I should probably write an entry at some point about Apple’s delicious new hardware announcement, but something else struck me as soon as I found out that Apple won’t be taking any preventative measures against running Windows. That alone isn’t surprising, Apple has nothing to lose and everything to gain from their users running Windows, especially since they’ve all but washed their hands of supporting this unholy union, but I’m personally more interested in where MS stands on the issue.
We know that they will continue to develop Office on the Mac for the next five years, but what of their bread and butter, Windows? Sure, the technically inclined users will have no problem creating an NTFS formatted partition and dumping a Windows install like on any other PC, so I’m not as much concerned about them. Consider this though, what if MS actively advertised this capability to general users?
Imagine seeing ads for “Windows XP for Macs”, while a bit of a non-sequitur, it would also enable Microsoft to target a market for Windows that it normally couldn’t touch. They could even release it as yet another variation of Windows XP, with a graphically and functionally upgraded installer for timid OSX users, a foolproof boot loader, and complete support for Apple’s new hardware built in. Why would Microsoft do this? I think simply because it’s in their best interest. Their situation is very similar to Apple’s in this case, there really is no good reason not to do it. Sure it may help sell a few more Macs here and there, but never enough to dent Microsoft’s massive user base, and if those users are buying Macs solely for the purpose of dual booting them with XP then MS has absolutely nothing to worry about. In the end this new version of Windows XP could target Mac-only users as well as dumb Windows XP users–it’s win-win for Microsoft!
Honestly, I think this is a far more possible outcome than Apple releasing OSX for generic x86 machines. It is said that Apple has gone to extreme measures to make sure that the forthcoming Intel OSX CDs will only boot on their hardware, which sends a clear signal for their intentions. Anyone who wants to run OSX on their PC will have to suck it up and rely on the hacker scene for their fix.
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