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Hackers get Mac running Windows.


Tomez

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Hackers have managed to get Microsoft's Windows XP operating system running on an Apple Mac computer.

The success ends a competition started to see if the feat was even possible when Apple unveiled computers that used Intel chips.

The pair who managed the feat won $13,854 (£7,895) in prize money for their trouble.

The software used to put Windows on the Mac is now being circulated so others can try to replicate the success.

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In January 2006, the first Apple Mac computers using Intel chips were unveiled at the Macworld show by company boss Steve Jobs.

Soon after the unveiling, Mac enthusiast Colin Nederkoorn kicked off a competition to see if it was possible for the two operating systems to run independently on the same machine.

To tempt entrants, he put up $100 of his own money - a prize fund that gradually grew as news about the competition spread.

The rules of the competition stressed that to win hackers must get both Windows XP and Apple's OSX running on the same machine and neither operating system must conflict with the other.

Screenshot of Eve Online, CCP Hf

The success might mean more people buy Apple computers

As late as 7 March, Apple technical experts were saying that the prize money was unlikely to be collected.

The main stumbling block for those tackling the task was the different way that Microsoft's Windows XP and Apple's OSX boot-up, or start. Essentially, PCs and Apple Mac machines use different technology to get their operating systems loaded.

The hackers who won the contest created a custom copy of Windows XP that had modifications made to the installation files to get it working with the Apple boot system.

The hackers who won the contest are keen to keep their anonymity and are known only by the handles "narf" and "blanka". According to reports, their feat has been independently confirmed and XP has been made to run on an iMac, Mac Mini and MacBook Pro.

Technical sites such as Ars Technica have provided walkthroughs for people keen to try it for themselves, though they stress that it is likely to defeat those who are technically unskilled.

It is possible that easier ways to get a Mac booting both operating systems will appear as other hackers follow up the success.

Many people discussing the feat online stress that it is of more than casual interest. One of the many reasons that Apple machines have not proved more popular is because of the relatively small number of programs, in particular games, created for them. With work, many of the hugely popular programs for Windows may be able to run on Apple machines too.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4816520.stm

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As I said on another forum,

You know, the reason why it took so long was because of the prize money. Normally you would think that would speed up the process but it had the reverse effect. People hacking XP onto Mac wouldnt share their progress with anyone else (didnt want the others taking the prize) and so no cooperation happened. I mean, hell, look at the mac on PC scene. People were able to get the mac os on PC last august (or sometime around there). Im currenly tri-booting Mac, XP, and Linux on my computer. People actually worked together sharing their info instead of everyone for themselves..... But now that the contest is over, perhaps people can share their findings and make the XP OS work better (from the reviews Ive read, the things you can do on XP on mac is very limited).

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windowxponamac.jpg

Yesterday, confirmation that Windows XP has been made to boot on an Intel Mac was received. Today, details come pouring in.

The first and biggest limitation of the process is how it requires a PC in order to work. Basically, you need to create a custom Windows XP boot disk with some of the original files replaced by modified versions created by ‘narf’. The process is not particularly hard, just a matter of modifying a CD. However, this also

raises another question… is this legal?

So far, there has been no official statement on whether this is legal and if it violates the EULA or not. Microsoft has yet to comment on the matter, and it seems unlikely that they are not aware of the recent developments.

Regardless, the customized method for getting Windows XP to dual boot on a Mac seems solid so far, although users need to remember that it is just a start. There are still driver issues and other compatibility problems that need to be taken care of, but those will surely follow.

Another question that arises is that, if this was possible for Windows XP, could it be that there will be other clever coders that will make dual booting Vista on Macs a possibility?

Indeed, it took some time to get here, and at one point the deadline for the

contest was prolonged because it seemed that no one would be able to meet the challenge. Still the future is looking good, with the dualboot solution being far more attractive to many than the virtualization solutions currently available. It seems that Windows runs at near native speeds, and accesses the processor directly, which opens up a can of worms… Why didn’t Microsoft offer this capability? How fast will the official Microsoft Virtual PC run? And how will this affect sales of Virtual PC? IS it even legal?

One thing is clear, there is still a long way to go… “There are driver issues right now. There's not a good video driver for Windows XP," he said. "And the Mac crashes when you shut down Windows. People are going to need to talk to each other and share,” Nederkoorn said.

The project might very well move to SourceForge, where the community can keep working on it. One thing is clear though, if you thought you would now be able to run all those PC games you will have to wait some more, for without the drivers and additional work needed Solitaire is about as much as will run.

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Yup it was posted on my Off days... :P

And I guess I missed this from View New Posts ...

or it was not listed there :think:

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One thing I read... the windows does not have a compatable fan driver so the fan never starts when booting XP. So dont run your XP Mac for long periods of time. :P

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masterripper

dont call me stupid or anything but why would anyone want to run windows on a mac in the first place?

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dont call me stupid or anything but why would anyone want to run windows on a mac in the first place?

I guess the only thing that Mac guys miss is the number of games which Windows support..

So wen the driver issues are fixed they can have best of both worlds :P

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One thing I read... the windows does not have a compatable fan driver so the fan never starts when booting XP. So dont run your XP Mac for long periods of time. :P
There have been several reports of issues regarding the fan control on Macs running Windows XP. Several information sources have also warned that the fans do not power up, meaning that there is the potential for overheating and ‘frying’ your Mac’s processor or some other component.

This is untrue. The Apple software that controls the fans keeps them down, not up… meaning that if the software were not present, the fans would be at a constant full blast, instead of inactive. This issue

is well known to those who have used other, non-Windows, operating systems on their Macs.

The fans are working when running Windows XP, they are just quiet, that is why some users might not have noticed them.

In the case of the MacBook Pro, in which heat would be a serious issue, the fans are also working, but, because they are not being regulated and are basically running all the time, it can lead to battery drain at a much faster rate than normal.

The lack of drivers is an issue for many things, such as graphics, but not when it comes to the fans… They might not be intelligently controlled, by they are working, and there is little to no chance of actually damaging your Mac if you are using it under normal circumstances.

MAC's are horrible, go with PC's instead!!!

They sure are not :think:

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MAC's are horrible, go with PC's instead!!!

They sure are not ;)

agreed, macs are way better in terms of display engines and stability. only draw back is the lack of support from games and programs, as zeus said ;)

i asked it it an older thread, but i'll ask it again. who here, that uses macs farely often, has actually had one crash/lock-up on them? (/me garuantees 0 replies to this question) :)

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Ive had adiumX crash on me ;)

But that was because the build i was using wasnt written for x86. It was just compiled for it, but no optimized.. Crashed a few times actually ;)

But now adiumX works flawlessly.. Mac hasnt crashed yet. The only sad thing is i have no sound :)

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macarefastwindowspcs2.jpg

Windows XP on Macs: Tested, Benchmarked

Booting Windows XP on the new Intel Macs means that Windows runs natively, so it’s just like having a second machine. But then the question has risen, just how fast does it work… The folks at Gearlog answered that by running a series of tests.

The MacBook Pro is the fastest Core Duo laptop they tested, faster than ‘PC’ laptops that were built to run Windows, in terms of running Photoshop scripts. The tests were made on four different Core Duo laptops, and the MacBook Pro outdid them all, which is a pretty good indicator of the performance of a native version of Photoshop.

The Desktop Macs, the iMac and Mini also fared well, outrunning even the most blazing fast single core systems. While they were not compared to other Core Duo desktop machines, they did test against a Polywell machine with a dual-core Athlon 64 X2 3800+, against which the iMac competed well, however the Mini and Macbook Pro were slightly slower because of their slower drives.

The verdict is: Mac are fast Windows PCs, if you need them to be.

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nsane: My friend owns a G5 Mac, and when another of my friends plugged his 80GB ext. hard drive (formatted for Windows) into the Mac it "crashed" and after it rebooted, it wouldn't get past the gray screen, it just kept asking him to reboot.

Apparently it caused the Mac to overheat and it blew something, but it repaired within a week after the part was replaced.

That probably doesn't count as it wasn't the Mac's fault but I thought it was interesting.

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masterripper

i got a question, can you do the complete opposite and put Mac OS X on a pc?

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i got a question, can you do the complete opposite and put Mac OS X on a pc?

Yeah, thats something like what Ive got.

visit http://www.osx86project.org for more info

@zeus_hunt, those guides are very very old. They outline the original method to get Mac to PC. Its very complex, unstable and uses a very old version of mac os. THere are a lot newer and easier ways of getting it done. Again, visit the site above. :D

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zues, I see you tri-boot the three main OS's. How many HDD's you got? Gigs?

I actually read this along time ago cause of a newsposter on my forums.

It was a contest for money, not fun.

They could also get sued for doing that.. something on the copy right I believe. Not sure on that.

THe guy who did it has I think 14 000 US dollars in the mail coming to him.

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I unfortunately do not tri boot ..

just bi boot..

Mac is something I havnt tried Mac yet... :)

have 2 HDDs 40Gb + 160Gb

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Yeah, I tri-boot.. Small harddrive. 80 gigs (formating takes it down to like 74 gigs)... Im probably going to buy a larger harddrive in the near future.. Ive seem some pretty cheap ones.

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