What does this mean to non-Mac users? Imagine having access to Apple's beautiful hardware and yet running  your favorite Windows XP OS and Windows-based applications and games. Yes, you get the full potential of Intel's dual processor computer with Apple's hardware designed by Sir Jonathan Ives.

I know many people who envy Mac users because of the design of the computer but could not switch to Mac OS X primarily because of work and games (mostly games, really). Now, you get a chance to finally  use Apple's hardware.

What does this mean to Mac users? Well, Mac users have been able to run Microsoft Windows XP on  emulation via Microsoft's VirtualPC. Whilst it is very slow, it is tolerable if you only need to run an application or two. Windows-based games are definitely out of the question!

With the new Intel Macs, VirtualPC no longer works. Microsoft is  working on porting it to the new Intel Macs but that will take a while. The next available solution is to dual-boot it using BootCamp.

So, Mac users now have full access of their Windows applications at  native speed or even faster than running it on Windows-only hardware.

What does this mean to Linux users? Linux users have long been able to run Linux on Apple's hardware  using YellowDog Linux and Ubuntu Linux (yes, there are other Linux  distributions but these two are the only ones I have tried). However,  these are based on the PowerPC architecture. With today's Intel Macs,  it is quite difficult to install Linux primarily because Intel Mac  does not use BIOS but EFI.

Apple BootCamp provides all drivers for Windows XP. However, Apple  released a firmware update that enables BIOS support alongside EFI.  This alone will make Linux boot on Intel Macs. It is just a matter of  time before drivers for Linux will be made available and dual-booting  or triple-booting will be realized.

What does this mean to me? Apple BootCamp? Nothing. I do not need Windows. Everything I do -  from the day-to-day e-mail, web surfing, instant messaging, audio and  video conferencing to software development are done using the Mac  (and sometimes Linux). No, I don't play games either so I do not miss  using Windows!

However, I do like to be able to run another OS alongside Mac OS X. I  prefer running Linux or Solaris 10 alongside Mac OS X. But I do  not want to dual-boot or multi-boot my computer. I'd rather have the  OS running side-by-side or on top of Mac OS X by virtualization like  VirtualPC, VMWare or Parallels Workstation.

Dual-booting or Multi-booting is such a pain-in-the-you-know-what!  Think about this: you are writing your document on Apple's iWork  Pages and suddenly you need to get a data off of a Microsoft  Windows OS only application. It means that you have to save your  document, close all applications, reboot, access your data, save it  somewhere you can access whilst no longer running Windows, close the  app and reboot back to Mac OS X and run Pages! Tedious, isn't it?

I am really hoping that 10.5, which will be previewed this August, will include virtualization similar to how CodeWeaver's CrossOver  Office does it, i.e. running Windows applications without running the  entire Windows OS  GUI and all.

What does this mean to Apple? Well, I am speculating that they released BootCamp to prove that they  have the latest and greatest hardware available. NO other computer available in the market today can run both Moac OS X and Windows XP legitimately - meaning, no hacking required!

Buyers no longer need to maintain 2 computers - one running Mac OS X  and another running Windows XP. Even if you are such a Windows fan,  getting one that allows you to run Mac OS X is better than one that  doesn't, right? I mean, this is probably what Apple is hoping for as  well. That Mac OS X, after all, would be worth the try for customers.

So to everyone looking to buy new hardware, consider the Apple Intel  Macs now. Price might still be expensive compared to clones but remember: you pay for almost the same price for name-brand Windows - only (ok, Linux, too) computers!

A word of warning, though. Running Windows XP on Intel Macs is just  like running it on non-Apple hardware - meaning, you get all the  viruses, trojans, spyware, adware and all other malware available out  there! You also need a full non-OEM copy of Windows XP installer  (with SP2). One last thing, Apple BootCamp is BETA software. Apple  will not support it until it is officially released. Run it at your  own risk!

More info can be found at http://rom.feria.name/blog - where I talk  about my reasons for not getting excited about BootCamp. However, I  wish I could test it now - if only my editor will send me the Intel iMac review unit.