10 replies to this topic

[thecheeks]

if and when intel macs come out, whats the possibility of dual booting xp on it? im going to buy a laptop before college, so during summer time 06, and i REALLY like macs but i rely on some windows only apps. itd be nice to have XP on a powerbook just in case i need to use windows.

i know theres no facts or anything, so im only asking opinions.

[bjr1028]

Yes there is facts.  At WWDC where they announced the switch, Phil Schiller (Apple's VP) said while Apple will not give windows support, they will not do anything to prevent you using it.

[iDerf2006]

Yep. It'll work 100% with Winblows too, i hear.

[DrJägermeister]

thecheeks, on Dec 21 2005, 03:25 AM, said:

if and when intel macs come out, whats the possibility of dual booting xp on it? im going to buy a laptop before college, so during summer time 06, and i REALLY like macs but i rely on some windows only apps. itd be nice to have XP on a powerbook just in case i need to use windows.

i know theres no facts or anything, so im only asking opinions.

Not only windows, probably also x86 Linux & Unix.
Linux also exist for PPC but for x86 you have more distros.

[stryder]

thecheeks, on Dec 20 2005, 08:25 PM, said:

if and when intel macs come out, whats the possibility of dual booting xp on it? im going to buy a laptop before college, so during summer time 06, and i REALLY like macs but i rely on some windows only apps. itd be nice to have XP on a powerbook just in case i need to use windows.

i know theres no facts or anything, so im only asking opinions.

I have a feeling that when the Intel Macs are out and are selling well, Microsoft will release a "Windows XP Pro Upgrade For Mac Users", which will be a Windows installer with drivers for the Mac machines.  Think about it:  Microsoft won't want people running just Mac OS X on their PCs, right?  Why not sell them a copy of Windows to run on their shiny new x86's.

Maybe they'll even sell a version that installs then runs like Classic does.  When you boot into XP it runs via OS X...  it's not impossible, and it would benefit Microsoft alot.

[Swad]

BTW, we're putting together some guides for dual booting the new Intel Macs for people with this exact same question (and there will be many).  The guides will replace the old TwinMac site, and will hopefully come out before MacWorld.

[bjr1028]

Mods, could you sticky a thread saying that Intel Macs can dual boot windows.

[cyrana]

Well, all they really said is they'd just not prevent Windows from running on their new boxes (as bjr has said).  But yeah, this question does come up often enough...

EFI can do BIOS emulation anyway, so it isn't like that part is a stumbling block (if they use it).

[INFNITE]

I have a question though

Lets say the new Intel PowerBooks are equipped with whatever video card and audio controller....will the driver available for Windows work with these components?  Will there be compatible driver for wireless internet adapter built in?  For example, assuming they use Radeon X700, can we just use the Windows driver and expect the graphics card to work perfectly (with full functionality) in Windows?  Or are we stuck with no hardware video acceleration and no sound?

Edited by INFNITE, 01 January 2006 - 01:28 AM.

[guyin916]

bjr1028, on Dec 30 2005, 06:21 AM, said:

Mods, could you sticky a thread saying that Intel Macs can dual boot windows.

mods, could you not stick this thread?

[Mr. Bond]

It's common knowledge that Apple has said the Intel Mac's can boot XP, they just won't provide any support for it, as bjr pointed out. This has been mentioned before (probably in the wiki as well), so unless there's anything new on this matter...closed for now.