Dual Boot Is Here
In case you haven’t been reading the news about Macs, the contest is over: a method to install both Mac OS X and Windows XP onto an Intel Mac has been developed. The method is posted (in Wiki format) on this page.
In theory, this will allow you to dual-boot both Mac and Windows OS’s without them interfering with each other. There are some caveats, however. First, you need a Windows PC to create the customized install CD to put Windows on your Mac; presumably, to create that install CD, you need a generalized Windows install CD (not one keyed to a specific machine). Next, the process is not a snap; probably only advanced users could carry it all out (I could probably do it if I really bore down and concentrated on it, though I expect there’d be three or four frustrating I-can’t-get-this-to-work roadblocks along the way). Next, it requires further fine-tuning, such as remapping the keyboard (to get ALT-CTRL-DEL or the Windows button to work). Installing Windows requires a hard disk reformat, which means you have to wipe your hard drive. And finally, it doesn’t work perfectly; there’s no good video driver that’ll work, so high-end video games or anything else needing special graphic support won’t work yet.
That said, the dual boot is described as working very well, and most of the software and hardware works well, certainly better than one might expect just days into development.
Since this is so new, information is still scarce; I have not heard yet how it works, like how does one switch from one OS to the other. What key command is used? Does Windows appear in a window, or is it a full-screen switch? Nor have I heard about performance issues–if you are using a Core Solo, the slowest chip, does the dual-boot operation slow down the computer significantly? How much RAM is needed?
As more users implement the hack and start building experience, we’ll hear more about it. Moreover, one would expect development to progress quickly. I presume that in time (several months from now?) someone will sell or give away (open source) an easy-to-use package, which will–one would hope–simply require you to insert a Windows XP Install CD, then it would generate a customized install CD image which you could burn on to a new CD. From there, you’d use the new CD to install Windows, hopefully without much hassle. Alternately (and perhaps to avoid digital rights issues), there might be an app you could run that would “handle” the original install CD, adding the needed hacks as the install takes place. By the time a simplified solution exists, most driver issues should be fixed and you could use both operating systems with only minor inconveniences.
Even at that, it wouldn’t be something just anyone could do, and until it becomes officially accepted by Apple and Microsoft, it’ll probably stay that way. And I’m guessing that that won’t happen in the near future. Apple clearly is not encouraging this, at least not yet (or else they’d have worked to make it possible themselves), and Microsoft owns Virtual PC, which means that the new dual-boot solution could cost Microsoft a few hundred bucks per Mac every time people use the open-source option instead of Virtual PC (which is still under development and doesn’t work on Intel Macs yet).
More news on this as it comes out.
I think it would be interesting to be able to run both os at the same type, yet that is a bit tricky. For example, if something comes into the network, which os should it be sent to?
It would be easier to have someone put one to sleep while they work on the other.
And even easier to run one os at a time.
What do you mean, “if something comes into the network”? Comes in how? From where? Addressed to where?
Unless I am mistaken, the OS and the software within it make calls for data to come in from the network, or put forth identifiable addresses on the network to which data can be sent. I am assuming that each OS would assume a different local IP address. How would that be different from any network with mor than one computer running?
What you describe sounds more like using different accounts on one OS; the active account gets priority for CPU and memory. Likely that would be the case with a dual-boot as well.
If the term “dual boot” is being used here the same way it is used in much of the open source community (where it is quite common to have, for example, Windows and Linux set up in a dual-boot arrangement), then it would not require any more memory than a single-boot setup.
In all likelihood, some sort of boot loader would probably be needed to help the user choose which OS to boot. GRUB and LILO are examples of boot loaders commonly used in Linux/Windows dual-boot environments. In such a case, the user would be presented with a screen to choose an OS before any is booted, and then the boot loader would go about loading the selected OS (the unselected OS is not booted, so it just remains dormant). The OS that boots then takes over control of system resources and goes about its business normally.
From the comments made in this entry, however, I get the impression that people are talking about having two operating systems booted at the same time. I’m pretty skeptical of something like that being possible (outside of some sort of emulation, of course), as there are just too many potential conflicts. If that is indeed what people are talking about, though, then yes, it would presumably require a lot more memory.
I am pretty sure, though, that this talk of dual booting Windows on the new Intel-based Macs is referring to booting either one OS or the other, not both.
Sako: No, I think they mean both OS’s together. They mentioned that one bug was when you shut down Windows, the Mac OS would crash. That implies both are working side-by-side.
That could be the case, I suppose, but I still don’t think so, Luis. The second paragraph reads as follows (relevant portion highlighted):
In January, Colin Nederkoorn of Houston began taking donations for a prize to be awarded to the first developer who came up with a way to boot an Intel Mac into either Mac OS X or Windows XP. Within days, he had raised thousands.
And the quote “…[a]nd the Mac crashes when you shut down Windows” sounds to me like it refers to the hardware, not Mac OS X itself.
Again, I could be wrong, but my experiences with dual-booting Windows and Linux lead me to believe that doing the same thing with Mac OS X would be somewhat similar. If they are different, we’ll end up having two very different definitions of what “dual boot” means. 😉