Boot Camp: Apple Bobs for Suckers?

profdlp (profdlp) Jim Louderback at PC Magazine offers his opinion of the new beta software from Apple Computer.

May 8, 2006 11:01 AM ET in News,

Jim Louderback at PC Magazine offers his opinion of the new beta software from Apple Computer. Among the features with which he is less-than-impressed are things like design, performance, expandability and more. Oh, he mentions price, too.

Don’t get too excited about the whole Mac/Windows dual-boot thing. Although a wide range of starry-eyed experts — including some in our very own lab — have lauded Boot Camp (aka BC) in tones not heard since the days of OS/2, it’s really nothing to get excited about. Here are my top reasons why —at least to real computer users — “Boot Chump” is a snore.

In the mood to Think Different”?

View: Apple Introduces Boot Camp
Download: Boot Camp Public Beta

Source: PC Magazine

4 Comments:

  1. Gargoyle
    8 May '06, 3:35 pm

    The second page, and especially the conclusions are funny stuff. But my favorite:

    • Flexibility: Speaking of building computers, if you like building your own computers, you are out of luck again. Apple's not interested in a DIY Mac, nor is it concerned with the case-mod culture of the PC. Oh, I guess that doesn't matter; lemming-like Apple fans aren't interested in actually doing anything different with their cookie-cutter computers that aspire to "Think Different" but, like that old Pete Seeger song about little boxes, "all look just the same." The really creative computer users are the case modders who build extravagant designs to house their systems. And that's just not possible if you aspire to run Windows and simultaneously "Think Different."
  2. drasnor
    8 May '06, 4:03 pm

    I think a lot of people are missing the point. Boot Camp is the first sanctioned utility for allowing multi-booting on a proprietary platform between two rival, proprietary OSes. Stop to think about that for just a minute.

    The article is essentially Apple bashing (which I personally don't have a problem with because I hate Apple). However, you cannot objectively deny what Boot Camp represents. I've configured yaboot (New World Macintosh loader for Linux and Mac OS) for multi-booting and grub (PC loader for Linux, can chainload other bootloaders e.g. NTloader) and I can tell you right now that getting dual booting to work is a royal p.i.t.a. That Apple freely provides such a utility and makes it user-friendly is mind-boggling. To put this in perspective, this is the same as if Microsoft offered Linux booting in NTloader as a supported option or if MS offered Google integration with their OS for searching, maps & directions, etc.

    -drasnor

  3. Gargoyle
    8 May '06, 4:38 pm

    It's definitely a paradigm shift, but I tend to agree with the author of the article that the idea behind Boot Camp is to tempt more people into buying Apples. Later, they'll get frustrated with the bad support for Windows on Mac hardware, but whether they start using OSX or keep using Windows doesn't matter - they've bought the machine, and Apple's made their money.

  4. profdlp
    8 May '06, 10:35 pm
    Quoting drasnor

    I think a lot of people are missing the point. Boot Camp is the first sanctioned utility for allowing multi-booting on a proprietary platform between two rival, proprietary OSes...

    That's an excellent point.

    OT: Just for the record, this was one of those items chosen purely because the article seemed interesting. Your humble News poster didn't necessarily agree with everything the author wrote.

    /disclaimer

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