3. OS X And Windows XP On The Same Stage

OS X is a UNIX based operating system built on BSD so it affords power users a great amount of flexibility. It will take some learning for non-UNIX users, but I think you'll find the time is worth it. Unlike most flavors of UNIX or Linux OS X has a very attractive and intuitive user interface that any experienced PC user will find easy to work with. That said, OS X lacks support for many of the Windows applications users may already have, such as games. You might want to try a program that simulates Windows in OS X, but truthfully the best way right now to use Windows based applications and games is in Windows.

It's time for Apple's BootCamp, in beta testing at the time of this writing. BootCamp supports the installation of Windows XP with Service Pack 2 on Intel based Apple PC's. You install BootCamp while booted in OS X. The software creates a driver CD for the installation of XP. BootCamp then opens a partitioning tool that allows you to dynamically create a new hard disk partition where you will install Windows. Apple thought this tool out pretty well as it prevents the shrinking of the OS X partition too much, allowing for an equal split of the partition, and everything in between.

BootCamp is an easy to use utility you use to prepare an Apple MacBook for the installation of Windows XP, SP 2.

Once the partition is created BootCamp asks if you want to install Windows now. If you select yes, the PC reboots and the system allows the Windows XP CD to boot up and install Windows XP on the newly created partition. Once the installation is completed, Windows reboots and you are able to install the drivers from the CD created earlier.

Once Windows is installed, each time the computer is booted you can select the OS that you wish to use by pressing the alt or option key on boot up. This provides a menu to pick the drive symbol representing the OS you want. Inside Windows XP you have a new item on the Control Panel called "Start Disk" that provides a similar choice. OS X has the same type of utility under its control panel and it also allows you to pick the primary booting OS as shown here. So now the Apple MacBook Pro is able to run either OS X or Windows XP and it is just that easy.