Dualin’ part Deux
The other day, I was gushing on this site about my newfound access to a dual processor linux machine. But now, after yesterday’s announcement at Macworld, I have ordered one of the new Apple laptops, which will sport a dual core Intel cpu. Come February (hopefully), I’ll have a personal computer that’s about eight times faster than my current one, at a cost about $300 cheaper than the last Powerbook I bought four years ago. Unbelievable.
I know I’m in for some version 1.0 blues, as new hardware and software always have some “issues”, but I’m looking forward to being able to run Radiance simulations on my lap, try out the new Tiger features ( I’m still on OS X 10.3) and generally just geek out. If they ever figure out how to get Windows running on these new Apple laptops too, I could finally blow up my Windows computer (I need Windows for MS Flight Simulator and AutoCAD — note the order of importance). Interesting times ahead…
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It’s great to have guys like you test the bleeding edge of technology and let us know what’s what. Besides speed, chip availability and price, etc., isn’t the point of something like this to able to run windows on it without resorting to Virtual PC? I look forward to more reviews.
I don’t know… When Jobs first announced the Intel chips earlier this past summer he explicitly said that they would not be making Macs that could run Windows. I think it’s going to take some kind of hack or something for that. Things change, of course, but Apple can be pretty stubborn about things for a company that likes to “push the envelope” (to use an aviation term!).
Yeah Perry, that was definitely not my intention (to run Windows on my Powerbook — excuse me, MacBook Pro), but if it happens, that will definitely be th eholy grail. I’m sure there will be much hacking going on and lots of people getting this type of thing set up. I’m not sure I’d be willing to really hack my new laptop just to get Windows on there, though. We’ll see…
What I think would be pretty cool would be the ability to have a dual-boot situation; OSX on one partition and Windows on another (for those times when you need it).
Exactly, and this is about the best I’m hoping for, but again I don’t know if it’s actually gonna happen. Apple has even moved away from BIOS, which will likely complicate things:
http://www.betanews.com/article/XP_Wont_Run_on_Intel_MacBook_iMac/1137003330
The new MacBook Pro’s (I hate that name) use Intel’s new EFI instead of the standard BIOS. Windows XP does not support EFI. Apple has publicly stated that they will not stop people from installing Windows XP onto Intel Macs, but doing so will not be a supported feature.
The next version of Windows, Vista, does support EFI and subsequent versions of XP may include support for EFI. Until then the hackers will most definitely come up with a hack to support XP on Intel Macs.
Maybe some movement in the right direction?
http://tinyurl.com/mzunr
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