Although I thought this was pretty much inevitable once Apple started using Intel chips, it now begs the questions of what makes a Mac a Mac? Is it because you are running OSX, or is it because it was designed and built by Apple? Also, if you have a Mac running Windows, does it then become a Apple designed PC? Will the Macs ever carry a designed for Windows logo alongside of their Apple logo?

Aside from all of that, who really wants to keep rebooting their computer just to use a different OS? With apps like VMWare being free now, why would you really need to, other than gaming of course.

One thing I'm interested in seeing is the inevitable benchmarking that will come out from all of this comparing a Mac-PC, (can we call it that?) vs. something from Dell, or HP, or even better, Alienware (I know they're owned by Dell now). Are the Macs going to be noting more than just a pretty face with the same guts?

Strange world we live in.

Andy

I don't think people will buy a Mac to run Windows. But for those of us who need Windows apps and don't want windows boxes, this is a step in the right direction at least. Besides, I suspect Leopard will include windows virtualization, so one won't have to reboot.

Oh.. and:

http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/

Either way, I still think the fact that Apple released an "officially unofficial" product for Windows users..it's just fishy!

I think the hardware and the software differences between Macs and Wintel boxes work in tandem to make a Mac, a Mac. Some people buy Apple products for their award winning, sleek design. Others buy it for the stable, well designed OS. Some (myself included) buy for both reasons. Note, this is a drastic simplification..but I'm hoping to drive home the point- its a symbiotic relationship!

Well.. since the move to x86 architecture.. there've been people struggling to put Windows on it, and they succeeded, and then Apple swooped in (and undoubtedly stole the idea/process) and released the beta that is BootCamp with a couple bells and whistles. I don't think it's really all that fishy. I think it's the best way to try and "control" the situation at hand.

Hello,

I like the idea of virtualization: give me a window with Windoze on it, and all the meyhem can occur inside of it, and leave the filesystem things to OS X.

I need to do more research on things like VMware and Xen. That might be the next step.

I purchased a computer to do things for me, and with OS X, it is so damn exciting and pleasent to do things in. With Fink, I have Gnome and KDE apps working. OpenOffice. Gimp. I am not stuck in a Windows only paradigm. I love it. There are times, however, that I wish OS X was based on Linux instead of BSD. I suppose there are perks to using the Big Stable Distro.

Now, I just need to find an open-source CAD program that behaves like ClarisCAD...

Christian

Sorry if this seems like I'm hijacking this thread, but is it possible the other way round -- Running MacOS on a PC? That'd give us Windows users a taste of what the Mac is all about...

Not legally.

There were some kernel hacks that allowed 10.4.2 to be installed on a PC, but a "modern version" of OS X isn't installable on a regular "non-apple branded" PC.

I know this isn't quite what you're looking for:
http://pearpc.sourceforge.net
Note that this is a "gray" area of the law. Apple forbids any product or machine running Mac OS software without Apple's authorization.

>There were some kernel hacks that allowed 10.4.2 to be installed on a PC, but a "modern version" of OS X isn't installable on a regular "non-apple branded" PC.

Apple has been suing (I'm not sure if they're still suing) the OSx86 project for publishing hacks for getting Mac OS X running natively on a PC. However, as yellow said, it was an old kernel version from the developer boxes (which actually had BIOS, not EFI).

by the way dani, there are desktop macs with intel chips

the new (whatever the power user version of a mac is) has an intel Xenon