Intel AND Windows Inside

Recently, hackers figured out how to run Windows XP on a Mac-Intel despite the differing subsystem. This was inspired by a contest called the OSx86 Project. It was for anyone who could figure out the puzzle of how to put together the OS of one company, Microsoft, and the hardware of another, Apple. The award was money raised online by contributions from around the world. Virtual PC had made it possible to run windows on Macs but it was painfully slow since it is, after all, only an emulation program.

Introducing... Boot Camp. Apple's official answer to the popular demand. It is in the Beta stage, and open to the public for a limited time. It will be released as a part of Leopard, the next major Apple operating system, due later this year. Installing Boot Camp involves partitioning your hard drive for both operating systems. You will need your own full copy of Windows XP. One problem with Boot Camp is that you cannot run both at the same time. You have to choose upon startup which one you want to run. To switch to the other OS, shut down the computer and start again.

Parallels Workstation 2.1, pictured, is an alternate way to run Windows in OSX. However, it has a more complex install procedure, especially for those who are not so tech savvy.

This is all legal, as long as you purchase your own copy of Windows. It works out for both Gates and Jobs, in the end. It's just like when Darth Vader, turns good and saves Luke from evil. It's just like when Jaws helps James Bond go back home from the Moonraker. It's just like... well... you get what I mean. Hell hath frozen over.

So why would a Mac user want to run Windows? Forget music recording software. Forget movie editing software. Forget photoshop. We, Mac heads, have all that. Gaming, of course!

And I'm not the only one.