Slashdot Mirror
Windows Vista Beta Running on a PPC Mac
goombah99 writes "Macosxhints is giving a set of tips that let any Mac user boot Windows Vista on a Mac. In this case, it's not a native Intel boot but rather VirtualPC running on a PPC G5 Mac. Thus Vista and Mac OS X can run concurrently. There are no extravagant hacks needed, just a matter of finding the right set of configurations to let VirtualPC present the proper disk images for mounting and BIOS settings to the installer. This bodes well for native installs onto the Intel Mac." Actually, there have been successful (though not glitch-free) installs of beta versions of Vista on Intel Macs for a few months now. Here's a report from Hans Verbeeck (Developer Evangelist for Microsoft EMEA) on putting Vista Beta 2 on a MacBook Pro.
This bodes well for native installs onto the Intel Mac.
How so? I would like goombah99 to clarify this statement. As timothy points out, Vista has been installing on Intel Macs for a while. The thing is that it has absolutely nothing to do with whether or not Vista can run in an x86 emulation environment for a different processor family. It doesn't bode anything at all because it's irrelevent.
This guy's the limit!
VPC emulates a traditional PC with a BIOS. An Intel Mac is an entirely different beast. Getting Vista to boot in VPC is no more difficult than getting it to boot on a generic "white box" pc, and has just as much relevance to the Intel Mac. That is, none at all.
Lost: Sig, white with black letters. No collar. Reward if found!
First,
Other's have only been able to install Vista by wiping out the EFI boot partition. Here's a way to concurrently run Vista. It shows it can be done without reformating the disk.
Second,
it shows that Contrary to rumors, Vista is not crippled against running on macs or under virtual systems.
Third,
it shows macs meet the minumum specs for Vista, so one need not hesitate about buying a mac now if one was worried about running vista.
Fourth,
it means you can do comparisons of Vista and mac osx.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
"Virtualization allows you to run an OS that was designed for another type of hardware. This is news. Really."
The slightly more credible version of this speculation is that Apple is dumping Darwin and will port the OS X user interface frameworks to the Vista kernel, thus allowing perfect side-by-side Windows|Mac compatibility. Of course, that's still not very credible.
Whenever I hear the word 'Innovation', I reach for my pistol.
After RTFA, I have to say that was seriously a waste of my time. x86 OS works in x86 emulator. Wow what a breakthrough (sarcasim).
Since you claim to have read the article, you'd have noticed that the big deal isn't "It works in an emulator" but rather "At first it wouldn't install in VPC, but someone found a neat trick to get it to install." I didn't even know it was possible to get into a BIOS setup screen in VPC.
I agree, it would be extremely slow though. I have a Dual 1.8GHz G5, and the Virtual PC seems to run at ~350 MHZ for me (not a scientific measurement... just a guess based on how it 'feels'). Considering Vista's minimum requirements are at least 800 MHz, I wouldn't want to use it on a regular basis.
That being said, I'm going to try it out anyway, just to take a look at Vista.
Duct tape is like the Force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together.
You really don't understand the consumerist society, do you? People buy new stuff even when the old stuff works just fine. It's about social status and bragging rights. It's got nothing to do with if it works or not. Also, you'd be surprised by the number of people who think that getting a virus means they need to get a new system. There was even a newspaper article around here in my hometown that said something to the effect of "Be careful of viruses. They can delete your data or even destroy your computer so you have to buy a new one." I of course called BS in a letter to the editor but they didn't publish it. People are ignorant when it comes to technology. They don't understand it and don't want to. They just want it to work. And a lot of times, that means buying a new computer. If you think the market is saturated, check out the PC sales numbers. They're higher than ever before. As more people want to get on this "newfangled intarweb thingy" they all buy computers. Then they hook them up. Then they get pwn3d. Then they buy a new one. Rinse, repeat.
This one comment summarizes this whole discussion. The worst part is that even when being refuted by very knowledgable people, Goombah still sits there telling everyone that they're wrong and that he's right.
There's nothing new here. They're running VirtualPC, so Vista isn't really running on Mac hardware. Even installing vista on intel Mac hardware is very straightforward - if you want to dual-boot OS X and Vista, things get a little more difficult (or impossible?) but if you want to run Vista on an intel Mac, just go ahead an install it. It works.
Specialist Mac support for creative pros, Melbourne
Simple reason to put Windows on a Macbook Pro: Games. I'm tired of having reconnect my monitor to a Windows machine for games and one for my PowerMac. The ONLY reason I keep a Windows machine around is to play games. I don't use it for anything else. OSX does everything else (Office, banking, surfing the net, etc) better.
I also don't want two monitors. I want one machine that can run Windows for gaming, and then OSX for everything else. Apple now has a product that does this well. I'm going to purchase this.