Sunday, April 16, 2006

Apple's new "Boot Camp" software

You know, one often reads about how OSX is superior to Winders and why would folk want to run the imperial Winders instead of Mac OSX, the humble alternative? Presumptuous, to say the least, but let's examine that thought in detail.

This ZDNet article Will PC users see Apple in a new light? is basically working from a premise of Winders users becoming Mac users in a roundabout way, but the unmentioned reality of this premise is that the Winders user in question MUST have Apple HARDWARE in order to do this. First of all, as a Winders user myself, what sense does that make? I already own lots of hardware, with which I can already run Winders, why bother buying quasi-proprietary Intel-based hardware to do the same? Oh yeah, I forgot, I'll be able to run that superior Mac OSX, doh! Sigh, I couldn't care less about Mac OSX as I like running FreeBSD in addition to running Winders on the SAME hardware I already OWN, but thanks anyway Mr. Jobs and the rest of the Apple choir. Gee, has the reality sunk in yet? Now, if we're talking about Mac folk wanting to be able to run Winders apps in addition to their beloved Mac OSX, fine, have at it! More ePower to ya!

Even so, many of these folk who proclaim such have apple dumplin' brains. Again, who says anyone has to run Winders? You see, that's the catch-22, you have to buy Apple HARDWARE to run this Boot Camp software in order to install and run Winders XP (Home or Pro) and, of course, the native Mac OSX. Perhaps, it's escaped the apple dumplin' mind that while many of these same folk praise and worship open source software as a commodity so to speak, and I certainly like open source myself, nevertheless, Mac OSX is itself excluded and given a pass on that point. They, apparently, have also forgotten that HARDWARE has already been a commodity item for many years. Apple is, of course, given a pass on this point as well. Hmmm...

Well, I would say instead, why would anyone want to constrain themselves to only TWO OS choices, Mac OSX or Winders? It seems to me that some of these hardcore Apple fans are no different from some of the hardcore M$ fans, as they both are extremists in their own right. Fine, whatever, but I don't want any part of either extremist camp. Somebody wants me to try out Mac OSX, it better be able to be run on a generic Intel/AMD mobo, in other words, on what I ALREADY OWN, get it? It's just that simple, really.

Yet, some folk ramble on about Apple being a HARDWARE company and if you want to run the software, buy THEIR hardware! No thanks, keep it pal!

Whoever reads this, thanks in advance for reading. I just had to get it off my chest.