No XP on Intel Macs, but Vista is good to go
If you've been counting on being able to run Windows on those new Intel-based Macs, Apple's not about tomake it easy for you — at least not if you're attached to Windows XP. According to Apple SVP Phil Schiller, the newMacs announced yesterday …
Context & Ripple Effects
The question hanging over yesterday's Macworld was whether the switch to Intel would open the Mac to Windows, and Apple answered within a day: as Betanews reported, XP simply will not run on the new MacBook and iMac, and Phil Schiller has now confirmed that position while stating Vista is fine. That lands alongside word of a five-year Microsoft–Apple software pact signed January 11, so the two companies are deepening their arrangement even as Apple gates which Windows version its hardware accepts.
The significance is that the barrier is no longer the chip. With both platforms on x86, whether Windows runs on a Mac is a policy choice for Apple, and Schiller has just made it: the door opens for Vista, stays shut for the installed base of XP.
First-order effects
- Buyers of the new Intel-based Macs who want Windows cannot run the XP copies they already own; Vista is the only Windows version Apple has indicated will work.
- Microsoft gains a funnel effect: every Windows-on-Mac customer Apple accepts is pushed toward Vista rather than the XP installed base.
Second-order effects
- Enterprises and enthusiasts weighing an Intel Mac as a dual-machine purchase must either wait for Vista or skip the hardware, shifting timing decisions for both Apple's new machines and Microsoft's next OS.
- Virtualization and emulation vendors are left holding the near-term opportunity, since software routes around Apple's firmware policy while native boot waits for Vista.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, OS choice on Macs is set by Apple's policy layer rather than processor architecture — a structural reversal from the PowerPC era, where compatibility was decided by silicon.
- With both OSes on identical hardware, comparisons between Mac OS X and Vista become direct same-chip benchmarks, raising the stakes for Microsoft's then-forthcoming release.
The trend: The Intel transition is turning Windows-on-Mac compatibility from a hardware question into an Apple-controlled policy lever, timed to steer users toward Vista.