April 09, 2006
Pigs seen flying over frozen hell
Apple mooted all the hard work it took to get Windows XP to install and boot on the Intel Macs by releasing Boot Camp, a utility designed to aid installation of XP on a supported Intel Mac. Boot Camp includes Apple-provided XP drivers for the Mac hardware. A firmware update is required prior to running Boot Camp, which Apple considers beta and claims will be featured in some form in Mac OS X 10.5.
Boot Camp is all well and good, but no one really likes dual booting. Virtualization is the way to go, allowing a host operating system to run several different client systems simultaneously. To that end, Parallels has released a beta of its virtualization software for Intel Macs. The Parallels software allows Mac OS X to run various versions of Windows, Linux and BSD at near-native speeds in virtual machines, all without rebooting.
Posted by admorten at 06:27 PM | Comments (0)
January 16, 2006
Imaging update
On the MacEnterprise list, Eric Zelenka has given a couple of clarifications about imaging the new Intel hardware.
- Apple "plan[s] to make [OS X] Universal in the future. Unfortunately you have to use two separate images for now."
- "Mac OS X Server v10.4.4 supports multiple "default" images, one for each architecture (PowerPC or Intel). So it is possible for a PowerPC system to hold down 'N' and you'll get one image, and on an Intel system you'll get a different image."
Posted by mcneal at 09:54 AM | Comments (0)
January 12, 2006
NetBoot-ing/NetInstall-ing Intel-baded Macs
Eric Zelenka, Sr. Product Line Manager, Server & Storage Software Worldwide Product Marketing for Apple Computer, via the MacEnterprise Mailinglist:
The new Intel-based Macs use a next generation pre-boot technology developed by Intel called EFI. EFI provides a superior booting experience and includes features such as a larger ROM, richer graphics support, full IP stack, dynamic boot volume picker, quicker startup times and even some cool feature such as the ability to an Apple Remote to remotely control boot options.One of the benefits of EFI is dramatically faster boot times for NetBoot systems. Our internal tests show that in most situations booting of an Intel-based Mac is 2-3 times faster than the older Open Firmware-based systems.
To NetBoot or NetInstall an Intel-based Mac you need to deploy Mac OS X Server v10.4.4. Mac OS X Server v10.4.4 includes an updated System Image Utility for creating NetBoot and NetInstall images of Intel-based Macs. Separate disk images are required for PowerPC-based Macintosh computers and Intel-based Macintosh computers.
Posted by mcneal at 10:30 AM | Comments (1)
NetBoot-ing/NetInstall-ing Intel-baded Macs
Eric Zelenka, Sr. Product Line Manager, Server & Storage Software Worldwide Product Marketing for Apple Computer, via the MacEnterprise Mailinglist:
The new Intel-based Macs use a next generation pre-boot technology developed by Intel called EFI. EFI provides a superior booting experience and includes features such as a larger ROM, richer graphics support, full IP stack, dynamic boot volume picker, quicker startup times and even some cool feature such as the ability to an Apple Remote to remotely control boot options.One of the benefits of EFI is dramatically faster boot times for NetBoot systems. Our internal tests show that in most situations booting of an Intel-based Mac is 2-3 times faster than the older Open Firmware-based systems.
To NetBoot or NetInstall an Intel-based Mac you need to deploy Mac OS X Server v10.4.4. Mac OS X Server v10.4.4 includes an updated System Image Utility for creating NetBoot and NetInstall images of Intel-based Macs. Separate disk images are required for PowerPC-based Macintosh computers and Intel-based Macintosh computers.
Posted by mcneal at 10:30 AM | Comments (1)