To my surprise Apple released Boot Camp 1.2 Beta last night which includes support for 32–bit versions of Windows Vista. I’ve already been reading plenty of stories on other blogs about how nice it is to have native support for Windows Vista on a Mac, instead of trying to get around the problems with some hacks. Not only that, but I guess this also disproves the possibility of Apple delaying the Mac OS X Leopard release because of bootcamp supposedly lacking Vista support.
For those of you using a Mac, here’s what’s new in Bootcamp 1.2 Beta:
- 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)
The funny thing is that I track several blogs written by Microsoft employees, and I have seen at least 4 of them say how ecstatic they are that Apple released this update. And no, they aren’t happy because it will increase Vista sales, instead they are happy because it fixes the problems they have been having running Vista on their own Macs. From what I’ve gathered they prefer the quality of the hardware, but they say they don’t really use OS X. 
I’m also very impressed that Apple doesn’t get plagued with years of delays like Microsoft had with Vista. I don’t know what the difference would be…is it because Apple just has better programmers or is it because Microsoft has a larger user base to worry about pleasing as well as a large range of hardware and software that they have to support? I don’t think anyone really knows the answer, but maybe Microsoft will have everything straightened out for their next Windows release.
Apple Bootcamp Homepage
Thanks to Richard in the Forum for pointing this out!
Keep in mind that Microsoft writes every line of code for Windows while Apple writes only a portion of the code for Mac OS X. Apple start with open source Unix and goes from there.
As I understand it, Apple violates several license agreements because of this. Safari is based on the open source browser Konqueror. Under the GPL license, any changes made to the source code must be made available to the public but Apple doesn’t make any of Safari code available even though they have repeatedly promised to do so.
Thanks god, now that full Vista support is out in Bootcamp 1.2…all these nonsense talks about Leopard being delayed because of Vista support will come to an end. Its not like I’m personally ever going to use Vista, but I just use XP 1% of the time for gaming purposes. Its OS X all the way @ 99% usage. Since all games work on XP as well, faster even…I don’t see the need for Vista, and besides OS X is still better in terms of functionality, ease of use, and IMO even graphically better and efficient (because its not overkill on your entry level video cards you get with 95% of Vista PC’s.)
@CoryC: I guess the agreement that Apple made with KDE regarding Safari was that they would share any advancements that they make with the KDE team. However, the last I heard several years have passed and Apple hasn’t given up a single piece of code.
@Parth: I can’t really vouch for what you’re saying because I don’t have much experience with Macs. I have used them on and off quite a bit on computers that I don’t own and there wasn’t anything that overly impressed me enough to switch.