Topic: Want to Install XP on your Macintosh?

[toasty0]

Note: This is an excerpt from the WinXp newletter I subscribe to.

The recent news that Apple is planning to ditch the PowerPC architecture to build Macs based on Intel processors caused quite a bit of spirited discussion in the tech industry. There were all sorts of rumors. Some tech bloggers said it was the first step toward an Apple/Intel merger designed to defeat Microsoft. Others speculated that we would soon be able to buy the Mac OS X operating system as a standalone product to install on our PCs (we don't think Apple will license OS X as a standalone product but it is certainly possible that it will become available through less-than-legal channels).

Whatever the motive of this move (and we figure it was purely a business/technological decision designed to get the Mac "up to speed" in competition with high performance PCs), one of the most intriguing possibilities that could result from it is the ability to install the Macintosh OS and Windows operating systems (XP or, later, Longhorn) on the same computer in a dual-boot configuration.

Of course, you can already get the two operating systems to run on one piece of hardware, after a fashion, by using Microsoft's Virtual PC for Macintosh to run Windows on top of the Mac OS, but we're talking here about an Intel machine with both operating systems independently installed so you can choose to boot into either.

One big obstacle to selling the Mac to many people has been the higher cost, and that has been maintained because Apple had control over the hardware as well as the software. On the other hand, that control has also cause the Mac operating systems to be perceived as more stable than Windows, which can be installed on a huge variety of different hardware made by different vendors and thus is bound to run into incompatibilities with some of them. If (and this is a big "if") OS X becomes available to install on machines made by multiple manufacturers (as well as home built machines), will it suffer from the same incompatibility problems that sometimes plague Windows?

What do you think? Will Apple's move to Intel make you more likely to give Macintosh a try? Would you like to be able to buy OS X and install it on any Intel-compatible PC? Would you like to be able to have both XP (or its successor) and the Mac OS installed on your PC to dual boot?