Computerworld is reporting today that Apple released a public beta of Boot Camp, a program that uses the GUI to partition the drive, burn an install CD with all the required drivers and install WindowsXP for dual booting on a MacX86. It is currently available as a limited time trial, but is reported to be included in the next version of OSX, 10.5 Leopard, which is to be released later this year.
This seems to be coming from Apple a lot quicker than anyone guessed. With that in mind, how much longer will it be before Apple releases a version of OSX that doesn’t require Apple hardware? Given that their business model involves selling the hardware on which to run their OS I doubt it could be anytime soon, although I really do hope they decide to take that route.
Despite the assertions of Apple’s senior vice president of worlwide marketing, Phillip Schiller, I don’t think that Apple necessarily has “superior hardware” nor do I think that the dual boot strategy makes me more apt to switch. I have long built my own PCs using the hardware I choose, or ordered from vendors where I can select the hardware to be installed, and I don’t intend to change that. I would not be surprised to find that I am not alone in hoping that Apple releases an “any X86 hardware” version of OSX.
Until then, I won’t hold my breath.
