Geeks Run Windows on Mac Two Californians win over $13K for getting Microsofts OS to run on an Apple machine.
Red Herring Magazine March 16, 2006 http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=16145&hed=Geeks%20Run%20Windows%20on%20Mac Two computer geeks in California won a much-publicized online contest by making the Windows operating system run on Apples Intel-powered Macintosh computers, gaining them more than $13,000 in prize money and fans among users who want to use Apple hardware with Microsoft software. The victory of the two anonymous winners gives hope to those seeking to abandon their dual-computing lifestyle. At the same time, it may force companies like Apple, which has allowed only its own operating system on its machines, to rethink this longtime strategy. Previously, Mac users wishing to run Windows on their machines were forced to do so using emulationessentially an extra layer of softwarethat would enable Microsofts OS to work with Apple hardware. But such solutions are slow and imperfect. The current fix eliminates the need for this extra layer, allowing Windows to run natively at about the same speed it would clock on a PC. By Wednesday the reward at the contest site winxponmac hit a hefty $13,854, having started in January with $100 of the founders money and a call for donations (see Put Windows on Mac? Get Prize). The award caps a hectic week for contest founder Colin Nederkoorn, 23, an employee in the shipping industry in Austin, Texas. After initial traffic to the site had leveled off following its January launch, traffic spiked this week after bloggers showed photos and a video of an iMac running Windows. This sent a surge of traffic to the site, causing Mr. Nederkoorns hosting company to shut it down. After some scrambling, he managed to find another host, but traffic continues to cause the site to fail. But the rumors proved correctthe contest had been won. Keeping Private The winners, identified by the pseudonyms narf2006 and blanka, have asked Mr. Nederkoorn to keep their identities private to prevent the news from interfering with their full-time jobs. Mr. Nederkoorn said they both live in California, and he believes one works in the software industry. According to Mr. Nederkoorn, the two notified him on Monday of their entry. After refining it a bit, they submitted it on Tuesday. Mr. Nederkoorn put out a call for testers on the sites forum and charged the first nine people who applied with giving it whirl. Shortly thereafter, he declared a winner. I think the [the testers] definitely thought these guys deserved to win, Mr. Nederkoorn said. That being the case, a lot more work needs to be done. This is not the final product, Mr. Nederkoorn said. In the current version of the fix, Windows loads but cant connect to a network. Whats more, the software for the graphics card doesnt work very well. But Mr. Nederkoorn believes these are problems that will be solved quickly by those interested in tinkering with the fixcurrently available for download on his web site. He thinks a solution to the network problem could show up as early as Thursday night. Mr. Nederkoorn ultimately wants to make the solution available to the widespread open-source community via the SourceForge web site, turning it into a larger-scale project where anyone can contribute and improve the original software. The Role of Open Source While Mr. Nederkoorns contest ultimately resulted in a winner, it raises questions about the role of open-source and traditional models. No model is 100 percent perfect, Mr. Nederkoorn said of the two approaches. We know the commercial software model isnt perfect because there are a lot of bugs the open-source model isnt good because nothing gets done. Generalizations aside, Mr. Nederkoorn believes approaches like his can work well in certain situations. I think a hybrid model is a great way to go, especially for smaller projects like this, which might not have come to fruition [otherwise]. Corporate Support According to Apple officials, the companys continues to have no plans to sell or support Windows. We arent doing anything in our hardware design to preclude our systems from running Windows, the company wrote in January. According to Apple spokesperson Natalie Kerris Thursday, Apples position hasnt changed. Apple stock fell $1.92 to $64.31 on the Nasdaq. Meanwhile, Mr. Nederkoorn hopes Apple will reconsider its position, believing the company could see a growth in hardware sales if running Windows is a viable option. Official support from the company would be an integral part of taking the solution beyond the open-source community. [Apple] shouldve supported it from the beginning, Mr. Nederkoorn said. People will find some way to do what they need to do. In this case at least, they certainly have. Now narf and blanka just need to decide how to spend their winnings. ================================ George Antunes, Political Science Dept University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204 Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927 antunes at uh dot edu Reply with a "Thank you" if you liked this post. _____________________________ MEDIANEWS mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
