Welcome to Mac-Dows

The day of Macintosh computers running on Windows has arrived.

Tuesday, Apple announced that it will allow Windows to be run on the latest Intel-powered Macs by using this program called Boot Camp. All you need to do is install the beta (just click at the title to go directly to the Boot Camp beta). Follow the instructions- and don't forget your full version of Windows XP (and come January 2007, Windows Vista) and the anti's- anti-virus; anti-spam, etc software. We Mac types don't want our Apples infected with worms.

This sounds rather intriguing, not to mention switching between programs (though I'd have to shut off the Mac before going to the other OS- you know, Mac to Windows, and vice versa...think Apple will let Linux into the loop? I hope so...I hear Linux is a pretty impressive little OS program- though I don't know how Linus the Penguin will handle eating Apples...). Yes, it's a bit scary- after all, we're letting the enemy into ur house. The price of calling a truce, I suppose...if anyone wants to look at it from a Star Trek perspective, it's like the Federation (United Federation of Planets) letting Klingons pilot the Starfleet ships- and vice versa(or more recently, in the case of Star Trek: Nemesis- letting those S&M types, the Romulans, on the Enterprise. I know, I know. The Ferengi are the ones who are into BDSM- and strip joints, too...).

How will this work out? Will the heavy players in the Windows world- Lenovo (the Chinese PC manufacturer who bought out IBM's ThinkPad line); Hewlett-Packard; and Dell, and the smaller players, Alienware, among others- consider allowing the Mac OS X into their computers? After all, come next year, Mac OS X, 10.5 Leopard will be out, and Boot Camp will be included. So, if Microsoft can allow Windows users to use Mac into their computers- of course, you'd still probably have to shell out the $130 it costs for the Mac OS X- perhaps the Windows-Macintosh rivalry will come to a crest. And all in Redmond, Washington, and Cupertino, California will live happily ever after. And we all have a Santa Clara, California chipmaker to think.

Then again, perhaps staying separate on their respective sides of the fence may not be a bad idea after all...

Take a look, also at Walter Mossberg's take on Boot Camp at http://ptech.wsj.com/ptech-20060406.html