Sunday 9 April, 2006

Mac does Windows too.

Even CNN reported it as news. Yes, an Apple Mac can now run Windows. Would have sounded like sacrilege to the faithful some years ago. But the entry of an Intel chip inside a Mac has made this inevitable.

But before you go thinking the MacOS is dead, think again. First off there are currently just three models that can run Windows and only WinXP. They are the Intel iMac, the MacBook Pro, and the Intel MacMini.

Not the G5 new or old, not the G4, the PowerBook, the iBook, the iMac G5, the MacMini G4, not any other Mac but just the three new Intel Macs.

You need to have a licenced copy of WinXP. And this Boot Camp as Apple calls it, is just an 'experimental' thing that Apple will not technically support. And you better get a good anti-virus software since now your Mac can get a virus or spyware anytime - just in the Windows partition.

Speaking of which, you can only run Windows on a partition. Meaning this is a dual boot operation. You boot Windows when you need to run Windows applications, games anything. And when done you boot MacOS when you need to get any work done.

If you get a virus, just delete the entire Windows partition and start over. What about your data in the Windows partition? Hey this is just Windows right? You aren't supposed to use it for anything you can't delete. Anyway the virus won't touch the Mac part of your Mac.

To know the exact procedure head over to Apple's Boot Camp page. Follow the instructions and it should work.

http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/

I haven't done this myself (yet) but I know of folks who have. And who are running Tally on an iMac.