In a previous thread, I had wagered that Apple will try its level best to keep Bill Gates' dirty hands off their brand-spanking new Intel-based Macs. I was wrong.

 

Link

Some people say it won't actually be compatible with XP

However what in theory may look easy may in fact prove impossible. As OS X software developer Unsanity explains in its blog, the new Macs use EFI (extensible firmware interfaces) to provide the interface between the operating system and the platform firmware instead of the standard PC BIOS.

 

'According to various documents from Microsoft, Windows for x86 machines does not support booting from EFI and won't until Windows Vista is released,' Unsanity notes.

 

What this also means is that it will not prove easy to port OS X to other hardware.

 

'As far as I know, no consumer PC ships with EFI support (why bother if Windows doesn't support it, right?). ...it'll be significantly harder to make OS X run on a stock PC without EFI,' continues Unsanity.

Edited January 11, 200620 yr by Surreptishus

Thanks Surreptishus, that's interesting info. I hadn't heard about this EFI thingy before. At any rate, if Vole and Jobs come to an "agreement" of any sort, they are probably going to make it work. Maybe not with XP, but definitely Vista onwards.