Windows on Macbook - Part II
The story so far… When Apple released its new Intel-based machines - the Macbook Pro, iMac, and now Mac-Mini - it said it would not actively prevent users from running Windows on the machines. But that’s not the same as actually enabling people to do so - see previous post or here for details on some of the technical problems involved.
A contest seeking donations was started by Colin Nederkoorn that resulted in a $13,000 prize being offered to the person who could come up with a solution that fulfilled the following criteria:
1. It must boot Windows XP (at least), not Vista or any other version of Windows.
2. Windows must be able to coexist with Mac OS X and each system must not interfere with the operation of the other (basically a traditional dual boot system where one OS is running at a time).
3. The method, upon starting the computer, must offer the user to boot either OS X or Windows XP
Well now it appears that the contest has been won, and the solution will soon be posted on the contest website and will be turned into an open-source project. Good news for Intel-Mac owners, and an impressively-quick community response to a difficult problem.
Update 17/03/06: The bootloader software is now available for free download with detailed installation instructions and a FAQ page.
