Vista on a Mac? Not easy

Apple is the only OEM that doesn’t design hardware/computers with Windows in mind, as such, while there are plenty of off the shelf components in Intel Macs there are some oddball parts that require specific drivers. Since Apple is sort of busy working on Leopard, they haven’t been able to finish drivers for Microsoft’s latest boondoggle.

While I question the idea of anyone providing a ‘top-knotch’ Windows experience, Apple isn’t the place to look. Bootcamp is a beta product, and until very recently, so was Vista.

Bob, true, but a lot of people are buying new Macs thinking that they’ll be able to easily run Windows on them. That is not the case, unfortunately. Vista would look badass on a Mac.

I think you guys should probably stick to just crapping up acer ferrari’s or thinkpads or whatever… what would possess you to get a nice new mac and then go installing that train wreck of an OS on it is beyond me.

Just a matter of time for new drivers to be wrote I am sure.

I just want a macbook period

Mart: it’s pretty obvious you’ve never used Vista. It does a lot of things that Macs don’t, particularly on corporate networks with apps built for Windows. There’s a reason Macs only have 6% marketshare and your attitude here is a BIG reason why.

Avonelle: is there a secret to getting Wifi working on a MacBookPro? My son has tried on both his 15-inch and my 17-inch and we can’t get it to work. I’m sure there’s a driver somewhere. Off to search…

Robert, unfortunately I can’t answer your question about the wifi – I didn’t order my Mac Pro with the wi-fi option, as I don’t expect to be lugging its beautiful case around much, so its wired connection will be just fine for me. You might try the Bootcamp forum on the insanelymac.com site – there has been some good Vista info there.

done in Italy!

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=37216

The fact that Vista is shipping a little shy on working drivers shouldn’t be news to anyone. Nvidia still hasn’t released final drivers even though Vista has been shipped for business use for quite some time now.

Bad journalists complain about the problem. Good journalists post sites to download as many drivers as are currently available.

I wouldn’t load Vista on my cigarette lighter, even if you gave me a $5 dollar Paraguayan pirate copy — which are already showing up here in Brazil. I’m a Linux man now. For life.

Just a matter of time for new drivers to be wrote I am sure.

I just want a macbook period

kral oyunyonja

@35 Colin:

Indeed. Me as well. I went to Linux for good a long time ago and I have not missed anything. In fact, I save money on the ridiculously priced OSes, stupid and evil license schemes, NO spyware, NO anti-virus needed.

I have NO DRM on my computer. Full stop. Freedom. It’s a great thing.

@27 “Bob, true, but a lot of people are buying new Macs thinking that they’ll be able to easily run Windows on them.”

Really? What quantifiable data do you have to support that contention? Or is this just another one of your opinions based on random, anecdotal observations of your sheltered world?

Robert,

You are a moron. Vista hasn’t officially launched yet for consumers. Apple deserves until Monday before you start complaining that Bootcamp doesn’t fully support Vista.

Just because you and your son got early copies doesn’t give you the right to expect Apple to support the two of you before the official consumer launch.

Try extracting the Windows XP drivers from the Windows driver disk Bootcamp creates for you. To do this, run the ‘install mac drivers’ program with the /A /v switches. Assuming your drivers installer is on a CD and at the root of your d drive it would be: “D:\Install Macintosh Drivers for Windows XP.exe” /A /v

Once you have the drivers extracted, you can manually install them yourself.

I was at the Assistive Technology Industry Association conference in Orlando this week with a guy who ran a lab session running around 10 Macbooks loaded with Vista. The session was called something like “Mac and Windows Together! Discover: Universal computer access” The guy was from a company in Canada that produces an assistive technology product called “Discover”. We had internet access in the lab and I dont remember any cables, so I am sure he had Wi-Fi working. And he told me it only took a little over an hour to get the Vista side of the system working, including the install time. (which is about an hour)

-dan

“Bob, true, but a lot of people are buying new Macs thinking that they’ll be able to easily run Windows on them. That is not the case, unfortunately. Vista would look badass on a Mac.”

You can easily run Windows on a Mac. Just not Vista. But that’s why BootCamp says it only supports XP with SP2. I’m sure Vista support will come when BootCamp comes out of beta. Or maybe sooner, stays in beta a while longer, and supports Vista.

Although, latest reports suggest that if you want a Mac to just run Windows (pre-Leopard) you’ll need to pay $29.99 for BootCamp.

Like any new OS it’s generally a good idea to hold off on installing until it’s bedded down properly, and even with it’s beta period it won’t do any harm to wait a while longer for Vista to mature.

As far as games go, XP is still the best choice and will be for some time to come. DX10 titles are still vaporware and lots of reports of Vistas less than impressive performance with games are worth keeping in mind.

DRM and actual value questions aside, there will be large uptake of the OS and support will be forthcoming. Lets wait for the product to be released to market and actually have some time on the ground before yelling and screaming.

There is reason for even doing this?

Dude, get a Dell!

Robert, if Apple loves its customers then Apple should provide an option of Macs preloaded with Vista. There are at least two benefits for customers.

1. Hassle free availability of Vista to customers.
2. Customers need not pay the price of boxed copy of Vista. Instead Apple could sign up as an OEM and charge its customers OEM price of Vista.

If Steve Jobs does not see the benefit of providing preloaded Vista on Macs, then it could be a great opportunity for some system builders to provide preloaded Vista on Macs. It will slightly expensive for customers but at least it will save them the hassles.

Just to continue my previous comment. Steve Jobs could also preload his favorite software on Vista portion of Mac too. For an example he could preload his iTunes, Quicktime etc and if he gets bounty from Google/Yahoo then he could preload those two.

Further he gets to understand his PC competetitors such as Dell/Lenova etc a little better.

Why can’t people just choose a platform and keep it simple.

Here are your choices:

1. Linux
2. Windows
3. Mac

Occam’s Razor applies here… keep it simple, folks. Choose one and get on with it.

A lot of people are going to buy into Vista for the supposed eye candy, which in all reality is not all that good. KDE under Linux with a few tweaks makes puts both Mac OS X and Vista to shame in a major way.

Ask yourself this…

What could I do with a few hundred dollars rather than blow it on an OS that has draconian licenses and offers me no freedom.

How about some Linux articles, Robert? Surely you’re not one of those uber capitalists that think Linux is a cancer and the GPL should have been killed at birth?

Kamal: Robert, if Apple loves its customers then Apple should provide an option of Macs preloaded with Vista.

Apple does love its customers. That’s why they /don’t/ offer Vista pre-loaded on their machines.

Diego, this option is for those people who wants both OSX and Vista on their Macs. You are saying that it is better for these customers to buy a boxed copy and go through the hassle of installation Vista on Mac *than* simply buying a Vista pre-loaded Mac?

I do not see your logic.