Will the "Macintel" systems be able to run Windows?

On June 20, 2005, EveryMac.com published:

Officially, no. However, on June 6, 2005, Apple Senior Vice President Phil Schiller stated that Apple will not "preclude someone from running [Windows] on a Mac. They probably will." Apple Director of Software Product Marketing, Brian Croll affirmed [source no longer available] that "Apple doesn't plan to sell or support Windows, but we're not planning anything on the hardware side that would preclude it from running."

One eWeek columnist, John Spooner, mentioned [source no longer available] that the "Macintel" systems may take advantage of "virtualization technology built into Intel chips--desktop Pentium 4 chips will sport built-in virtualization this year and the Pentium Ms will gain it next--will allow the machines to be partitioned to run numerous different types of software at the same time. Thus, there is no reason the machines couldn't run Windows or Linux and all of the associated applications on top of Mac OS X."

Quoting Dean McCarron, an analyst with Mercury Research, Spooner continued "In theory, you could run Windows on top of Mac OS, which is how it works on Mac today with Virtual PC. The difference is, with hardware virtualization, you'd be running at almost full speed. By and large you'd end up with a full-speed virtual system."

Since that time, creative hackers first made it possible to run Windows on Intel-based Macs, then Apple and other companies released solutions as well. For more than you ever would want to know, please refer to the Windows on Mac Q&A.

Will the "Macintel" systems be able to run Windows games?

On June 20, 2005, EveryMac.com published:

Officially, no. However, by installing Windows directly on a "Macintel" system or possibly using "hardware virtualization" most games designed for Windows likely would run provided that the other system requirements are met. According to a MacWord article game developers are excited that "Macintel" systems may make porting games to MacOS X easier, but were concerned that it may not make financial sense to port games to the Mac if users can just install Windows on a "Macintel" system to run Windows games.

It subsequently became possible to install Windows and play Windows games on Intel-based Macs. For more information, please refer to the Windows on Mac Q&A.

Will "Macintel" systems be subject to Windows viruses/spyware?

On June 20, 2005, EveryMac.com published:

There is no fundamental reason why Intel-based "Macintel" systems running MacOS X for Intel on Intel-based hardware would be subject to viruses and spyware written to attack the Windows operating system. However, if someone were to install Windows on a "Macintel" system it would be vulnerable to Windows viruses and spyware which might indirectly affect the performance and reliability of the "Macintel" system even while running MacOS X.

A C|Net article, quoting a variety of security experts, comes to much the same conclusion, although it notes that "theoretically, though, it is possible that security flaws in lower-level system software could be used to attack both Windows and Mac computers. . . However, such attacks, for example on the system BIOS, are rare. Furthermore, it is not known if Apple will use the same low-level software common in Windows PCs" [It is now known that the Intel-based Macs use Intel's EFI standard in lieu of BIOS].

For more details regarding the security of Intel-based Macs while running Windows, please refer to the Windows on Mac Q&A.

Will the "Macintel" systems be able to run Linux?

On June 20, 2005, EveryMac.com published:

Yes. It is a safe bet that commercial Intel-based Linux developers and/or enterprising hackers will work to make a version of Linux compatible with final "Macintel" systems. Interestingly, YellowDogLinux, which has been a major developer of Linux for previous PowerPC-based Macs, has announced that it remains committed to the PowerPC architecture, and will not support the "Macintel" systems.

Since that time, it has become possible to either boot Linux or run Linux via "virtualization" on Intel-based Macs. For more information, please refer to the Windows on Mac Q&A.

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