OT: Any one get windows working on new Intel Macs?

subSonik · Post by **subSonik** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 10:18 am

If so, how does it run. Also, if you have Live on it, How is it?

Sub

tomperson · Post by **tomperson** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 10:23 am

That's weird, buying an intel mac to install windows

hambone1 · Post by **hambone1** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 12:20 pm

Why?

Perhaps this: http://openosx.com/wintel/

Hervé · Post by **Hervé** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 12:24 pm

hambone1 wrote:Why?

While waiting to have all your apps running natively at their full power on "intel osx" you still have one beast of a machine.

sqook · Post by **sqook** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 12:26 pm

I don't think it's weird at all. In fact, I would LOVE to dual boot windows and OSX on a macbook someday. It's plain simple; I need to develop software for both mac and windows, and this way, I wouldn't need 2 laptops to do it. Plus, there's a lot of windows exclusive software I'd like (say adobe audition, for starters) that I can't run on my mac.

But, to answer the original question, no, it is not yet possible to run windows on an intel mac. Apple has said that they have not taken any steps to prevent people from running other OS's on the new intel machines, but the problem is that the intel macs use EFI for their firmware, whereas most standard PC's use BIOS. Windows does not support EFI (yet), and thus, it will not natively boot from an intel mac. People are aggressively trying to hack the windows bootloader to get this running, but so far, nobody has succeeded to my knowledge.

forge · Post by **forge** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 1:01 pm

yeah, the point is dual boot - in fact any machine that would dual boot XP + OSX would be a total asset to any musician because there are so many things that only work on one platform

detroitechno · Post by **detroitechno** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 2:36 pm

Once this is worked out I will probably buy a macbook pro. I don't mind windows at all, and the amount of software I have that is pc only is unreal. I'd say if I port to mac I'd loose about 40-60% of my everyday software!!! I"m sure there are 'mac' alternatives, but I'm not interested in that. GIVE US DUAL BOOT!!!

continuous · Post by **continuous** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 4:06 pm

I am also very excited about this, what a great option set that would be.
I'm glad Apple didn't try to prevent this.

clipperer · Post by **clipperer** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 4:22 pm

wait... isnt there a program called virtual pc for mac which simulates windows'n exe's ...?

Angstrom · Post by **Angstrom** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 4:28 pm

the progress so far
http://windowsxp.onmac.net/The%20Contest.html

tomperson · Post by **tomperson** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 4:49 pm

sqook wrote:I don't think it's weird at all. In fact, I would LOVE to dual boot windows and OSX on a macbook someday.

Okay, i was missing your point. Coming from a pc background, I found it hard to believe that a MAC user would actually want to run Windows...I mean, i hear from mac users all the time how crappy PCs are...

robin · Post by **robin** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 4:53 pm

The trouble with dual boot machines (especailly when the main OS is a unix variation like macosx) is that invariably you set the thing up and never boot into the other OS because it takes so long. So you stick in one OS or the other.

I know if this powerbook has two OSs, as I never reboot, I'd never bother to use the other OS.

My work machine is a Linux pc, it has XP on there but I never use it.

Virtualisation on the hardware level (Yonah/Core Duo can do this) is a better solution. I hope this is supported one day on apple hardware.

tomperson · Post by **tomperson** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 4:55 pm

Angstrom wrote:the progress so far
http://windowsxp.onmac.net/The%20Contest.html

sqook · Post by **sqook** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 5:21 pm

tomperson wrote:
sqook wrote:I don't think it's weird at all. In fact, I would LOVE to dual boot windows and OSX on a macbook someday.
Okay, i was missing your point. Coming from a pc background, I found it hard to believe that a MAC user would actually want to run Windows...I mean, i hear from mac users all the time how crappy PCs are...

Windows actually runs quite well if you have good hardware. The problems come with weird 3rd-party drivers, no-name Taiwanese knockoff brands, and other such madness. That being said, I still prefer OSX's user environment and such, but it should be noted that if you actually put decent money into a PC box, it will be as stable and reliable as a Mac. It's all about having certified hardware.

stinky · Post by **stinky** » Thu Feb 02, 2006 7:09 pm

More info here, with screen shots..

http://forum.osx86project.org/index.php?showtopic=7168

still a long time to go, so i wouldn't get too excited about it. But, you can follow the action from the forum above.