22nd April 2006

Legally run Windows applications without a Windows license?

posted in apple, open source |

Well, here is an interesting possibility for those who are following developments with Macintosh Intel-based computer hardware now able to run WindowsXP natively. Robert Cringely wrote the following on April 20, 2005 in his post, “There May Be an End-run for Apple Around Windows After All”:

Now for the interesting part: I believe that Apple will offer Windows Vista as an option for those big customers who demand it, but I also believe that Apple will offer in OS X 10.5 the ability to run native Windows XP applications with no copy of XP installed on the machine at all. This will be accomplished not by using compatibility middleware like Wine, but rather by Apple implementing the Windows API directly in OS X 10.5.

What? Run Windows applications on a Macintosh computer but not have to license the latest variant of Windows from Bill Gates? Sounds like a Redmond nightmare and a personal dream! Robert continues in his post:

Think of the implications. A souped-up OS X kernel with native Windows API support and the prospect of mixing and matching Windows and Mac applications would be, for many users, the best of both worlds. There would be no copy of Windows XP to buy, no large overhead of emulation or compatibility middleware, no chance for Microsoft to accidentally screw things up, substantially better security, and no need to even take a chance on Windows Vista.

Remember, we are talking about SPECULATIONS here, not facts. But we clearly are living in interesting times. Friday I went to our local university computing store, and saw they had WindowsXP booted up on the MacBook Pro they had on display. Oh wow…. not! I guess that is impressive, but it does seem blasphemous to see a Mac booted to Windows and shown off….. I guess I’m a bit of a purist with Mac hardware. (That doesn’t mean I don’t run Windows on my Mac, actually I connect to my office Dell via Remote Desktop usually several times per day.)

But to think of running Windows apps natively from within the Mac OS, and not through an emulator (even a speedy one like Parallels?) And not having to purchase a license from Redmond to do this legally? Wow. That is a pretty amazing prospect. Maybe not something that will get loads of people excited today, but you can bet this sort of think will get lots of attention in the computing world and wider society if it comes to pass.

We’ll stay tuned and see! Thanks to my cousin, Devin Henley, for this link!

On this day..

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 22nd, 2006 at 10:33 pm and is filed under apple, open source. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

There are currently 3 responses to “Legally run Windows applications without a Windows license?”

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  1. 1 On April 22nd, 2006, Tom Hoffman said:

    There is no better guide to these issues than Daring Fireball. See his post, Cringley’s Machinations.

  2. 2 On April 22nd, 2006, Wesley Fryer said:

    Thanks Tom, we are certainly dealing with speculation here– I appreciate the counter-point link. Things that sound too good to be true usually are…..

  3. 3 On April 24th, 2006, Tim said:

    If Apple can pull that off it would be a neat trick. In the meantime, Parallels does a pretty good job of running Windows applications. Of course, I don’t have big demands (Outlook, Access and Publisher occasionally) which is why I didn’t want to go the Boot Camp route and have to reboot every time I needed to use Windows.