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If the above problems appear to be OS-related, there seems to be no reason why Apple shouldn't be able to remedy these issues on their own through software updates or, at the very least, once Leopard is released. Other behaviors that we Mac-users have become accustomed to, such as closing the lid of the MacBook Pro to put it to sleep and having the machine awaken when we open it back up, behave exactly as expected.

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Speed

Even though this isn't a review, we had to see how well the MacBook Pro running Windows performed on a couple of Windows benchmarks. We were fortunate in that we recently reviewed a Windows Core Duo laptop, the Lenovo ThinkPad X60. The two machines both have Core Duo T2400 CPU (1.83GHz), but the X60 has integrated Intel GMA 950 graphics as opposed to the ATI Radeon Mobility X1600 of the MacBook Pro. But they're both running Windows!

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Final thoughts

Overall, the reality of WindowsXP on a Mac is relatively unexciting once you get past the razzmatazz of actually doing it. The various hardware differences make what would hopefully be an uneventful experience a little quirkier on some machines (especially the MacBook Pro), but overall, WindowsXP is mostly how one would expect it to be. Most Mac users who are now dual-booting their Macintel machines don't intend on "switching" over (or back) to Windows, but have installed it because they want to play their favorite games or due to work demands.

There are still a number of Mac hardware features that are unsupported under Windows, such as the built-in iSight in the MacBook Pro and the iMac, the backlit keyboard in the MacBook Pro, two-fingered scrolling in the MacBook Pro, and of course right-clicking without a third-party solution, to name a few. None of these seem like huge software challenges, however, and it doesn't seem unreasonable to expect that these missing elements will be covered eventually by Apple.

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Final thoughts

Overall, the reality of WindowsXP on a Mac is relatively unexciting once you get past the razzmatazz of actually doing it. The various hardware differences make what would hopefully be an uneventful experience a little quirkier on some machines (especially the MacBook Pro), but overall, WindowsXP is mostly how one would expect it to be. Most Mac users who are now dual-booting their Macintel machines don't intend on "switching" over (or back) to Windows, but have installed it because they want to play their favorite games or due to work demands.

There are still a number of Mac hardware features that are unsupported under Windows, such as the built-in iSight in the MacBook Pro and the iMac, the backlit keyboard in the MacBook Pro, two-fingered scrolling in the MacBook Pro, and of course right-clicking without a third-party solution, to name a few. None of these seem like huge software challenges, however, and it doesn't seem unreasonable to expect that these missing elements will be covered eventually by Apple.

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It'll be interesting to see what will happen when Apple integrates Boot Camp into the next major update to OS X, Leopard, which we are hoping to get a glimpse of sometime this summer (WWDC, anyone?). Is Apple ever going to offer machines to users with Windows XP preinstalled, side-by-side with OS X, or will this always remain a do-it-yourself option for those who are feeling up for it? At the moment, Apple claims that it has no plans to bundle or sell Windows with their machines. Keep in mind that this is the same company that said that while they wouldn't do anything to hinder installing and running Windows, they would not actively help people install that OS on their hardware (and we can see how long that one lasted). Will Microsoft decide to officially support running Windows on Mac hardware and team up with Apple in ways that we haven't seen in a very long time? If nothing else, the next year looks to be very interesting for both Mac users.

moromendas01

Apple made the process as unseamed and simple as possible so that nearly any end-user could be capable to do it.