Boot Camp

It has been a while since my last post, so I thought I would just check in a say that I am alive and well and living in Spain. School is keeping me busy and most of my antics are detailed on europeadventure.ca, but why not take a moment to discuss Apple’s latest bomb: Boot Camp.

For those not in the loop with the goings on at Apple, they recently released a new software package called Boot Camp which allows their Intel based machines to dual boot with Windows XP. This follows not to long after the first Intel based Mac was hacked to allow a dual boot with Windows. So in typical Apple fashion they have swooped in and stolen the thunder. Instead of having people doing it in a roundabout manner, they are providing an official mechanism to dance with the devil.

I was initially a little taken aback by the switch to Intel processors, but I can see the clear advantage of that in the long run. And I knew that Windows on a Mac was inevitable since that is what people would try to do. And I was considerably surprised with the Apple sanctioned solution that is Base Camp, but having seen some of the discussion from folks with more time to think about these things, I can see what they might be going for.

I think this might be their new iPod. The iPod can be attributed to a considerable number of fence users to make the switch to the Mac. People get their shiny new iPod and they install a shiny iTunes on their PC and think: “Wow, this stuff it pretty swanky and so easy to use… I wonder…“. BAM! New Mac user.

Now say you have been looking at getting a Mac for a while now, but never really wanted to commit to buying one and then finding out that you couldn’t run the programs you wanted or just worried that there might be a learning curve (there isn’t much of one). So you’ve played it safe and stayed with Uncle Bill. But now the options have changed. Now you can have your cake and eat it too.

I might be wrong, but I suspect that a lot more people will finally decide to take the plunge and go the way of the Apple. They can use their safety net whenever they want to use some new PC game and use OS X when they want to something productive. :) You wait and see…