Featured Article: Editorial - iMac Ten Years Later: Another Dent in the Universe
The Back Page: Boot Camp Means More Mac Users
by - April 13th, 2006
It's a fascinating thing, but it really seems as if more people are tense about Boot Camp, Apple's new software that makes it easy (and possible) to run Windows on an Intel-powered Mac, than there were about Apple's transition to Intel itself.
It may be that only the transition from Classic Mac OS to Mac OS X has generated this much tension in our microcosm.
Then as now, however, I am here to tell you not to worry. Allowing Windows to run on Intel-powered Macs is going to bring more people to the Mac, and when I say "Mac," I mean Mac OS X.
Not only that, but I have to give a friendly ::smack:: upside the head to anyone who thought for a second that Apple would ever stop people from running Windows on Intel-powered Macs once they decided to make the Move to Intel to begin with.
That's another story, though, and this column is going to focus on the pertinent issue of why I think this will be good for the Mac platform -- as well as being good for Apple, Inc., but I think that's largely a given for most folks.
First and foremost, I think that Apple will be able to sell more Macintosh hardware because of Boot Camp, especially if Boot Camp itself is more thoroughly integrated into Leopard and subsequent releases of Mac OS X.
Indeed, I would like to see the company make Fast User Switching between the OSes a seamless user experience, and if I can have my cake, the icing, and all the leftover batter in the mixing bowl, I will have the option of Fast User Switching and some sort of parallel environment (like the aptly-named Parallels) that would allow me to run Windows inside the Mac itself, which makes drag-and-drop between the OSes simple (like Virtual PC, but faster).
The concern among some in the Mac community is that if Mac owners can so easily run Windows, too many of those people will choose to do just that, use Windows. That, in turn, will lead to an exodus of developers from our platform.
"You want Mac support? Buy Windows," people are worried developers may say.
And my first and foremost rebuttal to this fear is will you choose to run Windows on your Mac?
Yeah, I didn't think so.
So who are all these Mac owners that are going to choose the Dark Side? The only logical answer to that is Windows users who buy a Mac, but choose to run Windows instead. After all, they are comfy with Windows, and most folks will choose to remain in the comfy zone rather than risk change and difference.
Now I want you to think about that for a moment or two. Go ahead, I'll wait (and I am not being snarky like I usually am when I say something along those lines).
So if Mac users will prefer to remain Mac users, and it's new Mac owners coming from the Windows world that are far more likely to run Windows on their pretty new Macs because of Boot Camp, what happens to the Mac's user-base?
In a worst-case scenario, it remains the same (which means it continues to rise, as it has been doing for the last 18-24 months).
In a best-case scenario, it increases more rapidly than it has as most or all of those Windows users buying Apple hardware for the first time actually try the Mac and like it.
What is most likely is that some percentage of those former Windows users will try and like the Mac (say 20% on the small side and 60% on the hooray side), which will result in what is still an increase in Mac OS X users.
In the meanwhile, Apple has the money from even those who choose Windows over Mac OS X, and that money will go to both shareholders and R&D for the Mac and other new products. That in and of itself is good for the Mac platform.
What I personally see happening is that Apple is going to sell quite a few machines to three kinds of people:
- People who have long wanted to try a Mac but were afraid to make the change (the largest group that will result in the most true Switchers).
- People who love Apple's industrial design and want that cool looking computer on their desk (a smaller group that could go either way).
- Business executives who want something slick and expensive on their desks (a much smaller, but very important, group that will serve as a Trojan Horse into the Enterprise space).
Each of those segments will have different reactions to the Mac, but even if only 10% of them became Mac OS X users, that would still represent an increase in the MaC OS X user base.
That argument is, frankly, irrefutable.
But let's go even further: I believe that the ability to run Windows is going to become a huge safety net for the primary and secondary education markets.
Your teachers want Macs, yet your IT pinhead has convinced someone on the school board that kids need to learn on the crappiest OS on the planet?
Fine! Buy a Mac and you get mixed use (and you know that most of those Macs would end up running Mac OS X). It's not as good as being all-Mac, but it's a far sight better than being all-Windows.
I think this will be even more important in higher education, where the ability to choose between Mac OS X, Linux, Unix, and Windows will be of paramount importance to many, many university settings.
The same goes for research departments in many governmental and corporate settings.
And the creative world? Forget about it! The creative market will be all over the ability to have mixed platform options.
The list goes on, and as that list grows, Apple is selling more Macs, Macs that it would not otherwise have sold.
Remember, it only takes a small percentage of those Macs that would not otherwise have been sold running Mac OS X for Apple to grow the installed Mac OS X user base.
So tell me again about these developers who are going to abandon the Mac?
Please, brother, it ain't gonna happen, and if it does happen here and there, new developers will be there to fill the void because there will be more Mac users to buy their software.
Also, it should be noted that developing for the Mac is going to become that much easier for Windows developers because of the move to Intel. Developers wanting to develop for both platforms have had to worry about not only the different OSes, but the different processor architecture and everything that entails. No longer. Coupled with the growing user-base I keep going on about, the idea of supporting two platforms will be less of an issue than it was even last year.
Lastly, I would like to bring up an issue I mentioned in yesterday's column, and that is the subject of one Stephen P. Jobs. Mr. Jobs believes so strongly in the concept of controlling the whole widget (i.e. the hardware and software), I think it impossible for Apple to sell computers without also having an OS to run on them as long as he is in charge.
Without that control, Apple loses its entire competitive advantage, a message that Mr. Jobs and other execs have hammered home again and again.
Tying that back into today's column, it should be obvious that Stephen P. Jobs knows this far better than you or me.
While I hardly subscribe to the idea that he is infallible (Suing journalists for their sources? Banning books? Folly and un-American all at the same time!), I do think it's inescapable that his business instincts have been firing in the 90-95% success range in the last seven or eight years.
If my supposition that Apple (with Mr. Jobs at the helm) will never sell a computer if it doesn't control the hardware and software is true, then it is obvious that Mr. Jobs thinks that Boot Camp will not threaten that business model.
So there you have it. Steve Jobs must then agree with me...*
Fear not, my fellow Mac users. Our ranks are going to continue to grow!
* This last exercise in logic was brought to you by Duck Suppliers, Inc. -- Duck Suppliers, Inc. "You bring the scales, we'll bring the ducks, and let the witches beware!"
began using Apple computers in 1983 in a high school BASIC programming class. He started using Macs in 1990 when the Kinko's guy taught him how to use Aldus PageMaker, finally buying a Power Computing Power 100 in 1995. Today, Bryan is the Editor of The Mac Observer, and has contributed to the print versions of MacAddict and MacFormat (UK).
You can send your comments directly to him, or you can also post your comments below.
Most Recent Columns From The Back Page
- $5 WiFi Routers...With a Catch - June 27th
- Boot Camp Means More Mac Users - April 13th
- Rob "Wrong Again" Enderle Peers Into Apple's Windows Future - April 12th
The Back Page Archives
Observer Comments
Thu Apr 13, 2006 9:51 am Subject: Macs are far more reliable because they control the whole wi
"Let us face it, there is no reasonable alternative to Adobe Photoshop. If Adobe chooses to stop making it for the Mac and says to its users, 'Hey, boot up in Windows.' People will do this because they will have no choice."
I thought so, too. Recently I had to format and clean install OS X (the run since 10.1 was pretty good 
). I took the opportunity to upgrade to Tiger. However, I couldn't find my old Adobe CDs to install and needed something to work with until I could find them, get new CDs, etc. So, I tried The GIMP ( http://www.gimp.org/macintosh/ ).
It's free. And it has opened all my Photoshop files so far with only a few things having to be reset (dynamic effects, like drop shadows, etc. mainly). There are a few interface differences, which is to be expected. And because most of my work is done for me or by me (not a lot of interaction with groups and files from outside right now), it should do me well.
If you work in a group among Photoshop users, then this may not be a route. But it works for me so far and, if it continues this way, I may not upgrade my Photoshop after all. I consider GIMP to be a reasonable alternative.
And GIMP v2.2.8 is already a universal application.
Thu Apr 13, 2006 10:58 pm Subject: Re: Transitions
QuoteAnonymous wrote:
"Guest wrote:
Intruder wrote:
If they were trying to exit, they wouldn't go through the expense of buying expensive Apple machines in the first place."
No, they very well might have existing Mac users who they are wanting to convert.
They might also be a dual-platform environment looking for a way to switch to one officially supported platform (i.e. Windows), while still providing some legacy support for Mac users during the Windows transition.
Basically it enables them to smoothly switch from a Mac to Windows-only environment. During the transition, dual-boot systems allow the use of legacy Mac applications, which can then be smoothly phased out over time. This provides a "grace period" for Mac users to switch their applications and data over to the Windows environment.
As Guest noted, it makes it easier for companies to transition their users to Windows versions of their products. They can say, well, all new versions of the software will be Windows-only, but legacy Mac users can use them via dual-booting (or, in the future, virtual machine monitors.)
While in the past Virtual PC did not provide adequate performance for something like Photoshop, Boot Camp (and other virtual environments) will allow new Windows versions to run at full speed, easing the transition to a Windows-only environment.
You were answering a troll.
Thu Apr 13, 2006 11:07 pm Subject: Re: Easing Windows adoption/migration
QuoteAnonymous wrote:
" If they were trying to exit, they wouldn't go through the expense of buying a new Apple machine in the first place."
Existing OS X installations wishing to migrate to Windows over time can ease the transition by getting dual-booting intel Macs. Over time, Mac OS X can be end-of-lifed, and all future applications can be based on Windows and generic PC hardware.
Similarly, dual-platform organizations can standardize on the Windows platform by requiring all Mac users to upgrade to dual-booting intel Macs.
While this scenario may happen on occasion, Apple (and most everybody else) is betting that the reverse is true. There is far more evidence of people transitioning from Windows to OSX than the other way around. Apple's marketshare (and, more importantly, installed base) is increasing, not decreasing, and many of those are coming from Windows.
Time will tell.
What happens if Microsoft announces support for OSX by creating a special "MacOS" bundle of Office: The Windows version, less Access, plus an XP (or even Vista, if it sees the light of day) install? That then puts lots of copies of Windows on Apple machines (especially if Leopard includes virtualisation, per the recent rampant speculation).
Nor am I convinced that the only reason Adobe doesn't drop all MacOS support is because they're scared of the GIMP taking their customers. If the GIMP was really going to do that, it would have done so already - it's been available for years (as has GraphicConvertor, which can do basic image manipulation too). The consumer version (is it Photoshop LE still?) is a different story, but everything I've read says that if you need Photoshop, the GIMP doesn't cut it. I'll bet that a far stronger reason for Adobe to keep a MacOS version of Creative Studio is the fear of nailing their colours to Microsoft's mast.
Despite what some people claim, porting of software is a concern. Most mentioned are games. It is true that games aren't so essential (and that the most successful will almost certainly continue to be ported), but they do create a buzz of interest. But other software too could potentially be affected. Not necessarily big names in consumer space, but smaller things important to running businesses. If the OSX version is only marginally profitable now, then developers might well decide to kill it, on the grounds that Windows will be available. Don't assume that something will magically come into being on the OSX side to make up for this - the MacNightowl carried a story a while a back about a doctor who could run almost all of his software on either MacOS or Windows. But one important piece was Windows only... so he switched to Windows wholesale. The problem would be more acute if Microsoft follows the strategy I suggested above. This would be very bad for OSX (although not necessarily for Apple - it is important to remember that the two are distinct).
This could go well for Apple - if the ability to dual boot truly is a security blanket which almost all never use. But you can't make rational arguments about this, and expect them to come to pass. If the computer industry operated rationally, then Unix, Windows and x86 would all be consigned to be bin of 'Old Technology.'
Recent Headlines - Updated Wednesday, May 14th, 2008
- Wed., 4:50 PM
- CW: Nine Apps to Tweak the Look of Leopard
- 3:30 PM
- WWDC "Sold Out" For First Time
- 2:15 PM
- iSobre Unveils MacBook Air Envelope-style Sleeve
- 1:40 PM
- YML: The Boston Apple Store and Photoshop: The Missing Manual
- 1:15 PM
- User Friendly Blog by Ted Landau - The iPhone needs a faster better Safari
- 1:00 PM
- MacTech Releases Office Scripting Advisor
- 12:35 PM
- iPodObserver - MS: 40 Percent of Smartphone Market by 2012
- 11:30 AM
- iPodObserver - O2: 3G iPhone Only Weeks Away
- 10:45 AM
- Cocktail 4.1 Improves Safari 3.1 Support
- 10:15 AM
- Hot Forum Topic - The iPhone's Feature and Expectation Balancing Act
- 9:35 AM
- Icahn May Push for MS/Yahoo Merger
- 8:50 AM
- iPodObserver - Swisscom Bringing iPhone to Switzerland
- 8:20 AM
- GhostReader 1.5 Improves iPhone/iPod Export
- 7:55 AM
- "Sad Song" Joins the Get a Mac Lineup
- 7:30 AM
- iPO Quick Tip - iPhone: Backing Up the Important Stuff
The Mac Observer Reader Specials
- Download Typestyler, still the Ultimate Styling Tool for Internet, Print and Video Graphics. Works great in Classic with a Native OS X Version on the way. Free Tryout: www.typestyler.com
- Other World Computing: OWC Mercury On-The-Go FW400/800/USB2/eSATA Solutions: High Performance A/V Rated, **Bus Powered** Hard Disk Storage - **Now 40GB and up to ***250GB*** in the palm of your hand. Macworld Magazine Editor's Choice - from $87.99!
NEW MacPro Memory 800Mhz With Apple Spec Heat Sink 2GB Kit $104 / 4GB Kit $184 / 8GB Kit $362 Click to Maximize your Macs...
Mac observers can now play Party Poker for Mac as well as Mac casino games by going to MacPokerOnline.com.For the latest Apple products use Ciao a comparison website to find laptops like MacBook Air. Then find the best prices on MP3 players and use our comparison tool to evaluate cell phones.
Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.
Apple EDU: Students, Teachers and Staff Save $100 on MacBook Systems 
4GB 3rd Generation iPod Nano: $99 Delivered 
iMac 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo 20-inch Aluminum LCD: $949 Delivered 
iMac Intel Core 2 Duo 2.16GHz White 24-inch: $1199 Delivered 
MacBook 2.1GHz Core 2 Duo: $949 Delivered 
