More Questions About Apple's Boot Camp

FAT32 can go a lot bigger than 4 GB, it can go up to 32 GB.

Just google for "fat32 max" and you'll find the info.

"Is it possible that Steve Jobs agrees--and this is all about Apple gracefully backing out of the PC biz to focus on music?"

Uhh, what are you smoking? Apple will remain a top computer seller well into the future, whether you PC-huggers like it or not.. ;)

"Does this mean Apple will help you put OS X on a non-Apple computer?"

Apple's stance is against this at all costs, because it wouldn't help them at all. If people could put OS X on a windows machine, Apple wouldn't sell as many lower-end computers..

Most of these questions seemed to be asked by someone who hasn't been very exposed to the Mac platform. Once you use OS X, you don't generally switch back. XP on a Mac will complete the package and allow anyone to run any software program on Mac legally.

3%, 5%... nobody thinks Porche or Saab is going to leave the automotive indutry! They make fine cars! Apple makes a fabulous OS and computers!

Apple Computer's just got another feature

3%, 5%... nobody thinks Porche or Saab is going to leave the automotive indutry! They make fine cars! Apple makes a fabulous OS and computers!

Apple Computer's just got another feature

Couldn't agree more. I've gone Apple and won't go back. My wife (who is a big-time programmer), absolutely loathes XP. I (a research scientist) absolutely loath XP. Both of us consider Microsoft to be the GM of the OS world (cheap, nasty, and never reliable). To all of you Windoze fans, remembger, GM still sells the most cars, but with the exception of the Vette, all are complete junk. Our house goal is a "Microsoft Free Environment". Thanks to Apple, our dream is now realized.

"Lance Ulanoff of our distingushed competitor PC Magazine is taking the contrarian view that this is the beginning of the end for Apple's place in the computer industry."

Uh, Harry, I think you mis-read Ulanoff's position. Here's what he actually said:

"Bootcamp marks the beginning of the end for Apple AS THE RENEGADE for the design set and the beginning of Apple as a dominant player in the global desktop PC game." [caps mine]

Actually FAT32 filesystems can be much larger than 32 gig. 32 gig is Windows own limitation for formating them, not in using them in order to encourage people to use NTFS. I personally have a 200 gigabyte hard drive formatted as fat32 and use it between my Macintosh and Windows XP computers. The problem with FAT32 does not lie in maximum storage capacity, but in maximum file size.

" If he's right, is it possible that Steve Jobs agrees--and this is all about Apple gracefully backing out of the PC biz to focus on music?"

I don't think that because of this that apple will completely leave the PC industry, but actually gain more users from this, because the people that buy the intel macs for seeing what the differences are with Mac OSX and windows XP (in the future Vista), most of them will like the stability and editing features of the macs, and pick macs instead, while others will like the fact that most things are compatible with Windows, like Software, games and other add-on devices, and some people may decide to keep getting Macs running on intel chips so that they can have incredible stability and editing, while able to have some fun PC games and able to have their devices work with their computers. I personally think that these Intel
Macs are a great idea, and may think of getting one. As of now, I'm a PC user and am planning on building a custom PC, but I know absolutely nothing about the internal peripherals of Macs and barely know anyything about Mac OSX.

Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, April 05, 2006, 06:50 PM (PST)
FAT32 can go a lot bigger than 4 GB, it can go up to 32 GB.

Just google for "fat32 max" and you'll find the info.
- - -

FAT32 FILE SIZE Limit Is 4GB, period

Nobody said anything about PARTITION size limits in there, which is actually 2TB.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310525/en-us

Apple has welcomed Windows users with emulations (indirectly by supporting third party developers) for many years. It is foolish to think that Apple is turning belly up (because the Intel conversion perhaps makes this emulation/virtualization even better), just as it has been since 1984. This just makes Macs even more interoperable than ever before. you think Gates and crew will permit the converse? No way, Jose; they are too way company-centered.

Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, April 05, 2006, 06:50 PM (PST)
FAT32 can go a lot bigger than 4 GB, it can go up to 32 GB.

Just google for "fat32 max" and you'll find the info.
- - -

FAT32 FILE SIZE Limit Is 4GB, period

Nobody said anything about PARTITION size limits in there, which is actually 2TB.

- - -

yes, i agree with you, because the PSP is formatted in FAT32, which can only handle up to 4 GB, but that's just one device that uses it. Sony's gunna upgrade the firmware though, so that it will be NTFS and be able to work with 8 GB memory sticks, so that is just one way to prove it to "anonymos", but that URL was also helpful.

I believe that the FAT32 limitations are as follows: 2TB maximum volume size (32 GB on Win2K/XP), BUT, a maximum file size of 4GB on any platform. Makes FAT32 a tough target for backup files and large video projects.

Probably easily overcome by "motivated" Apple engineers by adding support for NTFS (ask the 'ux folks!)

"and FAT32, which OS X can read, is limited to 4GB partitions"

Read again...

But you are right about the 2TB limitation... and especially the 4GB file size.

But a cheap Mac that can run windows would make a nice extra machine to have around the house.

"We are the Borg - resistance is futile."

So it is that the Mac becomes just another WinTel machine.

All the fuss about the Mac has been for years just giddy chattering by elitist writers. They think that knowing what so few know - or even care to know - about the Mac makes them "special" is the true gnostic sense.

Rubbish. It just tells the rest of us those writers have their heads in a space normally occupied by fecal matter.

The truth is that the Mac survives on cachet. It is style over substance, supported by fanatical users who deny anything negative about owning a machine rejectd by 97 percent of the marketplace.

To them, that 97 percent rejection merely reinforces their self-anointed place as the "true holders of special knowledge" that the rest of the unwashed mass fail to grasp with their innate intelligence - being so much lower than that of the Mac fanatics' . . . so the Mac fanatics tell themselves anyway.

Be reality being what it is, the collapse of the Mac myth is accelerating with irrepressible speed. First it was the Intel chip, now the switch to Windows.

Mac fanatics will still argue they are a different species, but reality trumps their delusion: The Mac is just another WinTel machine.

They are now part of the Borg - resistance proved futile.

As an apple campus rep, I can garantee that Apple has taken exceptional focus on making sure their OS X can't run on anything other than a mac. Not to say that some ingenius hacker will probably figure it someday, it's not in the near future. Also, apple's introduction of bootcamp is certainly not a sign of them backing out of computer industry. It's the beginning of a stronghold in the market.

As graphicc design someone who has worked in a PC environment for years but has remained faithful to my MAc, I am rather horrified by this whole turn of events. What is the point of running Windows-where will the challenge of getting the PC lovin IT departments to bow to the superiority of the MAC? If we can run Windows, we will make their jobs easier, there will be no battle, just a quiet admission of the dominance of the PC. "Don't bother me, switch to the Windows operating system if you can't get on the network" Is that where it ends?

a bit windows biased if you ask me.

this article is a bit too PC biased.

Who cares? I switched to Linux 12 months ago. I've already migrated all but one server and will shortly be rolling out more Linux desktop machines.

Linux has saved me thousands of dollars in license costs.

Fat 32 can go higher than 4GB all by itself. No add-on needed. ( I think you are getting Fat 16 mixed with Fat32) And OSX can read NTFS. I have Apple's and PC's all over my network and they can see each other's shared disks no problem.

Until 'they', whoever 'they' or whoever happens by that truly knows the FACTS in this mess and decides to invest in a Black Hole of Bogosity, decide to actually address the DEVICE DRIVER issues inherent in running XP on an Intel-based Mac system, this whole bit about running XP on an Apple/Intel box is moot, period

Personally, not that anyone ever asked me about it, this whole thing is truly 3rd-level FUD.

Marketing: "Hey! Let's make it look like there's a Compatibility Horizon up there in the future! The Marks will BUY into it!!!"

I've seen/used them both.

And I'm sick of all the GewGaws added to both, which inevitably force me into spending way too much time getting Updated and Backed-Up, et cetera et cetera et cetera ad infinitum.

I just want to get my work done it, period

And, I'm sick of having to buy several machines that I am forced to specialize for each task-set at hand. Not to mention this Built-In Obselence Quotient FooFoo stuff. Oh, wait, all those 'old' machines can run Linux NOW!

PS. Whatever happened to "The Paperless Office" 'advertised' way back in the Dark Ages of ~1987 ON ALL PLATFORMS AVAILABLE, eh?

PPS. You wanna know what Really T's Me Off? Michael Capellas DESTROYING the 64-bit ALPHA CPU by selling it to Intel. DEC/Alpha has/had 64-bit OS underpinnings running since 1993. And Mr. Capellas tosses it to the wind in The Industry Effort toward pay me now for stuff we can't do yet, looks good on paper (see above), AND MAKES US LOTS AND LOTS OF MONEY! ing MORONS! Thank You, Mr. Negroponte for setting the first Land-Mine in that Bogosity Field Of Profit!!!

And now this FooFoo stuff with running XP on a Mac bzzzzzzzt comes in.

Steve Jobs & Bill Gates have a two week tête à tête each Easter to 'discuss' how they'll rake-in your consumer dough over this small-time stuff.

And laugh all the way to the bank over how you all fall for it.

ha ha ha

Bring on The Real OS!

BeOS!

I think osx is great!! However I wouldn't buy a mac purely because a lot of software and games I have and want won't run on it. However XP on a mac would overcome this problem and I for one would definately want to buy one. I think converting users like me is the angle they are trying to take.

How odd!

That is supposed to read ...

{bleep}ing MORONS! (I had use angle-brackets in the original, not braces.)

Mr. N_e_g_r_o_ponte, The MIT guy with the One Laptop Per Child program thingy, eh. In that one, I spelled his name correctly. (Who knows what that automated censorship is about, eh?)

in the two places that don't make sense with what actually landed here instead of what I had actually typed.

While duel booting it cool, it does not warrent all the media coverage that its been getting!

Mr. Lamb's response above surely indicates he's just another sheep.

I guess 97% of the marketplace rejects BMW.

I guess 97% of the marketplace doesn't have HDTV.

I guess 97% of the marketplace are lemmings.

I guess 97% of the immigrants who make up the US population never left home.

Mr Lamb seems quite content the assertion that there will be total conformance.

Will Apple ever ship a computer with Windows pre-installed?

I used to sell computers and back around 1994 Apple sold a computer that had 2 processors one was a 486 the otherwas a motorola 68030 I believe these computers came with windows pre-installed. So the fact is Apple already has done this I think it had windows 3.1 pre-installed. As I recall few people bought them.

I agree with Jess completely. If a mac can run the stuff i want (games and windows software) then i would gladly pay the premium for what i precieve to be quite a nice little machine (you've got to admit mac's have some pretty good hardware). I Love my PC's but to be able to have a bash at programming for mac in some of the mac specific languages (i'm a programmer by trade) and even using one for some multi-media projects is a great opportunity i won't hesitate to take advantage of. This won't reduce Apples market share, it will increase it as now they have opened up a whole new market of legions of mac curious users that still need the ability to work with windows who could never justify going out and buying a mac before.

Computer-equipped classrooms at univeristies often have both a Mac and a PC. Now they will be able to greatly reduce their cost by having only a Mac. Will this help Apple? A little, because the same budget will cover more classrooms. It will hurt PC makers in the education market.

Will Vista run on the new OS X, if not BootCamp?

....borgs and resistance is futile etc etc...

Um, you may be too obessed about macs. Don't let those Mac users get to you so much dude. You gotta get out more - or write that stylistic sci-fi thriller. Apple is a company making computer software and hardware, and represents an option. Competition is a good thing. Innovation is good thing. That is the point of a marketplace. Apple is both of those, and should be admired for their achievements in a highly competetive environment. What a blast to watch them operate. I think this is why they are getting so much press - people are interested in what they are doing. Yes, people are buying macs and defending their purchase- get over it - soon. The moves that Apple has made over the past few years are stunning. It seems like another bold move to say, sure why not, put windows on a mac - we are that confident in our products - whatever it takes to get you to take a look, and leave the borg or wherever it is you are...

Hmmmm..... Perhaps one day soon, we'll be able to run one OS on one core of a multi core machine, and simultaneously run another OS on the others. Wouldn't it be great if this functionality were in Leopard?

I'm a linux addict and always will be I don't know squat about Mac but I do know that if Mac computers start running windows I'm moving to hell to sell heaters. Just cause they now offer Macs with Intels in them dosn't mean that Mac is a dying company, anymore than the SCO vs Linux suit meant that Linux is gone

Apple sells hardware.

Microsoft sells software.

If Apple's hardware will run Microsoft's software.

Tell me how they both don't make out big time.

will windows Vista run on the new macs??
Apple is going to dominent!!!

Apple is doing this only because it will allow more people to switch. OS X HAS NO VIRUSES NO WORMS NO SPYWARE. dont believe the media those couple viruses did no harm and never acuatlly got on anyones machine. Boot camp is just a way to get people over to mac and see how user friendly it is and not have to worry if its infected

Dual booting is great.
Virtualization is greater.
Cross-platform Cocoa is nirvana.

Cocoa on Windows will be the real revolution for software developers. This would make me switch from Java to obtain universal compatibility.

This is all about giving the people what they want.

Lots of OS X users love their operating system, but they would also love to be able to run a few Windows programs and play a few more games. This move is not an indicator that Apple is poised to sell out and become just another producer of computers that run Windows. Instead, Apple is rewarding all those people who made the jump to Mactel machines with a huge slice of freedom.

For free. (Yeah, yeah, you have to actually buy XP, but no additional cost on the Apple side of things- yet.)

When was the last time a computer company dished you up this much versatility for nothing?

this is the future. finally a computer that can work in both worlds. PC people are just upset that they cant switch from windows to the mac interface. Microsoft would never allow or make a program to do that. they dont have people with enoguh creativity to think that way. Windows is just so plain next to a mac interface. Even for people who dont need boot camp as much as others, its not bad to just have both systems. good job apple for figuring this out. i hope Gates doesnt steal this from you just like it stole the mac os!!

@ OC (The Apple Campus Rep):

OS X has already been run on machines other than Apples.

The people over at ExtremeTech did it, a bunch of people at OSx86, and countless others.

Yeah, but apple ain't porch or saab. its made in America..

most posts here make a fuss about file and partition sizes of FAT32 and how to access them.

a major flaw in the above article was still overlooked:

OSX (since 10.3.5) can READ NTFS, too.
you are not able to write on NTFS disks, and the read speed is very slow, but I have no problem whatsoever to mount an external USB 2.0 disk with 250 GB that is formatted in NTFS.

please correct the article once more

so , you can play games on xp and do everything else in os-x

seems like a win win to me

bye bye dell !

always wanted a mac but tied to pc. this article has been being sent around by everyone. EVERYONE of us has said we are going over to Macwintel. Everyone one of us is a current pc user. so you all better make some room cause there's going to be a HUGE party and everyone's invited.

Seeing as Boot Camp will become an integral part of Leopard, is this Apple's way of saying they can change their spots?

Yes, I can think of several questions. !.) how fast is it? 2.) if a Mac user runs Boot Camp (or VPC or any other solution), how much extra security risk does he run? 3.) How do OSX and Windows work together in Boot Camp? Can you cut and paste between them? Drag and drop?

The author should check his facts OS X Tiger can read NTFS but not wite to NTFS.

I love the look and feel of the Macs but don't want to migrate from Windows XP (this is no critiscim of OSX - its a bit like swapping between European cars with the indicator on the right and Australian Cars with the indicator on the left) . I think there would be a lot of people (read potential Apple Customers) like me. I think this will be a postive move for Apple sales.

CrazySam wrote:

"I know absolutely nothing about the internal peripherals of Macs."

Internal peripherals? Great oxymoron - keep 'em coming!

Apple likely did this to sell more mactels. This allows a pc based user an easier port to the mac osx. You don't have to rebuy every program to go the mac. Just buy as you want to, keep running the old windows programs until you replace them.

There will be osx on a dell in time. Probably the next OSX version. People said you would never see XP on the Mactel too. I told them way back when Mactels were announced it was only a matter of time.

A simple Google search will find many web sites with instructions for loading OS X 86 on a standard PC. You just might want similar video cards to what A MAC uses and OS X Intel version knows about..

http://terablog.blogspot.com

Some day XP will finally be replaced by Vista; will Apple be certifying their macintels as "Vista Ready" like other computer manufacturers? (Seems like only yesterday, that that was the big news item on Google and Yahoo)

With Boot Camp, Apple has removed the biggest hurdle into the corporate world. IT departments can't use the excuse of having to be tied Windows for legacy reasons. I can easily see Apple's market share jump to 10% in the next 5 years or less...

Dana- 1) i dont know how fast it is (i'm on a dell) but its fast enough to run doom3 at 1024x768 on an imac.

2) its not an emulator like vpc it's true dual boot: turn on machine, select win or osx and it boots into it. there is no realtime switching w/o rebooting.

3) xp and osx don't work together, they are on seperate partitions, both running natively.. I dont know enough about partition formatting to tell you whether or not they will be able to read eachother's hard drives, but really they should be fairly seperate entities (i.e. you are running one or the other at any given time, not both at once like vpc)

On a mac or on a pc, I still can't understand why anyone would want to put themself through a windows expericence.....

Folks, I admit I'm a computer ignoramus. Given that, can anyone here please tell me if I can: 1) install bootcamp on my mac mini, then 2) install Windows XP, and then -- THE MONEY QUESTION -- install Wordperfect so that I can finally use WP on my Mac?

Thank you.

=======================
Mr. Lamb's response above surely indicates he's just another sheep.

I guess 97% of the marketplace rejects BMW.

I guess 97% of the marketplace doesn't have HDTV.

I guess 97% of the marketplace are lemmings.

I guess 97% of the immigrants who make up the US population never left home.

Mr Lamb seems quite content the assertion that there will be total conformance.
=====================

97% of the world does reject BMW. BMW is no more expensive than cars from any other auto manufacturer, but people aren't buying.

Most people don't have HDTV because there is little to watch. . Why buy a TV when you have nothing to watch on it?

And you too are a lemming. . by participating in a conversation with all of the other lemmings that wasted their time posting drivel that few other people will read. Welcome to the club!

Well they did migrate to the US, along with the rest of the lemmings.

It's not conformity, people don't want to spend money on something they can't use. Why get a Mac when your company's in house software won't run on it?

Of course this is different now. . that is the whole point of the article after all. I must mention though, your elitism only serves to highlight your stupidity.

================
Couldn't agree more. I've gone Apple and won't go back. My wife (who is a big-time programmer), absolutely loathes XP. I (a research scientist) absolutely loath XP. Both of us consider Microsoft to be the GM of the OS world (cheap, nasty, and never reliable). To all of you Windoze fans, remembger, GM still sells the most cars, but with the exception of the Vette, all are complete junk. Our house goal is a "Microsoft Free Environment". Thanks to Apple, our dream is now realized.
================

A research scientist that apparently can't spell. You must think the world owes you something. . bragging about your job, your educational achievements. . I imagine you're the type of guy that demands to be called Doctor at McDonalds, when you call to a company's customer service department, when you get your oil changed. . . you sir are an arrogant individual, a perfect match for your computer. "Windoze". . bah. Perhaps you might want to talk like a scientist. Then perhaps people might actually believe you.

This is a brilliant move by Apple. I think it will help move A LOT more Mac hardware out of the factory. You think this was the primary reason to swith to Intel?
I've always wanted to try OSX, but could never justify purchasing a Mac to just "play" with. I have too much money invested in XP software. However, if I can get a dual boot XP/OSX computer (much faster than PC emulation), I just might move to Mac hardware next time a computer purchase is in order.
MS will sell XP to Mac fans who would like to use some of the XP-only software, and Apple will sell hardware to Windows people who are curious about OSX. Win-win for geeks like me.
Shouldn't be too hard to get Linux on there as well...

This is a brilliant move by Apple. I think it will help move A LOT more Mac hardware out of the factory. You think this was the primary reason to swith to Intel?
I've always wanted to try OSX, but could never justify purchasing a Mac to just "play" with. I have too much money invested in XP software. However, if I can get a dual boot XP/OSX computer (much faster than PC emulation), I just might move to Mac hardware next time a computer purchase is in order.
MS will sell XP to Mac fans who would like to use some of the XP-only software, and Apple will sell hardware to Windows people who are curious about OSX. Win-win for geeks like me.
Shouldn't be too hard to get Linux on there as well...

John Stanley!
You are a tosspot.

Why hit a guy with a personal attack in a fucking mundane conversation about computers?
He gave some background to his comments, that's all. And are you still in school with that spelling comment?

Grow up. Who gives a fuck if he's a scientist or not. The CV police need to calm down and get back on topic I think.

Mr. John Stanley,
I am not a "sir", I am not a "bro". You will refer to me as "El Conquistador". Do you understand? ;P
I'm thinking that this is good news for Microsoft and Apple. Apple is now making the Swiss Army Knife of the computer world.
Just think how many Mac fanboys will sneak out and get a copy of XP to play games like Battlfield 2. Of course, they'll never admit it to their friends.
I think a lot of Windows users will be willing to try Macs now that they have the option of switching to XP if the marriage heads south.

LOL at all ur comments. The dual boot era is upon us, and it is looking GOOD for both pc and mac users.

For me this is a home run. I love Macintosh. But my employer has some verticle apps that are windoze only.

Now I can buy the Intel Mac laptop and have the best of both worlds! Windoze for the verticle apps, OS X when I want to be productive.

By the way how do windoze users put up with that butt ugly interface? It's depressing to look at.

All the personal attacks aside, this is a great move by Apple - increase market share, give both worlds a chance to shake hands and open some eyes in the process - all the while raking in ca$h !!
That Steve Jobs, he's right smart he is! (Yes, I'm a Yorkshireman!)
I am a dyed in the wool Mac fan, but even I have to admit - the future of computing just got a lot brighter, way to go Apple!
Hell, maybe even I'll buy one and have some Windows games toplay at last...*but like El Conquistador says, I'll never admit it! heheh!

Boot camp is aptly named... six weeks of journalistic delirium, followed by a lifetime in XP Hell. Any XP gamer used to dropping by NewEgg to buy the latest graphics card for its PC is going to be in for a very angry shock when it finds what owning a Apple really means.
MacDisk is a nice program that transfers files quickly between NTFS and Mac, just don't forget your file extensions. Fat32 is for the intellectually obese. Charles Schwab has made a lot of money today. Will someone please hack OSX into an AMD PC? That would be a real public service announcement.

Thursday, Bloody Thursday.

My daily "routine" of professing that "seamless integration between Apple's OS and hardware are what makes the 'Mac experience' superior to the lack of experience on peecees." was no where to be seen or heard on Thursday.

44 hours ago, I was surrounded by "miCrapsoft apologists" and "winBlows Lusers" which I loathed, yet secretely loved, because they "complete me." ;)

They were the Ying to my Yang. Now, there are none. I am alone now as there is no debate to be had =( ... at least in my workplace.

It is simply impossible to engage in a verbal argument with those dime-a-dozen "microsoft certifiables" who have now been left speechless at the performance of my 20" demo iMac running AutoCAD and Half Life 2.

(rolleyes) Tomorrow by request, I promised to show a few of them how to use iMovie. (/rolleyes)

This war has begun and blood has been spilt. This revolution will be televised, streamed and uploaded as a Podcast. =D

I don't know about anyone else, but I've upgraded my current mobo as far as it will go (could squeeze more RAM on board, but I don't see the point of more than 2GB with a 1.4GHz PIII) and I expect to build a complete system replacement in a couple of years. Now I fully intend to go with a dual-boot (actually triple, afaic) Mac!

I hadn't even considered getting a Mac because I'm used to Windows, and the performance with games is great. I've always wanted a Mac, but couldn't afford to sink the cash into something I probably wouldn't be using especially often.

I started on Apple in the 80's, but hey, I had to move with the market...

Anyway, very wise move on Apple's part. I bet this bumps up Apple to at least a quarter of market share within the next 4 years.

I'm not sure if anyone else has mentioned this but there's one market that might be very much changed by this. The education market should now see an overwhelming movement toward Macs. The old argument against Macs in schools that states that we should be teaching kids on what they will use in the "real world" now holds no water. (I don't think it ever did.) The Macintels are the most compatible computer you can buy. BTW I'm writing this on a MacBook Pro while running Firefox for Windows in Windows in a window using Parallels virtualization software. Very cool!

I heard a very hushed announcement a few days before Boot Camp was put on board. Master Steve visited Gates for a chat.

Anyone wish to guess what the chat was about?

Maybe Stevie calmed Bill with "No intention of supporting Windows but you shall certainly benfit by selling more issues of XP and what is the name of that Vapor Ware?

With all said and done, I just bought a mac mini for my home use. Not only because of the Boot Camp feature, but it certainly is the trigger.

> Will Microsoft release a new Virtual PC anyhow?

I really doubt it. The last thing they want is for the mac users running windows to be booting up into OSX. Unless they decide that since Parallels and VMWare are doing it anyway they might as well join in.

> If Apple's hardware will run Microsoft's software.
> Tell me how they both don't make out big time.

Microsoft sells software, but only as a monopoly. They do not want Windows users to have a choice of OS. Where would they be if Apple did gain significant marketshare and users had a choice of OSX or Windows? Mac prices will likely drop as sales increase, and Apple now has the only computers that will run Windows, Linux, and OSX. Not a big deal in the past, but it could be in the future.

No, Microsoft is not going to push for the short term sales of Windows to Mac users and jeopardize the long-term monopoly. The real question is do they have a choice. They don't limit mac users from buying Windows which is a small purchase compared to the PC/Mac it runs on. I bet they're not real happy about the situation, though.

Did anyone ever send a PC virus to a Windows-running Mac to see if it "took"? Does it affect (or only affect) the Windows platform?Can it now be "back-doored" into the OSX? Can spyware operate only on the Windows system? Or can it now steal from the "real" Mac? Does anyone really want to trust sensitive business info to this kind of crossover?

Everyone keeps saying "Bill Gates, blah blah blah blah blah blah"... do you all not realize that he has very little (and soon nothing) to do with microsoft anymore! He will concentrate on his charity from now on.

Mac OS and they're whole vision of computing is just superior to PC in every way. Now they're even better.

Interesting comments – But in reference to those on Mac, PC, OSX, Linux, UNIX, or any OS for that matter you may want to think about what security concerns you really have and stop believing every myth your told. For example I listed just a few of the Macintosh vulnerabilities that are recent.

115365 Local Root Password Enabled on Apple Macintosh OS X
115363 Local Adobe Reader Multiple Unspecified Security Vulnerabilities
115362 Local VMware Server User Credentials Disclosure Weakness
19206 Database PostgreSQL Multibyte Character Encoding SQL Injection Vulnerabilities
115359 Local Symantec Antivirus Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
115358 Local Apple-SA-2006-05-23 Xcode Tools 2.3
90311 Windows Macromedia Flash Player from Adobe Remote Code Execution Vulnerability
19204 Database MySQL Remote Information Disclosure and Buffer Overflow Vulnerabilities
45062 Information gathering Windows XP Performance Tuning - Prefetch Disabled
45061 Information gathering Windows XP Performance Tuning - Disk Defragmentation and Autolayout Disabled

Two of the details of the listed exploit/vulnerabilities is below, although the second vulnerability exists on both Windows and Macintosh the real issue is that most Macintosh people in my experience believe they are "Safe" and therefore do not keep up to date on the known list of vulnerabilities.

Xcode is a development application for Macintosh OS X. The WebObjects Xcode plug-in provides the ability to manipulate projects through a network service. This service is accessible to remote systems while Xcode is running.
A vulnerable version of Xcode with the WebObjects plug-in was found on the target host.
IMPACT:
Remote attackers may be able to obtain or modify WebObjects projects while Xcode is running on the target host.

Adobe Reader is an application designed for reading Portable Document Format (PDF) files. It is available for Microsoft Windows and Apple Mac OS X.
Adobe Reader is vulnerable to multiple unspecified security issues.
IMPACT:
At least one of these vulnerabilities may be exploited to execute arbitrary machine code in the context of the affected application.

So is Macintosh really that much safer? Only in one way and this is a fabled practice at best. “Security by obscurity is not really security. It’s merely a temporary obstacle.”