Apple delays upgrading Boot Camp for Windows 7

Is it because the older iMac, MacBook and MacBook Pro lack the virtualization support in the processor to run BootCamp and Win7? Older machines were built before this feature was present in Intel processors and not all Intel processors today include it. One needs to check the Intel spec sheets carefully to be sure.

@hank: You're joking right? You do know the difference between virtualization and dual-booting?

Apple's prob. just cutting cost on driver support & creating more incentive for its currently overpriced models.

Thought it is a bit unexpected given that Apple have always provided bang-on support for past models, but expected from all the bad press they've been getting lately (and not just from the Inq).

One does not need to check the Intel spec sheets carefully because both run on native x86 architecture. boot camp is just a boot loader.

It's bloody simple...

Windows 7 runs pretty smooth on old hardware and not-oh-so-powerful netbooks... so you think Apple is going to give it's users a chance to try 7 on their netbook and oldware?

Don't think so, at leat any time soon.
Hope someone jailbreak bootcamp.

Reminds me of the day some mactard came in clutching his Air, and mid "Sod orf we don't support that cra.." when he boots it up to Vista.

Urmm to our stunned looks,
"I tried the OS it came with and hated it so went to Vista as it's much easier to use"...sheesh if a Air buyer actually nukes the MacOS for VISTA!!!! they'll be jumping ship to 7 in droves.

Had me in stiches for weeks though, the way the guy had actually not even bothered boot-camping it and went full blown Vista install over OSX :D

Find out how to install windows 7, site is supposed to be a harbour for geeks, are you going to find out how to put a dvd in a drive. whoohooo rocket science.....

Hows about mentioning the lack of gpu switch support in bootcamp?

Or the lack of fan control? All things that degrade battery life, now thats apples real ace...

Apples problem is they make a solid pc/laptop but who can get a job done on os x? Its supports a paltry selection of software....

OS X is not better or worse than windows in performance. An idiot can see that

Once again Nick shows how much of an idiot he is. One of the strong points that Apple has made is how well MACS can run Windows. Do you really think the Almighty Vole rushed to give Apple the keys needed to make sure 7 can run smooth on a MAC I can just see Balmer calling Jobs and saying let us show you how to make MAC run 7. Give me a break it is time to stop publishing Nick's garbage.

"Once again Nick shows how much of an idiot he is. One of the strong points that Apple has made is how well MACS can run Windows"

Seriously? format a new Mac and install Windows. *phew that was hard* No, wait, it wasn't. It's just an expensive PC that comes with a crippled OS(X).

Come on buddy, get a clue.

ok guys, lets just chill!!!!!!

Each to their own and be prepared to admit faults as well as weaknesses

I happly run linux, but I don't treat it as a religion :)

* sits back and waits for reprisals...*

I've been running Windows 7 in Boot Camp on a MacBook Pro ever since the RTM tipped up on MSDN - it works absolutely fine. I did it as an upgrade - i.e. booted into my Vista BC Partition, inserted Win 7, hit upgrade. No problems since. Perhaps you can't do a clean install from the Boot Camp tool?

What you can't seem to do is point Parallels at a Win 7 Boot Camp partition, which is sad :-(

Without a shred of proof, little Nick thinks Apple is delaying the release of Bootcamp support for W7. Way to investigatively report. Did you amke that up yourself or did you have help?

Here's a good news item for you Nick. Why is the Voleware maker, Microsoft, allowing for it's new OS W7 to be easily pirated on the internet? I was surprised to learn how many activation programs there are for it. Might it be because they would like for as much widespread usage, including pirating, before they clampdown? Sounds like they're using the XP model before they decided to do something about it and create WGA. Hmmmmmm. So that would mean they would like as many pirated copies of W7 as possible, because they're scared of slow adoption rates in these depressed economic times. Well bless their little Volish hearts, $300 million is advertising isn't working with slogans like "W7 - works the way you want it", so they're possibly resorting to embracing the pirate community. Now that's real news Nick, or does it have to be written on a pair of balls before you'll notice?

They dont have to "fix" anything. just remove the code they have put in which slows down windows7. Some day when they feel like it.

and you can install os of your choice (even on Tiger systems where bootcamp is no longer available). getting necessary drivers should be too easy. no need to wait for apple

I couldn't install windows 7 on my BootCamp partition with version 3.0 installed. I rolled back BC to ver. 2.1 and the install went perfectly. Afterward I upgraded BC to 3.0 and all the hardware works well under Win7.

I do not see a current need for an upgraded BC beyond the 3.0.

I don't get it. Neither the Apple platform nor the "PC" platform uses proprietary hardware. It's all Intel, ATI/AMD, nVidia, etc. Why is it that Apple can legally run both the M$ operating systems and their own, but on the "PC" I cannot run Apple's operating systems? Can someone explain to me why Apple even gets away with selling computers in the first place? You think M$ bundling IE into their OS is unfair, how about the crap that Apple gets away with? What if Microsoft decided to build PCs and cut out literally an entire PC manufacturing industry? Hmmm. Going by the logic of how Apple operates, who needs Dell, HP, and the like? From now on you are either a Mac or a M$ PC. Turns out the American health insurance industry isn't the only one with anti-trust exemption.

Apple shares SOARED since the blowout earnings and no insightful spin from Nick.

Is this one of those cases where if you pretend it didn't happen it didn't?

Welcome to the Farrell blog... what has happened to the INQ?

Well. (*pause*)

What do you rhyme with Stewart Meagher?

pooh fart leaguer?

win7 doesn't need boot camp or refit to install.
win7 has an EFI bootloader and installs straight off the disc without any additional help.

Are you F%^&ING KIDDING ME? Apple won't have Boot Camp Support for the Dual Processor/Dual Core Xeon Mac Pros? The Mac Pro is a professional workstation/tower. These systems are premium configurations. I have a Dual Proc 3 GHz Dual Core system with 8 GB of memory and 4 TB of storage.

This is how Apple treats their top tier customers?

Do they think this will prompt me to upgrade to a new Mac Pro.

Quite the opposite. FU Apple.

Rob

Nick. You're an idiot. As always. Learn to research. Try Google. Your brain lacks the capacity to make an intelligent article on it's own. Give up while you're way behind.

Rob. Learn to read. The comments above you even state that Nick is an idiot and don't listen to him. And of course you can dual boot (even Windows 7, though you did not word your "frustration" this way. You clearly know nothing about computers if you're trying to boast what your machine is, rather than actually understand how or why something works. You are the reason Apple users get bad press.

i "but it reportedly slows down Windows 7 considerably. Apple has now admitted this" /i

Reportedly by whom? And where has Apple "admitted" anything?

Farrell should learn to read, and get a life, but that's another story), which one would think is a prerequisite for a journalist. The Mac hardware has a number of unique features (like multi-touch that works, miaow), but I've been running RTM fine on my MBP for well over a month now.

What no one seems to realize here is that the real sad thing is that windows se7en has been around for a really long time. If apple wanted it to work they could have officially gotten oem windows, since they are a computer seller. How can apple say they can make a software when it is obvious they cant get a fix on a boot loader for a system that has been out in beta for the longest. Its like the latest OS10 release fiasco with the old adobe software.
"So that would mean they would like as many pirated copies of W7 as possible, because they're scared of slow adoption rates in these depressed economic times."
oh yeah bow about the fact that the pirate bay has nice selection of x86 os10? (I probably had a copy of os10 before most fans boys. Having learned from my early mac days, the simpler the system the harder it is to get it to do what you really want like right click you bastard!!!!.) Could it be that apple wants as many pirated copies of os10 as possible blah blah blah blah..
Maybe...........
"apple earning" does this look like the apple media relations website?

""Are you F%^&ING KIDDING ME? Apple won't have Boot Camp Support for the Dual Processor/Dual Core Xeon Mac Pros? The Mac Pro is a professional workstation/tower. These systems are premium configurations."

I hear you, but Win7 runs fine on these machines despite the official line - I've seen it, and so have others. You may need to hunt around for a few drivers off Intel's site etc.

(Btw, the OEM ATi Radeon 4870s also run fine in 200-2007 machines, despite no official say-so)

Ah, a Nick Farrell production.
Idiots Unite!

case := ?(Company A Company B)

Switch case
//Company A: Delay the support of Company B product until a much later date
case 1
Conclusion='Antitrust violation'
case 2

//Company B: Delay the support of Company A product until a much later date
Conclusion='Smart business practice'

Sorry, but for those of us who are running Linux and OSX, Windows 7 is like the freaks in the circus sideshow. All right if you are into that sort of thing, but pretty damned useless otherwise.

Oh, I have no doubt that Windows fans are excited. I just hope for their sake that Microsoft managed to deliver.

Hey dummies! Why don't you just use XP or Vista until Apple gets around to supporting Windows 7 in BootCamp? What's the big rush? Do you have an app that only runs in Windows 7? I get around this issue by running Windows on a PC without running OSX. I can't think of a reason I would need it. My PCs don't crash.

I've had no problem running win 7 on a 2008 mac pro bootcamp partition since the early days of win 7 betas right through the final. How hard is it to go get a couple of intel drivers from their web site.? Works 100% on both leopard and snow leopard systems. Also Win 7 installs just fine using Fusion 3 as well. So I'm not sure what the fuss is??

I appreciate the fact people far more intelligent than I have created computers ans OSes to run on them. Given that, I independently observe that Apple is not obligated to run any other OS than their own. Maybe PC makers should configure their hardware to run Apple software, and complete the circle of consumer choice...? Just an uninformed observation from a Mac and PC user.

I agree with Bobster, I run OSX & bootcamped XP & Vista & Linux on my Macbook pro all work fine (Albeit Vista Buggy). Show me a PC that can do that = None.

So for someone who wants all OS covered in one beautiful package look no further than Mac and like the last comment, Windows 7 can wait... what's the big deal with 7 anyway?

Face it PC /windows luddites you are only envious of Macs total and utter magnificence

the people at mac must clearly be retarded to think that any one going from a pc to a mac would go back to using a pc after seeing how nice trouble free mac is. Im sure im not the only one who only uses windows on mac for the sole purpose like running Auto-cad or other software only compatible with windows. Hey Mac pull the string, and fix this problem you still have the best operating systems and that will not change.

I'm actually running Windows 7 on my Macbook Pro. 7 is hands down slower than OSX, let alone Snow Leopard. No preferences, no favoritism, nothing. Its just over-all slower. And I'm not sure how you're going to say "its my computer" because its using the same hardware as when I use OSX.

Also, Apple being scared of Windows? Apple was the one who invented the program that allowed you to run Windows on a Mac in the first place! Apple has nothing to be scared of. Apple just takes their time and gets a program right the first time instead of rushing some quick fix out that falls apart shortly afterwards *coughvistacough*

Is Apple trying to be funny now by waiting until the last day of the year. Come on! I want to play some games on my Mac before I have to go back to work.

I run Windows 7 exclusively on my MBPU - i prefer it over OSX, but thats just me. Fact is though, there have been oodles of issues with the BootCamp drivers even under Vista, Apple never seem to get it quite right. Im just as keen to see them release a nice set of drivers as the next person. However ...

This article is just a load of heresay - i doubt the reason for all this is Apple wanting to boycott uers switching - anyone who likes OSX is hardly going to convert over to Windows 7 for any reason, because they simply prefer the OSX way of doing things. More likely this delay is due to Apple having little motivation to support Windows 7. Most of the computer illiterate general public are unaware you can even do this - they simply associate Mac with OSX.

Apple wants Windows 7 ... why?

Because a macbook pro costs 1400 euros, but MacOSX costs only 30 euros.

Any fool can understand that people actually buy Mac books because of their superior hardware (not talking about cpu, gpu, ram and all that stuff that PCs have, if you want to know what i am talking about, put a pc-laptop and a mac-laptop side by side and you will know), as you can run MacOSX on a PC as well as windows and linux, and Windows on a Mac as well as MacOSX and linux.

If Windows folks actually can use a mac book pro for running windows, they will not buy lower grade mass construction of the standard pcs, and go for a mac that has superior construction, monitor, keyboard(backlit), and trackpad(multi-finger), as well as very big battery, wireless card that can actually pick up the signal even if its not next to the router, and good bluetooth in the mix.

And ultimately, looks wonderful.

PS: i run macosx and windows 7 just fine, it actually runs games better than my 2 year old 2000 euro desktop pc and doesnt sound like a jet engine.

Apple wants Windows 7 ... why?

Because a macbook pro costs 1400 euros, but MacOSX costs only 30 euros.

Any fool can understand that people actually buy Mac books because of their superior hardware (not talking about cpu, gpu, ram and all that stuff that PCs have, if you want to know what i am talking about, put a pc-laptop and a mac-laptop side by side and you will know), as you can run MacOSX on a PC as well as windows and linux, and Windows on a Mac as well as MacOSX and linux.

If Windows folks actually can use a mac book pro for running windows, they will not buy lower grade mass construction of the standard pcs, and go for a mac that has superior construction, monitor, keyboard(backlit), and trackpad(multi-finger), as well as very big battery, wireless card that can actually pick up the signal even if its not next to the router, and good bluetooth in the mix.

And ultimately, looks wonderful.

PS: i run macosx and windows 7 just fine, it actually runs games better than my 2 year old 2000 euro desktop pc and doesnt sound like a jet engine.