Apple Bootcamp
Earlier this week, Apple unexpectedly released their Bootcamp software, which allows owners of Intel based Macs to dual-boot into Windows XP. Bootcamp itself appears to mainly consist of the required Windows XP drivers, whereas a firmware update is actually responsible for enabling the dual boot feature.
For the most part, this sounds like a pretty good deal to me. I don’t own a Mac, but I am pretty certain that my next computer (Notebook or Desktop) will be a Mac, and this feature adds extra confidence to first time Mac users that they will be able to continue to run their Windows applications. For me, that mostly applies to games, as I have otherwise mostly switched to Linux. On the other hand, I see some danger in this feature: Relatively few games are being released for Mac right now, with some notable exceptions like World of Warcraft. I am hoping to see an upwards trend in Mac support, but I wonder if game developers will use the fact that Mac users can now dual boot into Windows as an excuse not to do any native Mac ports. We’ll see…
April 10th, 2006 at 12:28 pm
I agree that it’s kind of sad, but when you think that even with an “upwards trend” in game development for Mac, that accounted for less than 5% of released titles on PC, so the pickings for commercial quality releases on Mac were very slim indeed. I for one am happy about Boot Camp, though I think it could be named better. Something like “Only If You Have To…”
April 12th, 2006 at 6:01 am
Hello,
Just wanted to let you know I linked to your blog in my column on CBSNews.com today. Thanks!
If you want to take a look, here’s the link: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/04/11/blogophile/main1487924.shtml
Happy blogging,
Melissa