Got one of them new fangled Intel based Macs?

Now you can dual boot between OS X & Win XP:
(yeah... I know it's been hacked, but now it's supported)

 

There is also info floating around on the web about install OS X on regular PCs. That I wouldn't mind trying one of these days.
Time (lack thereof) is an issue nowadays though.

 

I'm on a mac right now.

 

Apple won't do it. If they did, nobody would buy their pretty, overpriced machines and they'd lose millions. I don't see it going any further than dual booting XP.

I actually think it's an awesome idea. Now it gives people the luxury of being able to use XP for whatever they can't use a Mac for, then revert back to a Mac for everything else. It's still pricey to get into, but now people will be more open to the idea. I've never wanted a MacBook Pro so bad.

 

I'll betcha' though that the next thing in line is to split the dualcore and run XP on one and OS X on the other. Or at least to implement hot swapping.

Linux is designed to be stuffed in a swap file - XP can be forced to be.

 

Wow... I never thought of that. Would the hardware even support it? Seems like there would be memory issues.

I love the site though... especially how they add those little tidbits about how Windows sucks:

• EFI and BIOS - Macs use an ultra-modern industry standard technology called EFI to handle booting. Sadly, Windows XP, and even the upcoming Vista, are stuck in the 1980s with old-fashioned BIOS. But with Boot Camp, the Mac can operate smoothly in both centuries.

• Word to the Wise - Windows running on a Mac is like Windows running on a PC. That means it’ll be subject to the same attacks that plague the Windows world. So be sure to keep it updated with the latest Microsoft Windows security fixes.

ARGH!!! Must... fight... urge... to... buy... MacBook Pro!!

 

Well, remember that Linux lives on a real memory manager that can properly handle critical chuncks without something 12 layers up in the OS being a helper. Then on the Windows side, I will nod that it can at least stay in a region that it's told.

So...

I'd bet that you could boot OS X, let the preloader set a single processor kernel, segment 256meg of RAM for Linux then once the kernel's running, it could "just" launch XP. 768meg (given a 1gig machine) would be fine for XP.

I think the worst thing would be the OS's fighting for the display. Obviously there'd be some magic down low to allow virtual screen updates, but this is just magicaly with all Macs since the dawn of time. General I/O contention would be handles pretty much the same way.

The OS's could talk to one-other through separate IP addresses (Virtual PC does this now). The drive could be partitioned up into OS 1/OS 2/Swap/Data.


Yeah... I'd lay odds that it's coming.

 

It's not Apple experimenting with that but people themselves. Since OS X now runs on a x86 architechture people try to run it on regular PCs.

Here is some info on a workaround

http://www.windowsdevcenter.com/pub/...18/PearPC.html

 

Interesting... I find it funny though that people are working this from the angle of loading a PPC emulator onto a PC, then booting OS X under Windows. That's kinda' old-school, like VPC and those guys.

I would think that folks would instead work to port Rosetta straight to Windows.

 

It will work, assuming you have the right hardware. Driver issues are the main problem. That's why XP on a Mac with Boot Camp is cool, because Apple gives you the drivers that work best on their machines.

To me, it's not worth it to spend the time trying to get it to work on any certain machine, because drivers are probably few and far between. I throw fits trying to get my hardware to work right on a more acceptable Linux platform... so I can't imagine trying with Mac.

 

but that's using an emulator... boo...

rememeber, apple sticks portion of the OS in the bios so that's why you couldnt buy anymore mac clones.

apple made the bios chips and no one else. and back in the 90s, when apple did allow clones, it was because they licensed it.

when jobs took over, he nixed that idea FASt...

the new quad G5 is starting to look REAL good as my next work machine... :evil smiley:

 

That could be bypassed by creating some software that loads at boot time(pretinding to be the mac bios), which in turn start osx

Not something I am going to waste my time on, but there are lots of teenagers out there with lots of time, creativity, and something to prove.
I think it's a matter of time before a bootable version of osx floats around for regular PCs.
I realize that drivers are another issue, but isn't it possible to use quite a few video cards in macs already? I am not sure about that, since I was never interested in the overpriced macs with a limited amount of expensive software.

 

fwiw... I just saw my buddy's Mactel running XP native (booted through Bootcamp). It's VERY nice. XP loads the dual core kernel and everything.

The downside is BACKSPACE is actually BACKSPACE (versus DELETE) and he misses the Windows key, personally I never use it.

Oh, and he was giving a presentation using a projector off of it and found that the LCD panel scales to the projector size. Kinda' ugly. He pointed out that his Gateway laptop doesn't do it...