XP on The Mac, Yeah Boy!

Apple masterfully closed the chapter on its history as an exclusionary platform this week with the public beta release of its Boot Camp software for Intel-based Macintoshes running current and forthcoming versions of OS X. Boot Camp lets Apple's newest Intel-based Macintoshes run Windows xp natively on their machines.

This is an important milestone for Apple. The need to buy new Mac specific versions of popular productivity applications is one of the most commonly cited reasons for not considering Macintosh when buying new equipment. The ability to run native Windows applications via Boot Camp ends this argument altogether, opening up new markets to Apple.

The most important aspect of this week's move will be in the portable market, which by the end of this summer will be an all-Intel five-plus member squad with screen sizes beginning at 12.1 inches and running up to 17 inches.  As importantly, though is Apple's portable price range which dovetails nicely with other current market offerings. Also, Apple's basic software bundle is unmatched by any of the current notebook players and for the vast majority of notebook users who buy their own machines Apple's Macintosh software bundle is a big part of the attraction to the platform.

Apple said that  Boot Camp will be released this Summer in conjunction with its annual developers' conference. But until then the company has made the software available free of charge to anyone who wants to download it.The delivery of a software mechanism that makes the Mac a true "dual-boot" machine (Windows xp or Macintosh OS X) is a big step in the right direction for Apple. 

Although there's virtually no way to quantify how many people want or "need"  a dual boot platform, the capability adds a column in the marketing matrix that's largely open only to Apple. But least I go tripping merrily down the Macintosh fairy tale lane there are a couple of big questions that need to be answered before Apple is given automatic kudos for its Windows xp triumph.  First and foremost:is Boot Camp really fully compatible and as importantly, does Boot Camp exact a performance overhead that makes native Windows applications do unresponsive as to be nearly unusable.

Again, I think in the portable market, Boot Camp's potential is hard to overstate. I believe this is a great second big leap for Apple. The move to Intel processors and providing a software mechanism for running xp Applications natively gives Apple a huge strategic advantage in a red hot business segment, the notebook market. It also gives Apple a big boost back on stage as a supplier of  innovative, and versatile systems.

But the caveats of performance and compatibility have yet to be satisfied and I'm old enough to remember other, very unsuccessful, previous attempts Apple and third parties have made to provide Windows compatibility using software and/or add-in hardware options.

I have a strong feeling that Apple is likely knocking on the big time with its Intel-based portable and Windows Xp compatibility software.

Welcome to the big time, Apple. Seriously!

---Jim Forbes--wirelessly from rural northern San Diego County on a drop dead reliable itty bitty portable, the ThinkPad X41.