Imagine the best of both worlds, where you can boot up a computer and choose the operating system you want to use - Microsoft’s Windows XP or Apple’s Mac OS X.
Imagine no more; it’s here:
Apple today introduced Boot Camp, public beta software that enables Intel-based Macs to run Windows XP. Available as a download beginning today, Boot Camp allows users with a Microsoft Windows XP installation disc to install Windows XP on an Intel-based Mac, and once installation is complete, users can restart their computer to run either Mac OS X or Windows XP. Boot Camp will be a feature in ’Leopard,’ Apple’s next major release of Mac OS X, that will be previewed at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference in August.
You can find the so-far-free software here.
This is huge - there’s no other way to say it. For the $599 price of a Mac mini (stet) and the roughly $100 Microsoft asks for the home edition of XP, you’ve now got a great little machine with two platforms.
If I were HP/Compaq or Dell Computer or Lenovo (formerly IBM) or eMachines/Gateway or any of a number of PC makers, I’d be sweating right now. A lot.
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