Running Windows on an iMac?

[Ckar]

There are a lot of iMacs out there that cannot run the latest version of Mac OS X (like the white plastic iMacs of the past) and I feel that only the latest version of Mac OS X is worth running.

Would I be able to install Windows 7 (or some variant of Linux) on these iMacs as the main operating system? Or did Apple lockdown their hardware?

 

[yjchua95]

There are a lot of iMacs out there that cannot run the latest version of Mac OS X (like the white plastic iMacs of the past) and I feel that only the latest version of Mac OS X is worth running.

Would I be able to install Windows 7 (or some variant of Linux) on these iMacs as the main operating system? Or did Apple lockdown their hardware?

Yes you can. Just use Boot Camp (for Windows).

For Linux, it's a different story. You might need to mod the EFI with rEFIt.

 

[MacPC]

As long as your Mac is an Intel Mac, you can always use Boot Camp to install Windows or Linux. For older Mac such as pre 2008, you can also install Snow Leopard or Lion and use a virtual machine such as Virtual Box (Free) or VMware Fusion(Not free) If you intent to get a used Mac for the purpose to run Windows or Linux, Make sure you don't buy a G4 or G5 Mac on eBay.

 

[Weaselboy]

There are a lot of iMacs out there that cannot run the latest version of Mac OS X (like the white plastic iMacs of the past) and I feel that only the latest version of Mac OS X is worth running.

Would I be able to install Windows 7 (or some variant of Linux) on these iMacs as the main operating system? Or did Apple lockdown their hardware?

If you look toward the bottom of this Apple support page you can click on the type of Mac you are looking at and it will tell you what versions of Windows you can run using Bootcamp.