using Apple computers.
But all in all, committed Mac users would never really have use for such a program, possibly just to know that such a feature exists and to boast about it to the non Apple community… I probably won’t even install it, not even to try it out, possibly only if I have some very obscure desire to play GTA or some other game available on Windows…