Mac mini Core duo running Microsoft Windows XP
A friend brought over a dual-booting Mac mini Pro Duo with 2GB RAM to show me. An Intel-based Mac running Microsoft Windows XP is not quite the sensation it might have been a couple of weeks ago. But, this was still the first time I saw a Mac mini Core Duo dual booting Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows XP and I have to admit I was impressed at the boot speed for both Mac OS X and Windows XP.
I thought XP would boot slowly (still thinking emulation even though I know it is running natively) and was surprised to see how fast it came up to the point where the mouse and keyboard was usable on the Mac mini. I plugged in an Ethernet cable from my test LAN (thinking it would be easier to configure than WiFi) but we didn’t get a network connection. To be honest, we didn’t try very hard since that was not essential for show-and-tell to me.
Switching back to OS X, it struck me how much faster and more responsive the Intel based Mac mini seemed compared to my 1st generation G4 based Mac mini.
I don’t think I will dual boot my own Intel-based Mac (as soon as I am able to buy one that is). But, I am waiting to see if Microsoft Virtual PC or or Xen will be able for virtualizing XP or Linux for testing on a Mac.
What sort of keyboard is that you are using? it looks very interesting.
Todd, What's that keyboard? And what does that rectangle on the left side of it do?
It's a defibrilator. The keyboard was specifically made for Dick Cheney :-)
My friend brought the keyboard with him. I recalled he mentioned he got it from CompUSA. So, I searched for it and found it: Grandtec USA-The Mini-Virtually Indestructible Keyboard, USB. The rectangle on the left apparently houses the keyboards electronics and attaches to its USB cable.
does not the mini duo have 2 times+ the video ram and 2 times + the processors both at a faster speed and 2 GB ram vs 256mb, it had better be faser than a 1.25GHZ G4.
now if it was compared to a dual 1.66 G4 with 2MB L2 cache 2GB ram and similar video card and still was a lot faster, than we would be amazed.
David: Interestingly, the G4 version had 32MB dedicated graphics RAM while the new (solo and duo) one uses shared system RAM. So, it depends how you count. The original G4 started at 256MB RAM but could be upped to 1G (mine has 512MB). I think the other big difference (that adds to speed) is the switch to a serial ATA hard drive. Processor speed differences between a PowerPC and Intel chip is a bit tricky (and Intel and AMD will tell you it is tricky even with similar architectures). But, it is pretty clear that faster CPU helps (implied in my comments which I guess you missed),
Soon we'll have reports of the first Mac with an actual virus.
O what fun, at last - dual booting macs will actually be useful. I'm just thinking about all those people who don't use mac just because it simply doesn't do games for example, but now even that's mainly bullshit as you can boot Window$ on a Mac computer, along with OS ButtseX.
If you choose to run XP and Microsoft programs do you now need anti virus software for the Microsoft system/programs?
Tezza: Yes, if you run Windows XP on an Intel-Mac using either Boot Camp or Parallels Desktop for Mac (or VMware Fusion in 2007), you need to protect it the same way you would on a regular PC running Windows XP. I have a devoted a section of the Short Cuts booklet Windows for Intel Macs discussing Windows XP security.