Why Boot Camp Doesn't Mean the End of Mac OS X

There's been a lot of discussion going on ever since Apple released Boot Camp, a program that sets up Intel-powered Macs to dual boot Mac OS X and Windows XP. A lot of that discussion has speculated as to what it means for the future of Mac OS X. Some people think it means that software developers will stop supporting the Mac. After all, why bother with a Mac OS X version when people can just reboot to Windows and use that?

Because people won't reboot.

My home PC is actually currently set up to triple boot, with the option of Windows XP Home, Gentoo Linux, and Ubuntu Linux (the latter just to play around with so I can give some advice on a good Linux distro for non-geeks, and so far I'd have to say it fits the bill a lot better than Fedora, though I still don't care much for Gnome...) But this is a viable setup for me since I don't use the PC as my primary computer -- that's what my Power Mac G5 is for -- and spends most of it's time powered off. So when I do want to use it for something, I just select which OS I want and go.

As an aside, it's really nice to have a second machine, I don't have to stop doing what I'm doing on the Mac. Instead I just turn to the PC and use it. It's really nice when I need directions for something: I can have the directions up in a web browser, Adobe Reader, or whatever, on the Mac while doing whatever it is I'm trying to do on the PC.

Which leads to why people won't want to reboot when they need to do something in Windows on an Intel-powered Mac. To do that, you have to stop whatever you're doing, restart the computer, and bring up Windows. If you're having an AIM chat with someone, you have to tell them you'll be right back, then log out of iChat when you reboot, then log into GAIM once Windows gets started and resume your conversation. It's a pain.

My work computer runs Fedora Linux. But there are some things that I need to do that I can only do with Windows. While my computer is configured to dual boot with Windows XP, I haven't actually done that. Instead, I also have VMWare Workstation installed, and when I need to do my Windows stuff, I just start up VMWare, resume the virtual machine, and do whatever I need to do. I don't have to close KDevelop, Evolution, Konsole, or any other apps I might have open, and can freely and smoothly move back and forth between Windows and Linux.

Yeah, it can be a bit slow (I used to have the virtual machine set for 188MB of RAM... not nearly enough for XP), once I noticed that and set it to 384MB things got better. There are some things that wouldn't work so well in the virtual machine, but nothing I need to do runs into that problem. I have heard that VMWare is working on a version to run on Mac OS X, and have also read the reports about Parallels Workstation, a competing product (a less expensive one, I might add).

So why won't developers say they don't need to create Mac OS X versions anymore, we can just run them in VMWare or Parallels? Two reasons.

One, this isn't really anything new. For one, Mac users have been able to run PC applications for years. I was running MS-DOS on a Mac LC II in the mid-1990s thanks to SoftPC. VirtualPC has taken over the market since the introduction of the PowerPC, and has been a viable (if not speedy) option to run Windows on Macs ever since. While virtualization products like VMWare and Parallels are faster since they don't have to emulate the Intel x86 processor architecture, it's still not quite as fast as running Windows naively, and having to start a second operating system on top of the first isn't that elegant. Plus, you're running in a window, or full screen, and not even semi-integrated like OS X's Classic mode.

More importantly is cost to the user. Neither VMWare, nor Parallels (the beta is, but the final version won't), nor Windows are free. Even if it was legal to do so, the version of Windows XP that comes with most store-bought PC's wouldn't install on an Intel Mac anyway, since it's not a full installer. Instead, what many manufacturers do is they ship a CD (or set of CDs) that contain an image of the contents of the hard drive the way it was when the computer shipped, with Windows and the bundled applications. Some companies don't even do that, instead including the image on the hard drive and telling the user to create a backup image using CD-Rs. There's no Windows installer to run.

So that means any switcher, who just got a new Intel-powered Mac, now has to go out and buy a copy of Windows XP. And not the upgrade edition either. That's $200 right there, for XP Home. Toss in another $100 if you want XP Pro instead (prices from CompUSA's web site). That's going to turn off a lot of people right there.

So even with Apple providing a way for users to dual boot with Windows XP, and third party vendors providing virtualization solutions, the Mac OS X application market isn't going to die.

So How is the Air?

On my way home from work today, I heard a story on the radio that an Environmental Protection Agency study had determined that California has the second dirtiest air, after New York. No real surprises there I guess, having spent plenty of time in LA.

But then they said that the study was based on air quality surveys taken in 1999, the most recent year that information is available. So in other words, California had the second-dirtiest air seven years ago. While it's nice to know how bad things were then, it would be a bit more useful if they had more recent data. Or if the study had come out, say, six years ago.

My Favorite Train

People who know me know that I have a thing for airplanes. What is less well-known is that I occasionally develop an interest in trains as well. Recently though, that interest has focused itself onto one train:

The Disneyland Monorail System.

The Mark V train is, quite simply, the best looking train in the world. It's sleek "LearJet" lines beat out those of the similar, but boxier and uglier Mark VI used at Walt Disney World. The Bombardier M-VI, a commercial derivative of the Mark VI used in Las Vegas, is uglier yet. Maybe it's just because I grew up at Disneyland, but to me a Mark V is what a monorail should look like.

The problem though, is that the Mark V isn't actually a full-size train. It is smaller than what you'd normally do, to help it fit in with Disneyland. So you'd have to make it taller (like the M-VI) and you'd lose the proportions. To compensate, you'd have to make the train wider as well, but since I'm not a Transportation Engineer, I can't say if that would introduce more problems.

That said, it's time to get your last rides on the Mark V, which has been in operation since 1987. It's currently running one way trips between Tomorrowland and Downtown Disney during construction of the new Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage. Later this year, it will close completely and in 2007, will reopen along with Nemo. At that time, new Mark VII trains are slated to appear.

Swiped from a MouseTimes Message Board thread, here's the concept drawing of what the Mark VII should look like:

I'll reserve judgment on it until I see the real thing, but in any case I'm sure I'll miss the Mark V.

Just don't get me started on Disney's using Disneyland's 50th Anniversary to advertise Walt Disney World. You'd think that at least in California, they'd advertise our park, the original, but no....

Honolulu Still Doesn't Get It

From the Honolulu Star-Bulletin:

He learned from City Council members that widening the entire roadway means a speed-limit reduction from 45 mph to 35 mph.

Let's see: Traffic congestion on Fort Weaver Road is a problem, so we'll add another lane. Good. But we'll also lower the speed limit.

Um, yeah. That makes sense.

In my opinion as a driver who learned to drive in Southern California, Hawaii's speed limits are already lower than they should be, and the cynic in me assumes that it is to generate additional revenue from speeding tickets. Whenever there is any sort of traffic accident in Hawaii, the media will nearly always say something along the lines of "speed may have been a factor."

Get over it already. Hawaii drivers aren't bad drivers because they drive too fast, they are bad drivers because the driver's education system in Hawaii is bad. Speed doesn't cause accidents, speed differences do.

Ba-Le in the Star-Bulletin

The Honolulu Star-Bulletin has an article today about the sandwiches at Ba-Le. Now I know they're called Bahn mi. And they are very yummy, however I wish more locations carried the teri beef sandwich, in my experience the one on Nimitz Highway near the airport is the only one that has them consistently.

Too bad it's 2,600 miles away...

Wings of Paradise: Hawaii's Incomparable Airlines

Recently received my copy of this new book, and read it over the holiday weekend. I enjoyed it immensely, and recommend it to anyone interested in Hawaii's aviation history. Unlike some of the previous books, it covers the entire industry, rather than focusing on either Hawaiian Airlines (as in Kennedy's Hawaiian Air) or Aloha Airlines (50 Years of Aloha, published by Aloha Airlines itself). Both of these books are slanted towards the history of the airline's story they're trying to tell, such as often referring to Aloha as "Brand X" in Kennedy's Hawaiian Air. You get some of this feeling from Wings of Paradise, as well, but because it alternates between telling the story of Hawaiian, Aloha, Mid Pacific, Royal Hawaiian, Discovery, Mahalo, and others, you get a pretty balanced picture in the end.

My biggest complaint with the book is that it's a bit short on recent details. Coverage of Island Air, for example, is pretty much limited to the start as Princeville Airways, the acquisition by Aloha and name change to Aloha IslandAir, the crash on Molokai, and the final name change to Island Air, and the sale to Gavarnie Holding, though the acquiring company isn't mentioned by name in the book. Omitted from Island Air's history is the airline's brief flirtation with the Dornier Do 228 and eventual replacement of the Twin Otters with the Dash 8. It also missed the point that a contributing factor to Mahalo Air's downfall was the replacement of new ATR-42s with older examples that ended up costing the airline a lot in maintenance expenses. I can forgive omission of some of the recent events due to the lead time in book publishing, such as Island Air's planned acquisition of Q400 aircraft and details on Mesa and FlyHawaii's plans (though FlyHawaii is also not mentioned by name). But completely omitting Pacific Wings is a definite oversight.

However, one must keep in mind that it's easer to find out about more recent events, and perhaps omitting them now is reasonable course of action in favor of waiting to see how they effect the industry in the long term.

Movies

I realized today that the last movie I saw in a theater is out on DVD. This can mean one of several things, or more likely, a combination of all.

1. I don't see enough movies.
2. Most movies aren't worth watching in theaters.
3. Movie to DVD time is a lot lower than it used to be for VHS.
   

Green Day Videos

I was watching a few Green Day videos earlier today (American Idiot, Holiday, and Boulevard of Broken Dreams, if you must know) and noticed they had a green tint to them. At first I was thinking it was a reference to The Matrix, where the simulated world of the Matrix is presented with a green tint, drawing a sort of connection to the two.

Then I remembered the name of the band...

Website back up

Finally, my web site is back up. Took longer to get the DSL installed in my new apartment than I originally expected.

Web Site Down

Yes, my web site that hosts Quanterium.com including The Mueller Quadrant and Mid Pacific Images is currently down. I expect it should be back up around November 1st.