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Apple Support: Boot Camp Beta expires as soon as Leopard's released.
- Thread starter WICKEDfour
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Actually BootCamp was an Apple style quick reaction to the "Get Windows on my Mac"-contest, which you may remember. Apple managed to sqash all hacking effort in a simple moment by releasing BootCamp.
As soon as BootCamp betas are deactivated, it should only be a little time, 'til a 3rd party solution comes along, which may even be freeware. And with a little bit of googling you should also be fine getting your drivers.
And honestly, if I ever get stuck with not using my BootCamp system (though I don't know how Apple could do that), I will follow the advice, many people gave me here. Yes, I will get a Dell. It's just been one year, and all of a sudden I have two vertical lines on my iMac display. Dell can't be any worse.
And I also think that the BootCamp updates are mainly interesting to people getting new Macs.
OnMac's solution still works, but its not as comfortable as Boot Camp
"Boot Camp" is an umbrella term for an array of several different things:
- A Mac OS X assistant to make live repartitioning and booting from the Windows installation disc easy
- A BIOS backward compatibility layer for EFI (known as a Compatibility Support Module, or CSM), which is NOT beta and does not expire
- The ability to live-repartition HFS+ disks, which has been possible, though not exposed in Disk Utility's GUI, since Mac OS X 10.4.6, which is NOT beta and does not expire
- Windows drivers for various Intel-based Apple hardware, which do not expire, but may be updated over time
The ONLY thing that "expires" and will stop working after the expiration date is the Boot Camp Assistant. What probably will happen is that there will simply be a substitute for the assistant piece that still uses ALL of the other non-beta components that comprise "Boot Camp" for Tiger users, if Apple itself doesn't choose to release a for-fee version of Boot Camp for Tiger users, as they did in the past with things like iChat AV.
The other issue is that, if Boot Camp isn't officially available to Tiger users, such users won't have access to updated versions of Windows drivers for Apple hardware with new Boot Camp updates (unless they obtain them via some other means; e.g., by illegally pirating them from Leopard's Boot Camp - and yes, they'd work fine on a Boot Camp system alongside Tiger, because they are *Windows* drivers and don't care less about what version of Mac OS X in installed, or even if any version of Mac OS X is installed...and NO, I am NOT condoning such piracy at all, I am simply providing a comprehensive technical answer for completeness).
The lack of continuing access to updated Windows drivers here is the real issue. So while there may be third party solutions that could replace the Boot Camp Assistant's functionality, the only way to get drivers that fully support Apple hardware would be by pirating them (assuming Apple doesn't make a for-fee version of Boot Camp available to non-Leopard users). This might not matter in the short term, but the lack of drivers over the long term will. Obviously some people will choose to pirate them. But for people who want an officially supported environment (research, enterprise, education, etc., users), this won't suffice in the long term.
"Boot Camp", while really just a collection of various technologies that enables Intel-based Macs to easily install and use Windows, has always officially been billed as a "Leopard" feature, even though it has ZERO to do, technically, with Leopard. That's Apple's choice, and people can take it or leave it. Boot Camp has always been clearly marked as expiring, beta, use-at-your-own-risk software that would ship with Leopard.
Are people seriously entertaining the idea that Apple would disable the actual installs of Windows? Need I remind everyone that lots of people actually paid a good sum of money for this OS and that it's a pain to have to reinstall it? I deleted Boot Camp once, while I still had an active Windows XP partition. The install functions whether boot camp is even ON your system, it's just the assistant that goes bye bye.
Anyone out there that took part in the VMware Fusion beta program?
Anyone out there that took part in the VMware Fusion beta program?
Are people seriously entertaining the idea that Apple would disable the actual installs of Windows? Need I remind everyone that lots of people actually paid a good sum of money for this OS and that it's a pain to have to reinstall it? I deleted Boot Camp once, while I still had an active Windows XP partition. The install functions whether boot camp is even ON your system, it's just the assistant that goes bye bye.
Anyone out there that took part in the VMware Fusion beta program?
Oh, I'm sure people think Apple will be "disabling" Boot Camp installs and saying things like, "Just look what they did with the iPhone!" Aside from that being technically impossible (and even impractical and impossible to manage via firmware updates, even if they *did* want to disable Boot Camp installations), no, they won't be "disabling" Boot Camp installations. As you correctly note, the ONLY thing that will stop working is the Assistant, and the other details I outlined in my post above.
Of course, I know I'll come back to this thread later and find that the subsequent responses haven't actually *read* anything in this thread, and will be peppered with garbage like, "OMG, you don't think Apple will disable my Boot Camp, do you!!@!??! I can't upgrade to Leopard because I have an allergy to Leopards, and I spend all of my summer money from my newspaper route on my copy of Windows XP so I could play lame online games with my pimply Windows friends!! Why would Apple just disable Boot Camp out from under me now?!?"
*Sigh*.
So if your installation goes belly up for some reason and you need to completely reformat the hard drive (or replace a defective drive with a new drive) how will you re-install Boot Camp and how will you create a new drivers disk in order to re-install the drivers running Tiger? What if driver(s) become corrupted (and you've misplaced or lost or damaged your original drivers disk?
Stuff like this can and does happen every single day to users. And a whole lot of them don't back up anything...ever.
Thanks Dave for clearing that up to many people. I'd like to add, that for many existing users this is a non-issue. Most people using BootCamp use it on rather aged machines in terms of computer hardware (with the new Alu iMac being the exception). I can savely say, that I doubt there will be any significant driver update for the hardware of my 1st gen CoreDuo iMac. The hardware is dated, the latest drivers provided should be rather sufficient. And I guess many people are in the same boat here.
And using Windows you should always look out for some system update, that even Apple doesn't supply to you. I may remind all users of BootCamp and the Airport Extreme base station, that they should check out the Microsoft Knowledge Base to get their WPA2 protocol up and running, because it won't work out of the box.
It will probably work as a "Mac" like it's suppose to. Sorry but I just don't see a point in buying a Macintosh just to run Windows only as you do. See these shortcomings with Bootcamp and the fact that you have to run Leopard to get the 2.0 version further shows that a Mac is designed to be used a "Mac" and not a Windows machine. With the Mac keyboard layout and Mac Firewire ports it's best to buy a physical PC if you have no intention of using Mac OS X.
Yeah.. bootcamp is why the company I work for bought 6 Macbook Pros..running Leopard will not be an issue but not immediately as the software we support will not be on Leopard for a good many months after release. So if someone at work needs to reinstall their system no more bootcamp on 10.4? They should still allow BC to install just consider it d/c.
You are absolutely right in your thinking. Since it's obvious you are like a few others, you have no intention of using your Mac as a real Mac but rather use it as a pseudo Windows machine then get the Dell outta here.
May you get reminded that the Apple Macintosh is designed to be used with the OS X operating system and installing Microsoft's funny system is your choice at your own will.
Never used Boot Camp even though I liked the idea, I run my XP through Parallels. When I get the new OSX the final version of Boot Camp isn't an issue for me but I'm sure a lot of people who purchased their first Mac over the last year will want some clarification of what will happen if they don't upgrade.
So if your installation goes belly up for some reason and you need to completely reformat the hard drive (or replace a defective drive with a new drive) how will you re-install Boot Camp and how will you create a new drivers disk in order to re-install the drivers running Tiger? What if driver(s) become corrupted (and you've misplaced or lost or damaged your original drivers disk?
Stuff like this can and does happen every single day to users. And a whole lot of them don't back up anything...ever.
Well, first, they'd realize that it was beta software, always known to expire, always known to be a Leopard feature, and in no way supported by Apple.
And if they weren't stupid, they'd keep a copy of the latest Boot Camp installer around, and backed up, and they'd set the clock back on their Mac to perform the installation with the Boot Camp Assistant (and yes, this WILL work, since the Boot Camp Assistant doesn't phone home).
And if they didn't save the latest Boot Camp installer and can't find it anywhere, then see my first paragraph above.
Don't act like Apple is to blame if someone is hell-bent on using as-is, use-at-your-own-risk, unsupported beta software on a Tiger system and doesn't even bother to back anything up to boot.
Well, there ya go. Once you start drinking the Mac OS Kool Aid you will be laughing a lot more. You will be laughing AT Windows especially at the people that are still sucked up into using it.
I've got computer lab that I do the technical coordination for, and we've got 70 or so MacBooks that we use for checkout laptops. We image and partition them using NetRestore (fully automated network booted none the less), but we're using all of the Boot Camp drivers and utilities from Boot Camp Assistant 1.4.
Come Leopards releases, am I going to have to purchase 70 licenses of Leopard to keep these guys legal? I realize that it will still "work", but from the way I'm reading it, the drivers and utilities (specifically the ones written by Apple ala the Keyboard Drivers) will no longer be "legal"?
Come Leopards releases, am I going to have to purchase 70 licenses of Leopard to keep these guys legal? I realize that it will still "work", but from the way I'm reading it, the drivers and utilities (specifically the ones written by Apple ala the Keyboard Drivers) will no longer be "legal"?
Agree!
Ya lol. I can understand if you need to use Windows sometimes for some things. But I know some people that use Windows as the only OS on their Macs even for web surfing and it pisses me off. It's so stupid, they only do it because they are to lazy to learn OS X even though its WAY easier to learn and better.
Ya lol. I can understand if you need to use Windows sometimes for some things. But I know some people that use Windows as the only OS on their Macs even for web surfing and it pisses me off. It's so stupid, they only do it because they are to lazy to learn OS X even though its WAY easier to learn and better.
Boot Camp was never designed for production use and was always billed as something that goes along with Leopard. That said, many sites are doing exactly what you are. And, Apple still may offer Boot Camp for a small fee to Tiger users, or may do so in selected channels (like education).
In any case, I'd contact the Apple account executive for your institution, and make your concerns known.
I'm sure all us Boot Campers out there are familiar with this.
You know... Am I the only one who doesn't read these license agreements? I mean who really cares.