Text 10525, 126 rader
Skriven 2006-04-05 14:24:04 av RobertB. (1:379/45)
Ärende: Berk! Windows on Mac
============================
From: "RobertB." <rb28@nyu.edu>

From this morning. By the way, Apple's stock just shot up.


    http://www.news.com/
Apple: Windows on a Mac is here

By Candace Lombardi
http://news.com.com/Apple+Windows+on+a+Mac+is+here/2100-1012_3-6057856.ht
ml

Story last modified Wed Apr 05 10:38:17 PDT 2006


Apple Computer said on Wednesday that it has released a public beta version of
Boot Camp, software that enables Microsoft Windows XP to run natively on
Intel-based Macs.
The software, which will be included in Mac OS X 10.5, called Leopard, is
available for download on Apple's Web site. Apple will also preview Boot Camp
in August at its Worldwide Developers Conference, the company said.
"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," Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president
of worldwide product marketing, said in a statement. "We think Boot Camp makes
the Mac even more appealing to Windows users considering making the switch."
Apple didn't specifically mention plans to support running Vista, the
long-delayed update to the Windows operating system now expected early next
year.
Microsoft representatives were not immediately available for comment. Also
unclear is what the Mac maker's move will mean for sales of Windows-based PCs.
Market researcher IDC has already scaled back PC sales forecasts for the year,
due in part to the Vista delay. And some analysts expect Apple sales to rise as
a result of the holdup of the new operating system's release.
With Boot Camp, Intel-based Mac users can choose between running Mac OS or
Windows XP each time they boot their system. The move in this direction began
last June, when Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced that Apple was shifting to
Intel-based computers. Apple also said it had been developing Mac OS X with the
intention that it would be able to run on Intel chips and IBM's PowerPC chips,
which were previously the sole processors used in Macs. In January, Apple
released the first Intel-based Macs with Intel's Duo dual-core chips. The new
computers run two to three times faster than similar Macs with PowerPC chips,
Apple said. Since then, speculation had grown about whether the company would
enable Microsoft's ubiquitous operating system to run natively on its
computers. In other news:
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While Apple has prohibited people from running Mac OS X on anything other than
its own computers, it has never tried to prevent Mac owners from trying to run
Windows on their machines. Still, the company has not been a large supporter of
the idea. That's something Apple Senior Software Architect Cameron Esfahani
made clear at the Intel Developer Forum in March.
Customers, however, have been clamoring to see it happen. There have even been
XP-on-Mac contests in recent weeks. "This solves a lot of potential holdups to
Macintosh adoption. While a group of programmers already has demonstrated that
this is entirely possible to do, that method for deployment is more of a clever
hack that no sane end user would attempt," JupiterResearch analyst Michael
Gartenberg wrote in a blog posting Wednesday. "Overall, (this is) a nice
tactical move by Apple that will make their platforms and systems much more
attractive," Gartenberg wrote. Mac fans might remember that this isn't the
first time that Apple has supported Windows via a dual-boot option. In the mid
1990s, the company introduced--and soon discontinued--Macintosh models that
supported a plug-in card, which included a separate x86 processor for running
both DOS and Windows.
Still, Apple won't provide any technical support for the Boot Camp beta, and
the company was quick to point out the potential pitfalls of running Windows.
"Windows running on a Mac is like Windows running on a PC. That means it'll be
subject to the same attacks that plague the Windows world," the company warned
on its Web site. "So be sure to keep it updated with the latest Microsoft
Windows security fixes." The new software, coupled with the tremendous
popularity that the iPod has brought to Apple, could bring more people over to
the Apple side, some analysts said.
Paul Jackson, an analyst at Forrester Research, predicts that home users
previously daunted by a fear of incompatibly with their work PC and a strong
desire to hold on to Windows-based programs may now make the jump to Macs.
Apple's move is great for Microsoft, Jackson said, since it will mean extra
sales of XP, but it's bad news for PC makers that previously didn't have to
worry about competing for market share with Apple. "Apple machines are
excellently manufactured, and the performance is far superior," Jackson told
CNET News.com. "But companies like Dell and HP never really had to worry about
competing with Apple in the hardware market. Now you can go in, look at those
gorgeous Mac Minis and MacBook (Pros) and view them as a normal PC. You can run
XP and never touch OS X, if you don't want to."
And, according to Jackson, Macs seem to do XP well. "From what we know of the
hackers' success last week at the XP-on-Mac contest, once you get XP to run on
the Intel Mac, the performance is actually quite good. We will have to actually
wait and see the results of more official benchmark testing, but so far, that's
what it looks like."
Jackson also noted that Apple's move is an indication of what industry insiders
have argued all along.
"By doing this, Apple has made a tacit acknowledgement of what many have
already said, which basically is: If you're serious about home computing or
small-enterprise computing, you need Windows. There's no way around it,"
Jackson said.
And, according to Wall Street, this is good news for Apple stock. Company
shares jumped several percentage points in early-morning trading, as analysts
had mostly positive things to say about the big announcement.
In other news:
      Apple: Windows on a Mac is here
      Microsoft ramps up virtualization push
      An absolutely unstunning T-shirt
      News.com Extra: Beam can single out drunk drivers
      Video: Are you a marketing genius?
"In short, we believe this news, more than any news in recent memory, provides
a critical boost to Apple's ability to gain share in the PC market," a JPMorgan
Chase analyst report said. Deutche Bank issued a "buy" for Apple stock on a
prediction of share gains.

Goldman Sachs, however, was not as impressed. "Given the newness of Intel-based
Macs, we would not expect any meaningful impact on Mac sales or earnings in the
near or intermediate term," Goldman Sachs in its analyst report of Apple's
move. "However, this is another step in Apple's efforts to expand its total
addressable market to include a more mainstream audience." Goldman Sachs also
noted that the situation could be a "slight negative for Microsoft" because it
does not think that increased Windows sales would have much of an impact on
Microsoft's overall percent of the market--but that a migration to Apple
computers could.


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