Richard K Miller

Several months ago OnMac held a contest with prize money for the person who could get Windows to boot on a new Intel-based Mac. A couple weeks ago someone came forward with a solution, albeit complicated. Some brave souls dared to try the solution and Sean told me he saw Windows booting on a Macbook Pro at Novell Brainshare.

Then just yesterday Apple announced new software called Bootcamp that does all the dual-booting magic for you. Any Intel-based Mac can now boot Windows, making it a great machine for web designers who want to test their sites on both platforms, and for school labs who might use Mac OS X for iMovie and Windows for Oregon Trail.

It had been rumored that the next version of Apple’s operating system “Leopard” would offer this functionality, but they’ve released it early, probably so that it can be thoroughly tested by those will be try it, and to build buzz. Their stock price has been on the rise too. (I guess releasing Bootcamp half way between OS X “Tiger” and “Leopard” makes it “Leotard.”)

Today I learned about a new brand of virtualization software for Mac: Parallels. Parallels allows Mac users to run any version of Windows, as well as Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, and more, *without* rebooting the machine. They’re currently offering a fully functioning beta version of their virtualization software.

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