The Week in Review: Boot Camp, Boot Camp, Boot Camp

The blogosphere couldn’t agree whether Boot Camp signaled the apocalypse, as Newsweek’s Steven Levy claimed, “It’s like Pepsi in a Coke bottle, DeLay as a Democrat, Johnny Damon in a Yankee uniform (oops, forget that last one).”

Or whether it is merely a gimmick, as Charles Cooper, Executive Editor of CNET quipped. “When America’s doughboys returned from World War I, the question was how they’d ever remain on the farm after seeing Paris. When Windows users get a gander of the Mac, how many will remain loyal to Ctrl-Alt-Delete?”

Our staff also had a lot to say about this latest move by Apple.

Chris Seibold thought that Apple was making a huge mistake, “Instead of the Mac software eco system getting more robust with the move, it has been invaded by a destructive, noxious weed that will stifle growth.”

Devanshu Mehta pointed out that perhaps this was all just a PR move, as it was already possible to boot XP on your MacIntel. And he took us inside Boot Camp for a closer look.

Hadley Stern dug in his heels and asked us all to take a pledge not to tarnish our Macs by booting Windows.

Our reader, Paul seemed to agree with my suggestion
that there was something Matrix like about the ability to boot Windows on Mac. “Matrix Quote: “The pill you took is part of a trace program. It’s designed to disrupt your input/output carrier signal so we can pinpoint your location.” (Morpheus)
Translation: Any switch to the Mac after a life of being enslaved to Windows will be disruptive. But you will be free.”

Greg Ng said, “As a Mac user, these can be some exciting and depressing times. Intel inside Macs? Unthinkable! Windows booting on Macs? The horror! As I heard the news yesterday I felt like I was witnessing the end of a war. Like we were seeing Steve Jobs taking a sledge hammer to the Berlin Wall and hordes of East Windowans were lining up to jump across. I felt like David Hasselhoff stirring up the crowd to the masses as I IM’d all my friends with 4 simple words, “What’s your excuse now?”

Chris Howard proclaimed, “We’ve lost the PPC, the one button mouse, and now we get Windows. All in less than a year. Plus throw in a couple of security scares and, really, you’re right, what is left to hang our hat on?? Can it get any colder in Hell? We’re really going to have to start clutching at straws. The “i” prefix? White plastic? OSes named after big cats?”

And Julie Salickram took her earbuds out of her ears to beam, “I truly feel, as someone tied to
PCs for so long, that it makes a Mac all the more enticing now.”