windows on mac yes maby or no

garp · Post by **garp** » 15 Nov 2003, 13:35

HI all

I was just pondering whats to stop you from putting windows on a mac lets say the G5 just think the fastest computer with windows.although I don't like windows that much it's the only thing I am used to (or am I missing something like you can't put windows on a mc or it's no realy the fastest computer) tell me what you think

bb_matt · Post by **bb_matt** » 15 Nov 2003, 14:24

The only way you can do that is via Virtual PC, which adds an emulation 'layer' on top of the MacOS operating system allowing you to run windows.
It certainly will not run as fast as the OS running on x86 tho !

http://www.apple.com/macosx/applications/virtualpc/

Windows is designed for x86 architecture and without some extensive modifications will not run on Apple computers (nor would they want it to !)

A more realistic and possible scenario is macOSX running on x86 (PC's) architecture.

That is certainly possible, given that macOSX is based on FreeBSD (a version of the Unix developed at Berkely university in calafornia)

http://www.freebsd.org/

But I dought Apple will ever port macOSX over to x86.

bondi · Post by **bondi** » 15 Nov 2003, 16:05

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bb_matt · Post by **bb_matt** » 15 Nov 2003, 16:28

Can you imagine what Apple would be letting themselves in for if they took on the task of building in support for all these thousands of vaguely-spec-compliant pieces of hardware?

Yes - it would be a huge issue for sure, but not insurmountable.
Being based on unix, porting to x86 would not be as tricky as porting from pre-MacOsX builds - in fact, Apple have just opened up thier users to a wide range of Open Source software - which is a wonderful thing.

Because that's what they would have to do. And not only that, they would have to devote their primary share of effort to it-- because in a choice between buying a Mac, priced to please shareholders who expect Apple to make 30% margins in an industry where Dell only makes 8%... or buying or building a cheap PC clone and a copy of Mac OS X to run on it-- which would you choose?

Apple would never sell a Mac again.

The history of Mac users will prove you wrong here - if MacOSx were released on an x86 platform it would certainly rock the boat, but Mac enthusiasts all know that it's so much more about the Hardware !

Choose a Dell to run MacOs ? - you have to be kidding !

IOW, Apple would still have the same Hardware user base, but would now have a huge x86 market to exploit !

Apple make Sexy computers for the discerning customer who is interested in design.

PC's are bog standard.

Of course, I can be totally wrong in this speculation, but it's valid imho...