Intel Macs give users more OS choice

The idea of running Windows on the Apple Computer hardware just got a lot more appealing with the introduction of Macs built on Intel processors. But don't expect the Cupertino, California, company, to be too keen on its users running Windows on the new machines.

"We haven't done anything to explicitly prevent it, but we haven't done anything to encourage it either," Apple Senior Product Line Manager Wiley Hodges said of running Windows on Macs during a presentation Thursday at the MacWorld Conference & Expo in San Francisco this week.

Apple introduced two new Intel-based machines, an iMac desktop and the MacBook notebook, at MacWorld. The iMac is available now, with the MacBook scheduled to ship in February but available for ordering on Tuesday.

Even without specific help from Apple, the existence of Macs built on Intel's x86 instruction set eventually will give users a choice of OSes to run on their new Apple machines. Analysts believe it won't be long before someone comes up with a version of Windows that runs natively on the new Intel-based Macs, even despite a firmware incompatibility issue that prevents Microsoft's operating system from running on the new Intel-based Macs.

Apple's Intel-based Macs support extensible firmware interface (EFI), whereas Microsoft's Windows XP supports BIOS, and the two are not natively interoperable. EFI and BIOS control the basic functions a computer can do, such as start up and boot up the OS, without accessing programs from its hard drive.

"I have no doubt that a clever person would figure out how to make it work even if Apple doesn’t support that," said Dan Kusnetzky, program vice president at IDC. "I've been amazed at how people have looked at vendor choices and found a way to do what they wanted to do anyway."

Linux also is a potential option for users that want to have more than one OS on their new iMac or MacBook, said Bruce Perens, vice president of Seattle-based SourceLabs, an open-source software and services company.

There are already Linux distributions, such as Yellow Dog Linux, designed for the Mac PowerPC architecture, he said, adding that it's only a matter of time before someone comes up with a version of Linux for the Intel-based Mac platform. "It probably just needs to be tested and tweaked slightly," he said.

In fact, if someone had the desire, they could run the Mac OS, Windows and Linux simultaneously on one of the new Macs, Perens said. "If we take this to its conclusion, you could have three OSes running on these machines at once," he said. "Only a geek would want to do it, but it would be fun."

Before anyone gets too excited by the potential of multiple-OS Macs, they should remember that the issue of support is a critical one, Kusnetzky said. One benefit of having a computer that runs multiple OSes is that it removes the need for corporate users to install two machines on their desks, in order to run both Mac and Windows applications. But enterprise users tend to shy away from running an OS on a machine without some kind of vendor support, he said. "That begs the issue of who will support it once [Windows] is running," Kusnetzky said.

According to Microsoft, there's nothing that precludes Apple from certifying and supporting Windows on the Mac now that it is an industry standard-based hardware company.