[iBook] Re: Apple Announces Intel MacBook Pro

[Mike Wallinga]

I sure hope there will be a new iBook, even if it isn't called a iBook 
any more. If they want to make a $900 laptop and called it a MacBook 
something-or-other, I don't mind, but sooner or later they'll have to 
produce an Intel laptop that costs less than two grand.

The news about not dual-booting into Windows XP is a little 
disappointing, since there are a couple of Windows apps that I depend 
on. But, what I'm really hoping for is that Microsoft will update 
Virtual PC to run on Intel Macs instead. Since VPC wouldn't have to 
emulate a different processor type like it used to, the performance 
should be really good. Being able to run that handful of needed Windows 
apps at near-native speeds without leaving Mac OS X would be VERY nice.

- Mike W.

jrag_1999 at yverizon.net wrote:

>Are we sure that there will be a new ibook or is the MacBook taking the
>place of both line of notebooks?
>
>
>Also, these intel macs will not be running windows according to this:
>
>http://www.betanews.com/article/XP_Wont_Run_on_Intel_MacBook_iMac/1137003330
>
>With the announcement of the first Intel based Macs yesterday, many users
>have rejoiced in being able to dual-boot both Mac OS X and Windows.
>Unfortunately, this is not the case; due to Apple's use of the extensible
>firmware interface (EFI) rather than BIOS, current Windows releases will not
>run on the systems. [...] 
>  With the switch to Intel processors, Apple also moved from Open Firmware
>to EFI, which is an updated BIOS specification developed by Intel. Advanced
>features include the ability to boot into an EFI shell and run diagnostics
>and power up the CPU into a fully functional state immediately. [...] 
>  Intel initially deployed EFI as part of its Itanium architecture. As such,
>Microsoft only included support for the BIOS replacement in its IA64 and
>later x64 operating systems. While Microsoft plans to add EFI support in
>32-bit versions of Windows Vista, a final release isn't due until the end of
>the year. 
>  Microsoft's 64-bit versions of Windows will also not work despite
>supporting EFI, because Apple's Intel platform is strictly 32-bit at the
>moment.
>  
>