March 9th, 2006
Vista Won’t Support EFI Initially
By David Johnston
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews
Microsoft has just released some very bad news for those of you hoping to run Vista on your new Intel-based Macs. Contrary to popular belief, it seems that Vista will not support EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface–the system new Macs use for firmware) at launch, and will instead only support the antiquated BIOS system that is standard on all non-Mac PC’s today. What’s worse, while Vista may eventually support EFI, there are no plans to support EFI running 32-bit processors. The problem with this is that all of the current Mac products using Intel processors are 32-bit only. So this means that current Intel-based Macs will never be able to run Windows Vista and most likely any post-Vista Microsoft operating systems.
I’m not sure why Microsoft decided to drop EFI support after having promised up until now that it would be included in Vista. Intel, the creator of EFI, has really been pushing it and with support from both Apple and Microsoft, it wouldn’t be long before it completely replaced the BIOS. There’s no doubt that this announcement has Intel more than a little bit miffed. One would also think Microsoft would realize the great opportunity it has here to make inroads into the Mac market. Apple’s computer sales have been rising recently under the halo effect of the iPod so their marketshare is significant. That also means that a lot of new Mac users are recent Windows converts and I’m sure that many of them wouldn’t mind running both operating systems. In any case, it will be interesting to see how this turns out.
We say: In the mean time you can check out this picture of Windows XP boots on a Macbook Pro and keep dreaming.
Source (including an MP3 of the briefing): apcmag
Rob says:
Yet another feature dropped from Vista.
What’s left beside the UI changes?
March 9th, 2006 at 8:14 pm
David Johnston says:
One of the major improvements that people should be looking forward to is the separation of the kernel from the drivers and the fact that programs will no longer be automatically run with administrator priveleges. Those features should make the OS more secure and stable.
Aside from that and the UI, I’m not really sure what other amazing improvements we should be looking forward to. I do think it’s funny that WinFS and now EFI were both originally planned for Vista but have now been relegated to a possible service pack release instead.
March 9th, 2006 at 8:32 pm
Jim Rose says:
Now people are bitching that you won’t be able to put Vista on a MacTel. You can’t have it both ways people, either you hate MS or not
. I would rather put OSX on my AMD box.
March 10th, 2006 at 4:57 am
ToeKnee says:
Other than leaving Windows users stuck in the BIOS ancient past, this will probably be good for Mac users, as it will encourage development of the virtual OS end (ala Virtual PC) and the emulators (WINE, for example) which will allow running many Windows apps without actually needing Windows.
March 10th, 2006 at 5:58 am
Jim Frost says:
Rob asks: “What’s left beside the UI changes?”
Well, there’s the inexplicable massive jump in required RAM.
jim
March 10th, 2006 at 7:32 am