Boot Camp is Here - Intel Macs now do Windows!

Michael Gartenberg | April 05, 2006, 09:17 AM

Apple introduced Boot Camp today, a utility that allows for an easy install of Windows XP onto the new Intel baaed Macs. Released in beta today, Boot Camp will be a core part of the next release of OS X, called Leopard.

What are the implications? Users can now purchse systems capable of running both Mac OS X and Windows natively. That's right, no more virtual anything. This solves a lot of potential holdups to Macintosh adoption. While a group of programmers already has demonstrated that this is entirely possible to do, that method for deployment is more of a clever hack that no sane end user would attempt. Apple has already publicly stated that it has no intention of trying to hold back any efforts to get Windows to run on the new Intel based Macs and Microsoft should clearly have no issue selling another Windows license to customers. Bottom line, many users who need to use Windows for some app that just isn't available on Mac OS can now safely purchase a Macintosh. Are there potential TCO issues? Possibly, but I suspect that they're going to be minimal given that most organizations are already supporting multiple versions of operating systems today. Of course, any TCO increase would also have to be balanced by the gains of allowing users who can show productivity increases by having access to both systems.

Overall, a nice tactical move by Apple that will make their platofrms and systems much more attractive.

Engadget has the story here as well.