Spoiling the New Intel-Based MacBooks

  • Posted by Mike
  • 1/10/2006

Others have done a much better job than I could of summing up today’s news about the new Intel-based Mac hardware, so I’ll just nod vaguely in Cupertino’s direction and go about my day.

Except for this.

It’ll run Windows. We think we’re in love.

Windows. Seriously. Running Windows on an Apple machine is like going to Morton’s and asking for A-1 sauce.

It’s like painting “Hello Kitty” on your Ferrari.*

It’s like drawing a feces mustache on the Mona Lisa.

It’s like mixing Coke in your 1787 Chateau Lafite.

It’s like asking John Wayne Gacy to babysit the kids.

I’ll stop now. But really… it’s a bad idea.

* (Good Lord, I didn’t know that someone had actually done that until I Googled it.)

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January 10th, 2006
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Comment Number:
1
Written by:
SpiderMonkey
Posted on:
1/11/2006 at 4:46 am

Or alternatively, it’s like discovering your new boat can be made to drive on roads too. Sure it won’t look pretty out of the water and on a street, and sure most of the time you will do your best and stay to the water whenever possible, but you can bet it will have its occasional uses. If it helps other people switch, why care?

Comment Number:
2
Written by:
Mike
Posted on:
1/12/2006 at 10:14 am

I think the better analogy would be finding that your awesome new sports car comes with an amphibious conversion kit. The kit is ugly as sin, causes the car to sink when in “forward” gear, and gets the car hijacked by pirates evey 11 minutes who use it to run down other boaters, then return it to you with blood on the fenders.

But hey, at least you’re in the water, right?

The reason I care is this. I was a Windows user for almost a decade. I still use it on occasion because I sometimes have no choice. But even on a computer with twice the chip speed of my Apple, Windows is slow and clunky. It’s ugly, and I have to take eternal vigilance to ensure that the Windows boxes I use stay virus and spyware free.

The Windows operating system has served as a launching pad or enabler for virtually every criminal or malicious coding enterprise. If Windows were a house, it would be condemned as a public nuisance because of the crack dealers inside. The problems inherent in the Windows platform affect even those who - like me - have opted out to the greatest degree possible. That’s why I care.

Comment Number:
3
Written by:
Mike
Posted on:
1/12/2006 at 12:12 pm

UPDATE: New reports indicate that Windows won’t run on the MacBooks. (Link via Daring Fireball)

On Tuesday at Macworld, Apple senior vice president of worldwide product marketing Phil Schiller said the company would not specifically block the use of Windows on Mac hardware. Instead, limitations in Windows itself will prevent its use on the new MacBook Pro laptop and iMac.

I guess my concerns have been allayed.