Apple Offers Windows OS on its Intel Machines

The worst kept secret in the computer game was Apple’s intentions when it opted for Intel chips a while back. Once a MacIntosh had a Pentium inside, getting it to run the Windows operating system was merely a matter of programming. “Boot Camp,” which is currently in beta was announced on Wednesday to do just that. It’s sort of methadone for those addicted to the kluge that is Windows.

This journal dropped the Windows operating system some time ago because it is persistently unstable and because paying for something that one can get for free is economically stupid. Linux, a freeware operating system given to the world by Linus Thorvald, is a truly multi-user system that supports freeware like Open Office that does all the stuff Microsoft Office does except run up expenses -- and it doesn't crash. Thanks to various programs that Linux junkies have written like GRUB, many boxes can run Linux or Windows at the user's option from start up. Why would someone want to do that? Well, Windows still has the most games written for it. It’s rather an expensive substitute for Xbox, Playstation or Gamecube, but some people don't seem to mind.

What has prevented people from switching from Windows is plain fear. It takes some intestinal fortitude to wipe one’s hard drive clean and install a new OS, and then reload all the data files. The worst that can happen is one loses everything by doing it wrong, and that's pretty bad. Bill Gates’ OS won’t let one load Linux after Windows is in place. Linux first, then Windows is the requirement.

Boot Camp has the same issue apparently. It allows the user in possession of an Intel chip Apple to put Windows on a box that already runs Apple’s OS. This means that people who have Apple’s can now play Windows games. It won’t allow Windows users to start running the Apple OS, which supports better graphics and video editing. And it has far fewer viruses.

That means that the prime audience is people who already have Apple computers who like some of the Windows stuff. Less importantly, it lets people who have Windows and who are thinking about as new machine consider Apple for their new hardware. They won’t have to learn a new OS. However, “Windows running on a Mac is like Windows running on a PC,” Apple warns on its Web site. “That means it'll be subject to the same attacks that plague the Windows world.”

Running Windows on a Mac, to this Linux-based journal, is rather like watching “I Was a Teenage Werewolf” on a high-definition TV. It’s possible but pointless.

© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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