First of all, Apple's Boot Camp only works for a limited amount of time.
Second of all, we need an alternative to the "official" Apple solution. Having a 3rd party "unofficial" open source solution is the best way to keep the pressure on Apple and make sure that they are not just throwing together a sub-standard hack job that gets the job done. Actually, I don't think the "powers that be" at Apple feel pressure, but I guarantee that the engineers that are working on Boot Camp do. If they are not just pure automatons, they can't help but to feel a little competitive, and they are surely watching what happens on this site, and maybe even lifting code and ideas generated here outright.
I strongly feel that this site is singlehandedly responsible for Apple's release of Boot Camp so early. I am not even convinced that Apple was ever planning on doing an XP installer until the contest got started. Even if it was always part of their plans, I personally have little doubt that the release of a solution on this site has prompted them to push Boot Camp out the door sooner. But whether any of that is true or not is irrelevant. We still need an alternative to Apple's solution. And we need people like you guys on this site to keep the pressure on and ensure that we are getting the highest performance, most stable version of Windows running on MacIntels.
I really appreciate the work that is done here, and hope that those of you who have contributed don't abandon ship. This thread really scares me:
http://forum.onmac.net/showthread.php?t=708
I have followed the contest, and these forums, since the beginning, but I finally registered on the OnMac Forums today, just to make this one post. There was no reason for me to post in the past because most of the people here are so far beyond my technical skill level that I couldn't have ever hoped to add value. But I thought it would be worthwhile to register and state my opinion on this non-technical issue because I really don't want to see this project die. I realize that some of the issues I have raised have been discussed in other posts already, but not right up front on the main forum page.
Regards.
As a non-technical user, I would hope that this project results in:
1) An easy to use Windows installer that works with:
- XP Home - 2nd AND *1st* edition
- XP Pro - 2nd AND *1st* edition
2) Supports all the drivers needed.
3) Works with Mac Software Update and Windows Update
4) Windows bootable from an external USB or Firewire disk.
Anything else is icing on the cake.