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Vista Won't Boot On 32-bit Intel Macs?


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Things aren't looking good for those wishing to run the upcoming Windows Vista on their Intel Macs, as it won't support 32-bit EFI. Official statements from both Apple and Microsoft seem to confirm this, as neither seem interested in working together. Apple says they will not work to support a "legacy os" such as Windows, thus, they will not offer BIOS extensions for EFI. Meanwhile, on the other side of the fence, Microsoft has announced that they will not offer EFI support for 32-bit machines in Windows Vista. It will instead run on 32-bit machines with BIOS (or EFI with legacy BIOS emulation), and 64-bit machines with BIOS. EFI support will be added with a later update. Quite an interesting battle we have here, but both companies seem content to stay away from Windows on Macs. However, will future 64-bit Apple machines solve this problem once and for all?


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The VNUnet article is terribly written. Supposedly Microsoft plans to possibly add EFI support for 64-bit at a later date (SP1?).

 

What? haha no. First of all that article is not terribly written and it's a reputable site. Secondly a service pack is generally to upgrade an existing installation of windows, unless you slipstream the update onto your own installation dvd and THEN install it to your EFI based system it would be useless. Why would microsoft include support for efi in a service pack? Thats just dumb... they wont do it. Unless it SHIPS with EFI support it will not be included in this operating system.

 

However there are the beta builds of vista that DO support EFI and their bootloaders could be used to run the final version I'm sure. It just wont be a simple pop in the disk and install it. It'll be a hack, which I'm sure most of the people on this forum wont mind ^_^

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What? haha no. First of all that article is not terribly written and it's a reputable site.

 

I'm not going to bother with the rest of this, just let the quotes prove this writer has no clue about EFI or BIOS. They may not be serious errors here, but they prove he's probably reading from research given to him to write this story, thus, it's second-hand information. Quite easy to accidentally forget that Microsoft claims to be supporting EFI in 64-bit down the road, which has been reported by far more numerous reputable sources.

 

EFI replaces the Basic Input/Output System (Bios)
- Way to use proper caps.
EFI, however, has an advantage over Bios
- Again
The Intel Macs rely on EFI and lack a Bios.
- Again
This so-called double booting would allow gaming enthusiasts
- I've never heard it called double booting in my life.
Microsoft only supports it in its 64-bit version of Windows XP.
- No, just IA64.
Microsoft has said in the past that it targets the operating system at PC enthusiasts and warned against its use in real production environments.
- What on earth does that mean? I shouldn't use Vista since it's aimed at enthusiasts? Nope, it's aimed at testers and developers right now. I shouldn't use XP since it's aimed at enthusiasts? God I hope that's not Microsoft's stance.

 

I rest my case.

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lol Microsoft has a 64bit version of xp availible for non itaniums IE amd's and intels 64bit for the masses. That is the version of windows that the author is refering to and it is targeted at enthusiasts as he says. As for bios not being in all caps holy {censored} thats ridiculous I cant trust a word they say now... haha come on now thats just goofy! here's a link to windows xp 64bit for non itaniums

 

 

Windows XP Professional x64 Edition is designed to work with 64-bit processors from AMD and Intel that support the x64 extensions to the x86 architecture. These include the Athlon 64, Athlon 64 FX, Mobile Athlon 64, Turion 64, and Opteron processors from AMD, and the Xeon with EM64T and Pentium 4 with EM64T from Intel.
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lol Microsoft has a 64bit version of xp availible for non itaniums IE amd's and intels 64bit for the masses. That is the version of windows that the author is refering to and it is targeted at enthusiasts as he says. As for bios not being in all caps holy {censored} thats ridiculous I cant trust a word they say now... haha come on now thats just goofy! here's a link to windows xp 64bit for non itaniums

 

64-bit for AMDs and such doesn't support EFI from what I can see. Thus, my point remains. Additionally, for a paragraph referring back to 64-bit Windows again, it sure is poorly placed. Finally, to actually refer back to your point for once, Windows XP SP1 came pre-installed on new machines and in retail boxes. No reason XP w/ EFI couldn't either. To continue, Windows 95 w/ USB support came out later, as did Windows 95 w/ IE. All major updates that completely changed how it interfaced with the computer, all coming out as updates. No reason Microsoft can't do it again.

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we'll see wether it happens or not, I dont believe Microsoft will chose to spend the resources required to rebox their operating system (I for one have never seen a retail box sp1 or sp2 of xp) It's bad bussiness, not only does it cost them resources to box up different versions (they already have like 6 versions of vista planned) but they dont want apple competing with them. They like the way it used to be where apple's os was on hardware that could not run windows. It's safer. They dont have to worry about people trying out apple's stuff and liking it. Also there are simply not very many systems that support EFI at the moment anyways, and microsoft isn't gonna spend the resources required to support something that simply doesnt exist in their primary market (home pc's). Microsoft will support EFI in their next version of windows in say 7 years lol unless motherboard manufacturers start seriously cranking out boards with support for both BIOS and EFI which is unlikely as it would add cost and almost no real advantage...

 

in the end who the hell knows what M$ is gonna do, they're an evil corporation with many a secret motive and hidden agenda, only time will tell

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My conspiracy theory is simple :

 

Microsoft don't really want their users to use Windows in native mode on Mac, for one simple reason :

 

All the PC makers will have to compete with a difficult and unfair situation.

Only Apple Hardware can "officialy" runs OS X.

 

They would be very angry against Intel and Microsoft, to have let this happen.

 

That's why Microsoft is dropping EFI support in Vista.

 

Why would i buy a Laptop PC (or desktop) who can't runs 100% OS X (Gfx card, Widescreen, wireless, audio..all natively supported) when i can buy an Apple computer and run OS X, Windows, Linux etc.. ?

 

I'm sure Apple would like this to happen, but Intel won't let them do it, as they don't want to take the risk to loose their customers (PC makers).

 

Running XP or Vista on a Mac worth much more than the 10 000 US$ contest.

 

The economic amount wagered is too important.

 

My conclusion : Running windows on Mac Intel, why not ? but i rather like to run original 3DS, Autocad, Games etc... as an OS X version. :blink:

 

This will be the worse thing that could happen to Microsoft and the PC makers (who said Dell ?).

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we'll see wether it happens or not, I dont believe Microsoft will chose to spend the resources required to rebox their operating system (I for one have never seen a retail box sp1 or sp2 of xp) It's bad bussiness, not only does it cost them resources to box up different versions (they already have like 6 versions of vista planned) but they dont want apple competing with them. They like the way it used to be where apple's os was on hardware that could not run windows. It's safer. They dont have to worry about people trying out apple's stuff and liking it. Also there are simply not very many systems that support EFI at the moment anyways, and microsoft isn't gonna spend the resources required to support something that simply doesnt exist in their primary market (home pc's). Microsoft will support EFI in their next version of windows in say 7 years lol unless motherboard manufacturers start seriously cranking out boards with support for both BIOS and EFI which is unlikely as it would add cost and almost no real advantage...

 

in the end who the hell knows what M$ is gonna do, they're an evil corporation with many a secret motive and hidden agenda, only time will tell

 

Everytime a sp is released it replaces the previous retail version on the shelf. I won't even get into the bundled Office ad's for Windows (ex: ultimate compatibility) if Macs could boot the MS os. Thats why they won't support EFI because the mac eventually will boot Windows anyway.

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All intel macs are currently 32bit machines. The first 64 bit intel mac will likely be the mac pro nearer the end of the year based on Intel's conroe processor & accompanying chipset.

 

With regards to EFI support in later windows releases it wasn't made clear wether EFI support will be added to vista at a later date or if it won't be until the next major release. I dont agree with randomblame since microsoft could easily add support into Vista SP2 cd's, microsoft already rebox windows each time they release a service pack and anyone else wanting EFI support could easily slipstream a CD themselves or else microsoft could offer replacement disks for their geniune advantage customers!

 

But it definitely won't be shipping with any initial release of vista 32 or 64 bit.

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Intels next mobile cpu "merom" is pin compatible with the core duo and intel says all that will be nessecary to upgrade a laptop is a bios update. They are 64bit. It wouldnt take much work for apple to put these in macbook pros as they have the same power and heat requirements as the core duo. I'd imagine we'll see these in mac notebooks shortly after they are released by intel.

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My conspiracy theory is simple :

 

Microsoft don't really want their users to use Windows in native mode on Mac, for one simple reason :

This makes no sense, and I see a lot of people in different places making the same argument, so I had to say something. Microsoft doesn't care about stopping people from running Windows on Intel Macs. Why should they?

 

All the PC makers will have to compete with a difficult and unfair situation.

Only Apple Hardware can "officialy" runs OS X.

 

MS does not make PCs. They license their products to a ton of OEMs, plus sell retail. They are interested in selling OS licenses, not in selling hardware. If Intel Macs can run Windows, that's more money for them.

 

They would be very angry against Intel and Microsoft, to have let this happen.

 

That's why Microsoft is dropping EFI support in Vista.

 

MS isn't that concerned with pissing off OEMs, because what are they going to do, sell their PCs with Linux on them?

 

Why would i buy a Laptop PC (or desktop) who can't runs 100% OS X (Gfx card, Widescreen, wireless, audio..all natively supported) when i can buy an Apple computer and run OS X, Windows, Linux etc.. ?

 

Most people who want to run Windows will still buy PCs from PC OEMS, because Macs are much more expensive (and yes I know the Mini is cheap, but for what it costs you can get much more bang for the buck with a PC). Most of the public (and by most I mean about 98%) doesn't care at all about Linux, and not many more care about OSX. The amount of sales to people like us who care pales in comparison to the amount of sales to Joe Blow who just wants to surf the web and check his email (and who probably uses Windows at work and is comfortable with it).

 

I'm sure Apple would like this to happen, but Intel won't let them do it, as they don't want to take the risk to loose their customers (PC makers).

 

While Intel actually has competition, unlike Microsoft, I doubt this is a concern. Also, remember, Intel is the company that developed EFI in the first place, and they came up with the idea before Apple switched to x86. So I'm pretty sure they would like to make money licensing the technology to PC motherboard manufacturers.

 

This will be the worse thing that could happen to Microsoft and the PC makers (who said Dell ?).

 

Like I said above, the market for running Windows on an Intel Mac is tiny compared to the computer market as a whole. Dell sells computers by the tens of thousands to large corporations and to government agencies. Do you think those customers would suddenly switch to Macs simply because you could run Windows on them? Hardly.

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I think the lack of EFI support in Vista is probably just indicative of how desparate microsoft is to get the thing out the door on time, that they are prepared to drop any non essential components to shave time of development and testing. When vista is released it's just going to be XP with bells on - not the ground breaking development microsoft made it out to be a year ago.

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Both Apple and M$ try to escapes from an early head to head war. It is not the suitable time for this. M$ is too big but have crappy weapon, Apple with sharp weapons and good skills but do not have much "below the belt" acts, Apple must learn more and get more troops, why M$ try to keep their dominent and sharpen their weapons.

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Both Apple and M$ try to escapes from an early head to head war. It is not the suitable time for this. M$ is too big but have crappy weapon, Apple with sharp weapons and good skills but do not have much "below the belt" acts, Apple must learn more and get more troops, why M$ try to keep their dominent and sharpen their weapons.

 

:angel:

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I think the lack of EFI support in Vista is probably just indicative of how desparate microsoft is to get the thing out the door on time, that they are prepared to drop any non essential components to shave time of development and testing.

 

Bingo.

 

Both Apple and M$ try to escapes from an early head to head war. It is not the suitable time for this. M$ is too big but have crappy weapon, Apple with sharp weapons and good skills but do not have much "below the belt" acts, Apple must learn more and get more troops, why M$ try to keep their dominent and sharpen their weapons.

 

Huh?

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anyone seen this yet - it's video proof of the XP boot on an intel iMac - there are some dubious cuts tho, where the light is on and then it's off and then it's on, as the computer boots 2 or 3 times - i don't kno much about it technically - but something doesn't feel right

 

 

 

XP boots on a Mac video evidence

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It looks good - until you realise that you never see anyone typing on the keyboard or moving the mouse around to match what's happening on the screen. As we all know, the iMac is an excellent DVD player.

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Looks real to me, but we don't get to see the bootloader -- The contest as I recall states both OSX and XP must boot off the machine. In any case hat off to Narf...

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