linux/unix
04/06/2006, 1:45am, EDT
Thursday, April 6th
MS contemplating WinXP on Mac support
Microsoft is still uncertain [subscription required] about whether it will provide support for running Windows XP on Macs when using Apple's Boot camp technology; however, the possibility of running Windows on a Mac may push some professional users to purchase Macs and sell their PCs. According to The Wall Street, Microsoft said it is still studying whether it will offer technical support for Windows on Macs. "There are several open questions to address before we have a final answer," says Kevin Kutz, director of Microsoft's Windows client group told the publication. The report also notes that Apple's Boot Camp requires a new copy of Windows XP, which it notes is available for suggested retail prices of $199 and $299. "It won't work to use less-costly upgrade versions or software installation disks for PCs that users already have."
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Sounds to me like MS is a bit concerned that if a Windows user has an unbiased side-by-side comparison of Windows XP versus Mac OS X on the same hardware, they will eventually migrate to Apple's option.
You're in pretty much the same position with Boot Camp and third-party ways of pretending EFI is BIOS - you are not on an MS supported architecture, nor even running on something supported by the hardware vendor.
I don't think MS have any issue at all with Macs running Windows, because it keeps the Windows ecosystem alive.
WIndows supports all kinds of hardware, not just specific configurations, which is part of the reason it's so unstable.
MS gets the same amount of money for each copy of XP regardless of what kind of machine it runs on. It has a responsibility to support it's software for paying customers.
I am thrilled to see this day & it would (will) be even better if (when) this is available in a virtualization environment so that all apps can run alongside each other - if you liked the juice the stock got yesterday just wait until this is seemless & out of beta...