Did Apple hold Boot Camp until "the contest" was over?

[sigamy]

Seems to me that Apple held off Boot Camp until those two guys came forward and won the $13,000. Pretty cool on Apple's part...

 

[MacDonaldsd]

Probably but mainly to see if they could do it, and if people actually wanted it

 

[stoid]

I think the most likely scenario is that Apple had this ready to go, and decided to release it to help sort out people calling on AppleCare that had fubarred their intel Mac. They may not officially 'support' Boot Camp, but at least it's an official solution that they know the tricks to.

 

[yankeefan24]

I think the most likely scenario is that Apple had this ready to go, and decided to release it to help sort out people calling on AppleCare that had fubarred their intel Mac. They may not officially 'support' Boot Camp, but at least it's an official solution that they know the tricks to.

I agree.

as someone said somewhere, let the hackers shine for a while, then release this so people don't screw up there machines.

i wouldn't have done the hack but will do boot camp when i get an intel mac.

 

[EricNau]

I'm thinking Apple didn't really want to ever support dual booting with XP, but they knew once the contest was over, they didn't really have a choice.

 

[grapes911]

I personally don't think Apple cared one way or another about the contest. They probably released Boot Camp as soon as it was ready to become a public beta.

 

[treblah]

I personally don't think Apple cared one way or another about the contest. They probably released Boot Camp as soon as it was ready to become a public beta.

That what I think too. If you look at the creation dates on some of the drivers it seems like Apple has been working on this for a month or two.

 

[solvs]

Yeah, it's pretty clear they've been working on it for awhile. I don't know if they started before or after the contest, but they must have had some idea of what they could do since they started testing on Intel in the first place. I'm sure they planned on releasing it if they had to, and may even have waited until the contest was over to see how far people could get, but more than likely just released it early so people wouldn't screw up their machines with the unofficial patch. It was probably planned for when they show what 10.5 can do since it's a feature of Leopard, as a beta to be tested with Tiger.

 

[calculus]

I love the reference to "the contest' - as a Sienfeld fan I think this is the best description of this windows nonsense yet!

 

[Whiteapple]

I agree.

as someone said somewhere, let the hackers shine for a while, then release this so people don't screw up there machines.

i wouldn't have done the hack but will do boot camp when i get an intel mac.

these kinda hacks do suck indeed, but i dont think Apple had the kindness of developping this thing to "prevent the users from screwing up their machines". I think they couldnt care less...
I think they've started working on it just before they launched the intel iMac, or even before, in June. They've been working a lot on it, that's for sure, which can be demonstrated by the total absence of bugs on my boot camp. As for unfortunate people, there are very few I think.
Boot camp really is very powerful and has necessitated a lot of work, like the "hack", but I dont think Apple engineers had the $13,000 pressure and I think they could go to bed at nights, without having to develop this app next to the coffee machine.