04/11/2007, 12:15pm, EDT
Wednesday, April 11th
Boot Camp beta to expire, support to cease
Apple has also reassured Boot Camp users who have set up Windows partitions that their files will not instantly disappear should they choose not to purchase the final version, but admitted that support will be limited for those users who continue to use the beta.
"The Windows installation on a user's Mac will continue to work after the Boot Camp license expires," said Lynn Fox, a spokeswoman for Apple. Fox warned that the Boot Camp Assistant software -- which is designed to help set up and manage Windows partitions -- will no longer work when the test period expires. Fox also noted that Apple will no longer provide driver updates to beta users following the expiration.
The Boot Camp Assistant software provides an easy-to-use interface that allows users to delete Windows partitions, and although third-party utilities exist that can achieve the same result, these programs require their own specific instructions and could prove troublesome for many users.
"Apple is a company that listens to its customers," said Samir Bhavnani of Current Analysis. "If they start getting negative publicity around this [and] if they have a sense that customers aren't ready to upgrade, I am confident [Apple] will do something to help support them."
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Wow, support is going to be limited! This is great, since, according to Apple's Boot camp site:
Apple does not provide technical phone support for using Boot Camp Beta, burning the Macintosh Drivers CD, or installing Windows XP. Support is available on Apple's website. Fee-based support agreements are not available for Boot Camp Beta.
Exactly how much more limited will it become then it already is?
If they didn't state this up front, people would bitch about the fact that 10.5 users could get phone support for Boot Camp and users of Tiger and the expired beta could not.
It's not really necessary since the beta works well. Drivers updates won't really be necessary, since you won't be getting a new machine without Leopard after it releases, and the beta already covers pretty much all the current hardware (8 core excluded :P ).
A Payware release of BootCamp for Tiger would of course require some support going forward, with regard to drivers, Microsoft OS version support,.. I doubt it will happen.
Were your cornflakes tainted this morning?