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obijuanvaldez

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 14, 2007
2
0
Hello all,

I don't know if this first bit is necessary but:
I am considering buying a MacBook. I like the sturdiness of the hardware, the charger connection is awesome and I love the keyboard. However, I do a lot of .NET development and don't particularly want to run the dev environment virtualized and I would prefer to run a 64 bit version of Windows and probably will not use OS X much, if at all.

My question:
When Leopard ships with Boot Camp as a feature in OS X, will they provide driver support for the hardware on the MacBook for 64 bit versions of Windows?

I realize that the website claims support only of 32 bit versions but I'm totally unfamiliar with how Apple releases work. By that I mean can you completely trust what the website says at this point or do they like to throw in some surprise additional functionality? I also am unaware if everybody in the know already has the answer to this, either intuitively or via websites such as this one.

My search hasn't turned up a lot of answers. I appreciate any help.
 

nospamboz

macrumors regular
Oct 3, 2006
237
70
When Leopard ships with Boot Camp as a feature in OS X, will they provide driver support for the hardware on the MacBook for 64 bit versions of Windows?
...
My search hasn't turned up a lot of answers.

I'm sure anyone who knows the answer would be under a non-disclosure
agreement. Apple is notoriously secretive when it comes to unreleased
products.

Your guess is probably as good as anyone's outside Apple, including mine.

My own guess is that Boot Camp with Leopard will support 64-bit Windows.
I would be surprised if it doesn't. VMware Fusion has demonstrated that
running 64-bit is possible. Leopard will be 64-bit. Some people have managed
to do XP-64 with the Boot Camp beta by installing third-party 64-bit drivers
manually, although not all devices are supported. Boot Camp beta has
been out for more than a year, so they've had plenty of time to consider
the problem. To me, all that makes 64-bit Leopard Boot Camp very likely.

I'll find out probably about the same time you do.

If you're impatient, you could always freeze yourself like Cartman. :)
 

obijuanvaldez

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 14, 2007
2
0
I'm sure anyone who knows the answer would be under a non-disclosure
agreement. Apple is notoriously secretive when it comes to unreleased
products.

Your guess is probably as good as anyone's outside Apple, including mine.

My own guess is that Boot Camp with Leopard will support 64-bit Windows.
I would be surprised if it doesn't. VMware Fusion has demonstrated that
running 64-bit is possible. Leopard will be 64-bit. Some people have managed
to do XP-64 with the Boot Camp beta by installing third-party 64-bit drivers
manually, although not all devices are supported. Boot Camp beta has
been out for more than a year, so they've had plenty of time to consider
the problem. To me, all that makes 64-bit Leopard Boot Camp very likely.

I'll find out probably about the same time you do.

This answers my question as best as it could be. Thank you.

If you're impatient, you could always freeze yourself like Cartman. :)

You have no idea. I have money burning a hole in my pocket and I need a laptop yesterday. What stinks is that it appears that I won't be able to get a free iPod with the current educational deal which ends mid-September since I need this answer. So much for my brother's X-Mas present. Looks like I may have to get a Sony CR190E, which is the only other thing I have found with a similar keyboard, which is what I want the most.

Thanks again for all the help.
 
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