Despite waiting a week, I couldn’t convince myself not to get a new MacBook (1.83ghz, 1g ram) - so I put through the order last week and just before the weekend a knock at the door confirmed its delivery.
Now, despite being an ardent and self confessed MacTard I didn’t just buy this on a whim and neither did I buy it just because it’s something new with an apple logo on it. It is very shiny, however.
For the past year or so I’ve had a rather ugly PC laptop (or black brick as I fondly call it). It’s an ageing Compaq running Windows 2000 which I use to debug IE CSS and JS in my code. The problem with the said brick is that it only runs Win2000 and isn’t capable of running XP at a decent rate and IE7 Beta only running on XP causes a problem.
I needed a new laptop that can run XP. Enter BootCamp, Apple’s beta software to enable new Intel equipped Macs to boot into XP natively.
Colour me interested.
So, after purchasing a new copy of XP Home edition (with SP 2, no less) I set about installing XP. The great thing about BootCamp is that Apple does all the hardwork for you. It creates the partition for the windows operating system without the need to reformat the hard drive and it burns a CD with all the required drivers for you (such as video, keyboard, bluetooth, etc).
It really can’t be understated just how smoothly the process went. The most difficult “bits” were the XP installation (scary blue screens, lots of waiting between clicking, etc). After around an hour or so the MacBook booted into XP and started installing the drivers.
It’s quite a sight seeing a Mac running XP natively. I’ve tried emulation before and it’s too slow and too cumbersome to be really useful on a day to day basis. BootCamp enables me to use my MacBook as a PC during the day for work and as a Mac in the evenings.
Naturally, the MacBook isn’t designed as a gaming machine, but most games seem to run just fine on it. Doom 3 runs nicely with a good framerate and detail. XP runs very quickly and that shouldn’t really be a surpise as Windows shows the MacBook as a 1.83ghz Intel machine with 1gig ram. In any case, the MacBook’s airport card works just fine and IE is quick and responsive.
There are a few quirks as to be expected with beta software but none of them are deal breakers. The built in iSight camera is completely ignored by Windows and plugging in headphones or other speakers doesn’t remove the output from the built in speakers. Waking from sleep doesn’t always remember your brightness settings and you need to use [ control ] + [ shift ] + F1 / F2 to change the screen brightness (for a while I figured the brightness keys didn’t work) and I seem unable to wake XP from sleeping after turning it onto standby (although closing the lid puts XP to sleep just fine and opening the lid wakes XP up).
I can’t decide which is more amazing: the fact that XP runs so well on “Mac” hardware or that Apple have made the process so easy and almost flawless. What I do know is that with BootCamp rumoured to appear in OS 10.5 (codename: Leopard), it’s clear that a Mac certainly can change its spots.
17 comments
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June 19, 2006 at 11:38 am
James
I’ve been wondering if (for when I buy my MacBook at the end of summer) XP will run fast enough on a 1.83GHz machine - it’s nice to know it will. Thanks!
June 19, 2006 at 12:51 pm
The Jedi
I really thought about buying a MacBook for a laptop as it really rocks and to use BootCamp. But it is a beta so I did not want to buy a newer version of MacOS X to get bug out of the box.
But in a year or two, it will be very interesting and I hope it could help Apple to sell more hardware.
June 19, 2006 at 5:45 pm
Peter
While BootCamp is nice, you really should give Parallels (http://www.parallels.com/) a shot. When they say Windows runs at “near-native speed,” they’re not pulling your leg. With the exception of slightly laggy UI elements, Windows screams in Parallels, and it sure beats having to constantly reboot to switch OSes. I use BootCamp for one app which I need dual-screen support for, but Parallels works great for everything else.
June 19, 2006 at 6:44 pm
Don Wilson
When the MacBook came out, obviously I wanted it but about two weeks before I bought a brand new HP 17″ laptop, so I couldn’t justify the means.
June 20, 2006 at 9:30 am
Matt
I thought about Parallels but in the end decided that with another Mac sat on this desk during the day, I’d have no need for both OSs at once and when I take the MacBook out on its own, I’d have no need for Windows.
June 20, 2006 at 9:11 pm
malikyte
Macintosh’s own website is now using Parallel as the virtualization software of choice, removing any mention of BootCamp (source: Sitepoint). Parallel is also offering their software at a $49.99 price tag until July 15th. I’m tempted to purchase a copy for my WinXP machine, but at the same time wondering if VMWare would be a better investment. I already own VirtualPC.
June 24, 2006 at 6:41 am
Brandon C
I’ve a White 2.0 GHz MacBook, and I love it. I recently bought a copy of Parallels and can safely say that it is definitely worth it and runs Windows very nicely and would recommend it over BootCamp if you don’t have anything above XP SP2 (as that’s what BootCamp requires, a copy of XP SP2 or above).
July 1, 2006 at 3:49 am
Albert
Congratulations on your Macbook. I need one to replace my aging iBook. Just wanted to second the recommendation of Parallels–while Boot Camp is nice, it’s still a hassle to switch between OS X and Windows. With Parallels, you can run Windows in full-screen mode and switch back and forth between that and OS X. Very slick, and I was able to replace two PCs with my Mac Mini Core Duo.
August 11, 2006 at 4:16 pm
Jesse
If anyone reads this and can help I would be grateful.
I bought a MacBook and using the Bootcamp. I try to load XP and get a BSD the states:
“Session3_Initialization_Failed”
Then a bunch of empty instruction. Then:
***Stop: 0X0000006F (0X00000020, 0×00000000, 0×00000000, 0×00000000)”
Please help!
October 3, 2006 at 7:48 am
Adam
Jesse, I’ve had the same problem. And i’ve also had a problem installing it, because mac doesn’t find D:\I386. I wish it were as easy as this guy makes it out to be, but it has been one pain after another. I have 2ghz, and i just bought XP SP2 home edition for 200 bucks. I later bought tylenol. Its still not working. I’m going to apple tomorrow.
October 7, 2006 at 5:47 pm
jessieu
I do apps dev in Solaris,Linux & WinXP.I use one workstation in each development, and the OSX+Parallels combination sounds like heaven to me. My question is: anyone experienced developing applications in the “guess” OSes? I’m afraid Microsoft VC++6/VC++.Net/VB & Sun’s Forte aren’t “fully” supported or sort of…
October 11, 2006 at 9:22 am
Steve
bought a macbook and parallels. Parallels loade fine but I can’t get windows xp loaded at all. Can anybody help? I installed the parallels first, is this right or do I need to install windows xp first?
January 26, 2007 at 3:24 am
cheryl
i have the same problem with XP
Section 3 Initialization failed
Stop: 0×0000006F,…
did you figure it out? any help would be appreciated.
March 22, 2007 at 3:16 pm
dd
Interesting. The first thing I noticed and thought cool was that I could use my iSight in Windows (Double-click on My Computer). iSight is one of the icons in the same window as the other drives.
Did you remember to create the driver CD and let Windows install it?
April 20, 2007 at 5:18 pm
pat
Is there a way to install just Xindows XP SP2 without any partition containing MAC OSX 10.
August 29, 2007 at 3:37 am
rotbell
I switched to xp while runing os x and i don’t know how to switch back,i think i used bootcamp.
.PLEASE HELP.
August 29, 2007 at 8:04 am
David
This is an old blog entry, but anyway I really want a MacBook myself. I’ve been trying to save up for one for about two years now but other things seem to get into the way. XP on a Mac sounds pretty impressive, however, if I were to get a computer for testing reasons I would just get a laptop with XP on it. I’d like to keep all the HD space possible for Mac OS.