A Macintosh enthusiast has apparently managed to load Windows XP on an Intel Mac, nabbing a nearly $14,000 (£8,000) prize.
For some days, there has been discussion that the person who goes by the handle narf had managed the technically challenging feat. Photos were posted on Flickr, and much debate ensued. However, narf's method had to prove replicable before the contest was officially ended.
On Thursday, though, the contest ended, and a winner was declared.
"Contest has been won — updates to follow shortly," reads a short message on the contest's Web site.
The contest, which has been running since just after Apple announced the first Intel-based Macs, collected donations from individuals and companies to raise the prize money.
Although both Macs and Windows PCs now use Intel chips, the task of loading Windows on the Intel Macs has proved more complicated, in part because both use different means of booting up. There had been hope that the next version of Windows would make things easier, but an Apple executive last week said booting Vista on Macs may not prove that easy, either.
The win comes just ahead of an end-of-month deadline that would have seen the money go instead to the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
The effort was launched by Colin Nederkoorn, who put up $100 of his own money, hoping his new Intel Mac would be able to replace his Windows PC. According to the rules, his Web site now has the rights to publish the solution. The solution appears to be available for download, though traffic to the site was heavy on Thursday, and it had become inaccessible by Friday morning.
An Apple representative was not immediately available for comment.
Wil Shipley, who heads Mac software firm Delicious Monster Software, said he was "thrilled to bits" that the goal had been reached. Delicious Monster kicked in $1,000 of the prize fund.
"Although Apple doesn't talk about it, the market share for Intel Macs is going to increase dramatically when they can run legacy Windows apps, especially games," Shipley said in an email interview. "It's truly the best of both worlds."
Shipley said he is pleased with the feat for both personal and business reasons. "As a gamer, I really appreciate not having to have a separate, crappy machine to feed my addiction," he said. "And as a Mac software author, every 0.01 percent market share that Apple gains for the Mac directly nets me thousands of dollars a year."
Talkback
Super!
Great work. I suppose such enthuasist of Windows Xp is rather unussual hacker, but ussual gamer!!
The only thing the video shows is WindowsXP being installed and booted on an Apple monitor. There is nothing in that video which substantiates the claims made by this news report.
That being said, perhaps it has been verified by other means not mentioned in the article or obvious in the video.
Why would anyone want to downgrade a MAC by putting windoze on it? You are just increasing your chances of virus's, infections, spyware, trojans, and adware. A better option would be to replace windows with OSX.
Didn't Anyone READ the article above? The reason for wanting both operating systems on ONE computer is the demand for software that is not available on Macintosh?! C'mon! as much as I love Macintosh Computers there is the necessity for other software and cross platform development of software... what if you are a software developer?! Would you really want to carry around two computers.
Mac users will be soon introduced to our Wndows BSOD's ! Hahahaha, great job anyways, congrats, you nerdies ;)
Stephane
Regarding...
"Why would anyone want to downgrade a MAC by putting windoze on it? You are just increasing your chances of virus's, infections, spyware, trojans, and adware. A better option would be to replace windows with OSX."
Someone obviously didn't read the recent news story about OSX being easily hacked within an hour. It will be interesting to see what happens across the board, as if WinXP proves to be the more secure OS during the increase in market share then OSX could struggle for popularity amongst former PC users.
OK, Windows is far from perfect, but MS have a lot more experience in dealing with software threats purely through the risk not previously being there for Mac owners. Once Macs become legitimate targets through increasing use in the corporate environment, that situation could change very rapidly, putting OSX in the spotlight and letting the worlds IT media have a go.
OK, Apple have years of MS cock-ups to learn from, but if the worlds hackers turn their attention to all things 'Apple', and it's not handled well, Microsoft could emerge as the surprise saviour of the Intel-powered Mac.
Maybe it's time for another competition, to compare the 2 OS like for like against common threats and see which one holds up the best when it comes to security.
I'll put $100 in the pot (I have a PC and 2 Macs)... but not the experience to do this.
Any takers?