Apple’s been getting a lot of coverage lately about their new

Intel-based Macs. It seems like hardly a day goes by whenever you don’t

read something about these new machines.

Most of the hype and hysteria revolves around the potential of running

Windows on a MacIntosh. Whether it’s the attempt to natively load XP on

a Mac or dual booting Mac OS X and Windows using Boot Camp, people seem

to be bending over backwards to get Windows running on the Mac.

Beyond the clear Wow factor of being able to do so, I can’t really see

much of a point to wanting to run Windows on a Mac. To me, it seems

like putting a set of Firestones on a Ferrari. You get to spend lots of

extra money on the machine just watch it crash.

Yes, I understand that it would allow you to run Windows applications

on a Mac, but again I say “Why?” What matters most is data

compatibility, not the application itself. If you’re using Microsoft

Office on Windows at work, you can just as easily run Mac Office at

home to do the work at home. For just about every Windows application

out there, there’s a correlating Mac application that does the same

thing. If you absolutely HAVE to run Windows on a Mac, you can do so

perfectly easily today using VMWare or Virtual PC. Virtualization

solves the immediate problem without having to go through the hassle of

dual booting or anything.

The Mac’s supposed superiority comes from Mac OS X. OS X is supposed to

be more stable, faster, and more secure than Windows XP, right? If

that’s the case then why would someone want spend the extra time and

money to take what is otherwise a step backwards? Remove OS X from a

MacIntel, and all you really have is an overpriced Dell. When I can

purchase a dual-core Dell laptop for $699, why would I even think twice

about an $1800 MacBook running Windows?

On an episode of Murphy Brown once, Murphy was riding in her boss’s new

Range Rover. Her comment to him was: “Why are you driving this? Why

don’t you just take $20,000 and glue it to the hood of a Ford

Explorer?” That’s Windows XP on a MacIntel to me.