Apple Bootcamp

Thursday, April 6, 2006 at 5:49 am | Comments off

I must say that Apple floored me with their announcement of Bootcamp. I was in the market for a new computer at the end of last year, and seriously contemplated switching to a Mac. In the end, however, I decided to stick with a PC, as all my software is PC based, and switching to a Mac would be extremely expensive for me as I'd need to buy not only the new computer, but new software as well. And with the software being Photoshop, Studio 8, etc. we're talking a good deal of money here. However, Bootcamp would open the possibility of switching slowly, using OS X when I can, and Windows when I have to.

I really think this was an excellent move for Apple. I know for me, as a long time Windows user, I immediately wanted to switch. My next computer will very likely be a Mac now, and it is unlikely it would have been before this (for the reasons stated above).

There are still a few issues I'm a bit worried about (like learning a whole new OS), but I'm really excited about this. Maybe come the end of the year I'll decide I need another tax deduction. ;)

Comments

Jason Berry
April 6th, 2006
7:07 AM | #

I don't like Mac OS, but I love the Apple hardware. Next machine will more than likely be a Mac running Windows now, yay :)

P.J. Onori
April 6th, 2006
10:06 AM | #

OS X takes some time to get used to if you're used to Windows, but I've really come to enjoy it.

I think this is the tipping point for me. As soon as the financial time is right, I'll be picking up a Mac Book Pro. It shall rock.

Nathan Smith
April 7th, 2006
1:17 AM | #

Ryan: I agree, this announcement was awefully tempting. Now, if only they'd release OSX that would work on an Athlon 64, they could take over the world!

Jonathan Fenocchi
April 9th, 2006
11:33 PM | #

I have a Mac Mini and Boot Camp just came out. I was pretty surprised when it was announced, too, Ryan. I don't know that I'll entirely switch to exclusively Apple computers, but this will definitely make Apple computers much more popular, which is very good for Apple.

Michael Erb
April 10th, 2006
11:19 PM | #

Oh my goodness! You mean there are other designers out there who actually use PCs? For a moment I though I was a loner. I bought into the PC world because it allowed me to get up and running for a lot less money. I've always wanted to have a cheap mac for testing websites and such, but now that I own several thousand dollars of software I won't be switching. Unless. If bootcamp is all it's supposed to be...That Macbook looks mighty nice.

Matt Turner
April 11th, 2006
12:34 AM | #

Oh my goodness, You mean there are web developers out there that don't use Macs!? Okay, until about a year ago I was one of them. I had always wanted a cheap PC laptop for testing websites but now this is out.. well, too much of a pain to switch just to test but hopefully some of the new cool VM stuff will make testing in IE a cinch. It took me about 2 weeks to transition from Windows XP to Mac OSX, there is no going back.

Patrick Johnson
April 11th, 2006
8:35 PM | #

Nice, Unfortanatly it is only for Intel Macs, and I have a mini 1.5PPC..

Also, Ryan, if you bought Photoshop, and Studio 8, they are also for mac, you just download them off the website and enter your given software serial keys.

Ryan Brill
April 11th, 2006
9:23 PM | #

Patrick - I don't know about Photoshop as I didn't try installing it on my Mac, but Fireworks does not work. Actually, let me rephrase that, the program works fine, but the Windows serial number doesn't work... I'm guessing Photoshop would be the same...

Patrick Johnson
April 13th, 2006
12:26 AM | #

Weird, I installed Studio 8 on my mac with the serial that came in my box and it worked fine, even though I dont really use it anymore, I just use textmate!

Portuzenkov
April 23rd, 2006
4:22 PM | #

Why would anyone that's not a Mac software tester want this? If you already run XP, and plan to keep running it, why not buy a dedicated XP box?

Spetra Man
May 7th, 2006
10:48 AM | #

The problems start after the initial boot. I tried several distros (SUSE, Fedora Core 4, Mandriva) and the problem is always partitioning of the drive. None of the above distros could see the drive.

Matt Turner
May 7th, 2006
5:36 PM | #

With regards to Studio8. It comes for both windows and osx (as power PC binary). However you can only install it on either windows or osx, not both.

Drug Stown
May 11th, 2006
12:39 AM | #

Running a live cd could prove it a working option, just make sure you have something like the 2.6.16 branch on your disc as there are drivers on there which may help (they are now supporting the new intel cpus).

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