The Apple conundrum

I've watched with great interest the introduction of the new Mac Book Pro and the Intel iMac.  The company where I work has plenty of Intel boxes.  Our infrastructure is Linux but most people seen to run Windows XP Pro.  Since I started working there, a couple of folks have mentioned Macs, but we don't really have the time or the need to debate hardware architectures.

There have been a number of people who asked me if you could run XP on the Mac Book Pro.  Based on the article, "No XP on Intel Macs, but Vista is good to go,"  I think we're currently out of luck.  The problem is that the new Macs use Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) and not the BIOS which is how XP boots.

We're a Mac friendly second generation Internet company.  We even have 5% Macs. What has surprised me is how many of our employees have actually expressed interest if the Macs could boot into the Windows world. 

I'll even use myself as a case.  My daughter needs a Windows box, I would be glad to give her my Windows laptop, and buy myself a Mac Book Pro, but I need to boot into Windows to use the Small Business Version of Quicken that I have.

With the lack of Windows currently running on the new Intel Mac, I have to say that some of Apple's success with their Intel Macs will depend on MS getting Vista out the door.  That's pretty interesting to see the success of Apple's Intel Macs outside the Mac faithful is likey to depend on how quickly Microsoft can ship VISTA.