SillyDog701

[Antony]

Apple has updated Boot Camp to version 1.2 beta. The most significant new feature in this Boot Camp is the added support of Windows Vista (32 bit). According to the Boot Camp web page, the update also includes updated drivers including trackpad, AppleTime, (synch), audio, graphics, modem and iSight camera.

Boot Camp is Apple's solution for installing and running Windows on Mac, allowing owners of Intel-based Macs to install and boot Windows XP alongside Mac OS X. Unlike virtualisation solutions (e.g. Parallels Desktop), Apple's solution requires users to reboot machines to switch from one operating system to another.

Boot Camp was originally released on 5th April 2006, and the final version is expected in Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard" due in spring 2007.

Boot Camp 1.2 beta includes:

• Support for Windows Vista (32-bit)
• Updated drivers, including but not limited to trackpad, AppleTime (synch), audio, graphics, modem, iSight camera
• Support the Apple Remote (works with iTunes and Windows Media Player)
• A Windows system tray icon for easy access to Boot Camp information and actions
• Improved keyboard support for Korean, Chinese, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Russian, and French Canadian
• Improved Windows driver installation experience
• Updated documentation and Boot Camp on-line help in Windows
• Apple Software Update (for Windows XP and Vista)

Also, if you have previous Boot Camp installed, you don't need re-partition Windows.

Updating to Boot Camp 1.2 beta
If you previously installed Boot Camp beta, you can easily update to Boot Camp 1.2 beta. You don't need to partition your hard drive again (unless you want to change its size) or reinstall your Macintosh and Windows software or documents, but it's very important to update the Boot Camp Assistant software, create a new Mac Drivers CD and install the updated software it contains onto Windows. Complete instructions are provided in the Installation and Setup Guide included with the Boot Camp 1.2 beta software.

Boot Camp 1.2 beta requires Mac OS X 10.4.6 or later, the latet EFI Boot ROM and SMC firmware updates, at least 10GB free hard disk space, and of course, an Intel-based Mac.

For more information about Boot Camp, please visit Boot Camp (Apple Boot Camp page).

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[Don_HH2K]

It's nice to hear that they've included Vista support with this build. Still no 64-bit drivers, though?

Maybe Apple will release 64-bit XP/Vista drivers shortly before or after the release of Leopard, which is supposed to ship with 64-bit app support.

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[Antony]

there's nothing wrong with 32-bit Vista.

UserAgent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X; en-US; rv:1.8.1.2) Gecko/20070219 Firefox/2.0.0.2

[Don_HH2K]

Did I say there was anything wrong with the 32-bit Vista?

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[Antony]

Did I say there was anything wrong with the 32-bit Vista?

No, but you want the 64-bit.

Just for your information, 64-bit application is not necessary faster, there are situations 64-bit applications runs slower than 32-bit.

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[Don_HH2K]

I'm well aware of that, but there are some scenarios in which people prefer using 64-bit stuff if available. 7-zip, virtually every piece of encoder software I've found, VC8, and so on all seem to run faster in 64-bits than in 32-bits. And at that the 64-bit Firefox runs BenchJS faster than the 32-bit one, not to mention mmoy compiles in SSE2 patches on the x64 builds to make things yet faster. There's no 64-bit Word, since that's something that probably would slow down.

IMHO, if you invest in something that can be run in 64-bit mode, you should at least be given the option of doing so. When I was notebook shopping Acer seemed to be the only normal-people manufacturer doing so. HP caught on roughly two weeks after I received mine and released proper drivers, even though I found the same ones scattered about the Internet before that. Even other manufacturers are guilty of this too; to the best of my knowledge Dell doesn't have 64-bit drivers out for most of their Core 2 machines.

As far as Apple goes, one should at least be given the option of booting a 64-bit OS even without any decent driver support. If that's already possible, then it's a start.

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