INQUIRER writer savaged by Apple fanbois

I've got to laugh with this one... It reminds me of Charile Demerjian' article "Why XP will never officially work on a Mac" (15.02.2006).

He went on and on about stupid reasons why it couldn't be done. Not only was he wrong about how long it would take for hacks to make XP run on a Mac (remember the guy who won over $13K ?), but with Boot Camp we also get drivers !

OK, no official support from a company, but it's a matter of time.

The iMac is not only nicer than any other desktop PC out there, but also more practical and there are definetly some business users out there that expect this kind of commodity from their PC and are ready to pay a little bit extra for this. How many IT people do you know that actually swap bits inside a Dell or HP. They all buy them because Dell & HP offer them on-site support. The cheap ones have everything on the motherboard anyway so no way to "swap bits" anyway...

FYI the Ford Mondeo is a much more successfull as a company car than the Nissan Figaro (any Nissan in fact).

The best one is that the stock market loved this news. Not that I agree or adhere to this, but today's IT world is so much marketing driven that I won't be surprised if Apple did in the end support their drivers...

Sometimes things are just too hyped up, exactly as you said in your article and yous is one of those, but the other way round...

Don't get me wrong, I love & trust theInquirer and I'm a very fanatic reader, but some articles just don't belong here. Just give us the facts guys we'll draw the conclusions ourselves...

"Speedmind"

Typical Windows BS. Never give Apple any credit. You just can't stand their success.

"Carl Carrott"

OK, you claim that Boot Camp has no significant meaning for Apple and market as a whole. Well maybe it does not. But I believe, that once Apple ships cheaper iBooks with Intel chips inside, many people will opt to their machine instead of Dell or HP and run it with Windows. I know these will not be any bulk corporate orders, but it could win Appple tens and maybe even hundreds of thousands of users who liked their affordable mobile hardware, but could not use their OS platform for one reason or other. Except for good old Apple IIc and some quark work on Macs about ten years ago, I have never used Apple hardware - but I was so much regretting iBooks could not run XP. I believe this (Boot camp) was extremely smart move from Apple.

Lucas E

Martin i don't think your seeing the big picture here, this move by apple was aimed at the millions (possibly billions) of users that might be interested in owning an apple but need the functionality of owning a PC. "Geeks" as you call them won't be the only people attracted to the new intel Apples by boot camp. Basically Boot camp is about cementing Apples postion as a higher class computer, that can now do everything any average user every wanted (except run unix based os's, i'd say this is on the horizon too now).

Anyway i take it your not in fact an IT professional yourself (as your writing smacks of a great distain for the IT professionals of the world), so do us a favour, don't bother writing IT related articles. I mean if its a slow news day and your editor is on your back go write an article about someone doing drugs or kittens up trees or at least something you might actually have some sort of insight into, because you really don't have much of a grasp of how far reaching the implications on this particular topic are [like Coleridge, Thomas must have been visited by the man from Porlock, because the email terminates here. Ed.]

Thomas O'Halloran

Hi,

Aren't you being a bit hasty here? Your take on Macs running windows is correct for the present and the short future. But grazing into your crystal ball, you have to factor various things like Virtualization(why didn't u mention it? Poor research), and also the possibility of Apple entering the OS market. Mac OS on Windows machines? Why not? I live in India and I have to pay a minimum of 40% more on any Apple product(Ipod included). The latest move to run Windows is a boon to users like me. Apple will see a significant increase in sales, and if 'Virtualization' is a success you might be forced to eat your words pretty soon. Why don't you let Apple be? A mercedes or a Ferrari can't be compared with your run of the mill hatchback.(Especially if the Mercedes(Apple) costs the same as the hatchback!!!).

Regards...
PS: Apple fans exist from Timbuctoo to Shangai!!!
Abinesh V

As someone who does not fit your Mac user profile and who switched from PC to Mac 5 years ago partly to get out from a virus and worm ridden OS but mostly to be able to use graphic intense programs, I think you missed the point on business and Intel Mac. Windows appears to be peaking out in its capacity to advance and still support old, aged-out programs. That is its real business base: you can still use many very old programs that drag Windows down and encumber its coding. And make it more hacker vulnerable. Running all that on the Intel Mac will give advantages unavailable to current Windows users: the Mac OS and its stability and ease of use in the widest range of program types.

Windws will no doubt still dominate. Dell will continue to make inexpensive PCs. And tht sells.

MDavid350

I am a company owner with a IT department that is always trying to bandaid a windows security problem. I am done with Microsoft products and poor quality PC components. I own a business, you write for one. As for me, an owner, the announcement of BOOTCAMP sealed the deal. We're switching, enough of low productivity, virus scares and limited thinkers who "work for" as opposed to "OWN" the business.

Kurt Gentry
Owner
SMI Radio

Who died and made you the poobah of market strategy? And who on the planet ever suggested that Boot Camp was Apple's great plan for capturing market share in the business sector? No one. Maybe it's more about simply empowering the end user. So, please spare us your condescending crap.

Lindsey Wess

yeah that's you. pack up and go home and stop writing for tech columns.

"a"

Ah, I remember when the big story here was that Apple was deliberately lying when they said that windows could be run on a new Mac.

Yes indeed, he even went so far as to say that Apple knew that it simply couldn't be done, and made the computers so that it couldn't be done. He disagreed with me when I told him that there was nothing preventing it, just some software that would enable it — very different.

I'm still waiting for the retraction on that one!

Hate to tell you, but I've already spoken to some friends in business, and they are evaluating the software, and are going to test Parallel's software as well.

While they won't completely switch over, they are interested in moving some machines to Macs. even in articles in the NYT and WSJ, companies said that they will evaluate it.

Never say never.

Mel

Martin,
great article buddy, bashing Apple.

Are you an Apple Bear ? you got position in shorting Apple stocks ? your opinion seems ungrounded, in saying that business impact will be zip. mark my word, in another at least 6 months time, you will be proven wrong. Apple will grab more market share of desktops, and at that time i will send you an email again just as a remembrance how wrong you were.

regards
paulusi

You are wrong, although I don't have enough energy to get into this. All this money that I've made from Apple stock the last two days has left me exhausted. Excuse me, while I help these Brinks trucks unload this money into my den.

A Karpo

I think your wrong and this is why.

1. The old stereo type has been dying since the original iMac one new user at a time and the iPod has only just begun to convert people. M$ Windows lack of security is chasing people away to the Mac also.

2. Real gamers and I know all too many who in the last day have told me that they can't wait for the Intel version of the PowerMac. They don't want both machines, they want one. Don't discount real gamers on this one the do a hell of a lot to move this market. I do

3. Average Joe has been hearing about this in the last day and is so frustrated with the lack of security on the Windows platform that some of these people will start to migrate and a ground swelling will occur, and it will be like a run away plague. I work with the public at a junior college doing technology support in a front of house environment and the 25 different people who have asked me about this in the last day who are not gamers and not tech savy is amazing.

Now, this could die really quick if Apple does one stupid thing. If when 10.5 is released and Boot Camp becomes integrated into the OS they only support Vista's.

4. ""Until Microsoft is forced to make Windows cheaper or Apple decides to support Windows, Boot Camp will stay in base camp. After that, you're only looking at reversing decades of cultural opposition.""

When people see the light they will leave, the bleeding has already started and the wound is festering. It is not cultural opposition, it is cultural ignorance that keeps the masses accecpting the garbage that M$ puts out. The bigger they are the harder they fall, but it takes a moment for that momentum to build up.

Best Regards
Paul C Scott-Schroeder

I think the analysis of Windows-capable Macs not making a difference is wrong.

This is the best chance Apple computer has of gaining market share, if only Apple itself could recognize it.

To my knowledge, most elementary schools use Macintosh computers. Teachers and children alike are forced to familiarize themselves and develop their computers skills on the Mac. Yet, both groups return home to where dad has purchased a PC. The software, function and incompatability of data, inherently stunts the useage of Mac computers to their fullest extent. My wife is unable to prepare report cards at home and design learning units unless she hauls the unit off her desk and brings it home. My kids also can't continue to expand their creativity without having to learn two different programs for each function, one on the Mac and one on the PC.

I would love to purchase a Mac based computer that my wife and son could use as a continuation of their respective school work. As the children grow, they would develop a preference for the Macintosh software with which they have become so accustomed to. This translates to future revenue for Macintosh sales and software. As long as I can run my (much preferred)Windows based programs on the same machine, purchasing such a unit would be a no brainer.

Unfortuneatly for Apple, they haven't recognized the future revenue potential of the users which allowed Apple to keep its big toe in the computer door. This reluctant "patch" is long overdue and if done properly and suported professionally, Apple has the potential to begin driving a big wedge in computer market share.

Daryl

Your article assumes that using mac vs using pc are mutually exclusive. I strongly disagree. If that's the case, there wouldn't have been a product like virtual PC which sold in reasonable quantities.

Your article also thinks that Mac is mainly used for media editing related uses. I guess you haven't looked at mac carefully as since last six years, its running on a unix based mac os which appeals developers and media editors couldn't care less, ceteris paribus.

"Iamhim1947"

In my opinion, Apple's bootcamp is meant an intro for the Apple and PC masses to the idea of 'legitimate' cross platform computing. With the incoming hardware emulation marchitectures from AMD/Intel, the old barriers between OS factions will slowly break down as seamless cross-platform software support becomes normal. In the mean time, boot camp may convert a few to OSX, or convince a few applites that windows will not damn thier souls to hell.

Apple hardware IS that much nicer. The difference now is that it doesn't COST the premium that it used to.

Bootcamp will not lead to huge market adoption, yet. But it will give the illusion of market intrusion. Sometimes the illusion of control is all that control really is. We all know how good Apple is with illusions ;)

Good Article, Cheers,
Eric Goodman

- whoa, dude! i sense a lot of hate in your diatribe regarding Apple's Boot Camp...

- keep in mind that there are those of us who have been dual-booting Macs for years now (i'm the author of Prima's Linux For Your Mac and 20 other books about Linux)...

- who would want to use Microsoft products anyway? it's all Software From Satan™!

:-)
regards,
billy ball

Looking at the progress Apple has made all you can report on is the 20+ year rival between "PC users" and "mac users"? LOL, how timely. Perhaps if you bothered to do some journalism you'd realize the strides made by Apple make that position irrelevant.

How about this for a headline: Nerds with nothing new to say.

"Getajob"

Once again you miss the point of an Apple move through your own ignorance. First, hackers had already made this capability possible and had posted directions on the internet. Apple doesn't want people to ruin their Macintosh by hacking a copy of Windows to work on it (which is a possibility considering that there is a firmware upgrade involved). There are two groups of people that Boot Camp appeals to, both of which are already leaning towards a Mac purchase but are holding off making a Mac purchase for different reasons.

The first group is Corporate IT purchasers who have not purchased Macs because of a solitary program that is only available on the Windows platform. IT people that I have talked to over the past five years are favorable of the Mac and OS X but face resistance from executives and the entrenched IT heads. This group is not as large as some think, but larger than you seem to think.

The second group is consumers who have heard of the Mac and its inherent greater stability and security (don't even try to argue). They are fed up with Trojans, Virii, and Pop-Ups, etc. Honestly, PC owners should file a class-action against Microsoft for fraudulent negligence in claiming to have any kind of security in Windows, as the OS has proven consistently to be an "open window" for intrusions of all kinds.

Further, rumor has it that Apple will include virtualization in the next upgrade of its OS, which will allow users to run Windows simultaneously with OS X. Boot Camp is merely a stop-gap until that time. There will be more switchers while users wait for Vista (delayed again). Why not get a Mac? Please tell me, as I'm dying to know why any sane person wouldn't.

Steinman

Being a recent switcher, this XP thing is a Godsend. But give me a break, OS X on Dells? People talk about Macs as though they're made out of some precious resource or something...you can get a Mini iMac for around $600, what more do you people want?

Anonymous

That was one of the best articles I have read on this subject in quite a while. I wish there were more with your savvy. While you did take stabs at both platforms and gave some broad stereotypes, I think it was entirely appropriate.

Nice job!

p.s. I'm one of those Mac users that grudgingly uses Windows when I have to. I think Boot Camp is a very nice little feature. Will I use it? Eventually, when an appropriate machine comes out I will buy one and use BootCamp to run Windows and trash my horrible PC's I currently use. (by appropriate I mean, I'm not giving up my current Powerbook or dual processor workstation to be replaced by new machines with fewer features, like my FireWire 800)

p.s.s. Sorry for the email address but I get quite enough spam.

"Nit supplied"

Ironic that you complain about the headlines when your headline does not accurately describe your thesis. However, you are wrong on one thing: "Boot Camp" does make some difference -- its not revolutionary since the completion of the task that "Boot Camp" provides was hacked in about a month ago -- but it unless you are a "geek" or a "techie" as you put it, you aren't going to go hacking up your boot sector -- but "Boot Camp" will do it for you.