don't buy a MacTel for dual booting

[andyman]

If you recently purchased a Mactel (Intel based Apple computer) in hopes of dual booting Windows XP and MAC OS X Tiger, think again. Currently, Windows computers use PC Bios to boot to Windows and the Mactel uses Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) to boot.
Story (http://techrepublic.com.com/b2b-trcommunity/5254-6257-0.html?forumID=99&threadID=183520&messageID=1980891&id=4260638&tag=nl.e064)

[Child of Cupertino]

Andy, did you like miss this??

http://www.thecomputermechanics.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11551

It's been done, man.

Having said that, I wouldn't place too much trust in adopting the dual boot strategy on a Macintel for mission critical work just yet. For one, you indeed have Microsoft's Vista feature clawback to just supporting creaky old BIOS and not EFI. Two, even though Apple has stated they wouldn't do anything to prevent one from running Windows on a Macintel, there's every possibility that the hacks created to make it run on current Macintels might be broken by some future OS X or Mac EFI upgrade. SO, it's possible that one might not have Windows available when they really need it -- and might not get it back on the Macintel for quite a while as the community out there tries to update the hacks.

Also, there are some uses where dual booting might not make sense -- even though a user might need Windows. Web designers, for one. Imagine tweaking up a site in OS X, then needing to test it in Windows, then booting back up into OS X to adjust it, then booting into XP to see it blah blah blah. That would be very inconvenient.

In uses where someone is doing a lot of MS Access, or some proprietary business software where they'll be working for an extended period of time in Windows, it could work (even though there is software for OS X that allows you to interact with Access data). But honestly, only the hardcore users will try to effect this hack on their Macintels and, unless the process is made dead-simple, this won't gain traction. It would work, however, for those who want to lead a "dual life", if you will; Windows by day on the job because they have to, then Mac OS X by night when they get off the job, benefitting from all of its inherent goodness.

[andyman]

oops :)

[Child of Cupertino]

oops :)

:ryw: ;)

[andyman]

:)

[Ottawaman]

What's next? Hieroglyphics?

[Child of Cupertino]

LMAO!! Or rather:

http://www.gazzola.us/MTP/Images/uf2.jpg
http://www.lifeprint.com/asl101/signjpegs/g/give-himgiveme3.jpg
http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~deboor/pix/ass.gif
http://www.stephstuff.com/esafe/images/OffSwitch.gif


:bpp: