Your Macs can run like a PC

As soon as Apple announced it was putting Intel chips in Macs, people started trying to figure out ways to make the new machines run Windows.

Now the geeks have had their fun, Apple has released Boot Camp, which allows Intel-based Macs to run Windows XP.

Boot Camp is currently a public beta - use at your own risk - but it will be a feature in the next major release of the Mac OS X operating system, Leopard, due for release at Apple's worldwide developer conference in August.

It works by creating a partition on the hard drive to run Windows. When you start your computer, you can choose which operating system to run.

That doesn't mean Apple intends to compete in the Windows PC market with Dell or HP.

"Apple has no desire or plan to sell or support Windows," said Philip Schiller, Apple's worldwide product marketing senior vice president. "We think Boot Camp makes the Mac even more appealing to Windows users considering making the switch."

Unlike the non-Apple efforts out there, Boot Camp contains all the frivers necessary to run Apple-specific hardware, including video drivers. Which is why it is getting many games fans excited.

So is it just a smart technical hack, or is there more to Boot Camp?

Looking ahead, Microsoft is getting ready to launch Vista, the successor to XP. Apple's marketing machine will want to keep hammering its message that Apple's operating system will keep ahead of whatever Redmond has to offer.

Apple has a loyal and loving user base for Macs, but it needs to win over more PC users, particularly in business.

The challenge has always been what is the higher sticker price on Macs, caused both by corporate decisions and because the Mac world has in the past been locked out of the economies of scale enjoyed by the Wintel world.

The reasons people give for staying with Windows rather than going Mac usually come down to price - it's hard to explain total cost of ownership, and why a lower sticker price doesn't mean cheaper - and availability of specific programs.

The most used applications such as the Office suite have been readily interchangeable for years. What haven't been are many games, some specific technical applications, and the sort of custom software used in the corporate environment, such as applications written on Microsoft Access databases.

Roger Thomas, a systems engineer at New Zealand Apple distributor Renaissance, has been giving Boot Camp a test run.

He says the first shock was when he went to buy a copy of Windows XP at retail and discovered it cost almost $600.

"When people buy Windows, few people buy it in a cardboard box, it is usually in a beige box," says Thomas - that is, pre-installed on a computer.

Add to that the price of Microsoft Office, and you have just spent as much as if you had bought a Mac Mini.

Thomas says he found installing Boot Camp straightforward and once loaded, programs ran on Windows XP as fast as on a PC if not faster. Thomas says the process was far more satisfactory than using emulation software, which tends to slow down the system.

Thomas set his Windows partition small enough so he could read or write files across to it from the Mac environment.

"It opens up a world of possibilities," he says.

"It is rare now to find a workplace that is solely Mac or solely Windows. Even the biggest Windows shop is likely to have a couple of Macs somewhere, often in marketing, so this is about having seamless integration."

The big risk for Mac users is they will stumble into the Windows world and not realise what a dangerous and scary place it is.

With Boot Camp installed and XP running, that means it is now a Windows machine with all the risks of viruses and malware common to the platform.

"You need to get hold of industrial strength anti-virus and network protection software and remember to use it," he says.

Tim Chaffe, Auckland University's IT enterprise architect, says Boot Camp will be welcomed in some departments which have large numbers of Macs but also many Windows-specific applications.

"It means they will no longer need separate machines to run the Windows apps," Chaffee says.

"It has created an interesting scenario. If the price is right, I can see a lot of people in the education space moving back to Mac."

Chaffe says he is now looking forward to virtualisation - machines which can run both OX X and Windows at the same time.