So, wee. Windows can now boot on Macs. So, how 'bout Mac OS X? How come I can't install Mac OS X on my Wintel? I've always liked Mac OS X but how come Apple isn't letting people install it on IBM PC-compatibles without their proprietary DRM when Mac OS X can now clearly run on x86 architectures?
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Mac OSx86
- Thread starter Swifty
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- #2
Intel Mac =/= x86 architecture.
Yes, it is. Unless you have some other definition of x86 I am not aware of.
However - it is not your average IBM PC architecture - for one thing, it does not have a BIOS, but instead uses Intel's replacement for it - EFI. Windows does not boot on EFI yet - which is the main problem.
However - it is not your average IBM PC architecture - for one thing, it does not have a BIOS, but instead uses Intel's replacement for it - EFI. Windows does not boot on EFI yet - which is the main problem.
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- #4
Apparently after some research, I found out that plenty of people have Mac OS X running on their AMD and Intel machines
http://www.osx86project.org/
So I understand that the capability is there now... So... Why isn't Apple selling Mac OS X for non-proprietary systems?
http://www.osx86project.org/
So I understand that the capability is there now... So... Why isn't Apple selling Mac OS X for non-proprietary systems?
Swifty said:
Because Apple is a hardware company. Their money comes from selling hardware, not from selling OSX.
Plus, it means that they have control. They know exactly which hardware is in the Mac, making for the best possible experience. They can program the OS so that there's fewer crashes, since there's not millions of different hardware configurations out there, like a certain Microsoft OS we all know of. If OSX could be run on any machine, then it'd have all kinds of screwy drivers for things and appear to be just as bad as Windows.
And the newest versions of OSX won't be running on the available AMD/Intel machines any time soon anyway. While the developer releases of 10.4.1 and 10.4.3 might have worked on the BIOS, 10.4.4 and newer require an EFI (not a BIOS), with a hard drive partitioned with a GPT (not an MBR), plus they have a lot of antipiracy controls built in to try and prevent the usage.
EDIT: Also, to expand on what Zhen Lin said, Windows does not boot on the EFI, and Vista will not either, apparently, at least not the 32-bit version. The 64-bit version will though. Now peolple have already gotten Windows booting on the Intel Mac by writing their own BIOS Compatibility Layer, something that Intel made for the EFI, but was left out by Apple. All that does is convert BIOS calls that Windows (or another BIOS-based OS) makes into EFI calls on the fly.
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