Why dual booting Apple computers are a big deal in games in education

Apple has just announced boot camp, a simple dual booting utility for inte-based Macs.

As a public educator, with a school filled with Apple computers, this is very encouraging news. 

No longer are we stuck in a world of Apple OR Windows.  Now we have a fantastic opportunity to use the incredible tools which come with OS X (iLife , iTunes and all the beautiful OS X software) and the great games available on Windows.  Simply fantastic. 

This is great news.  OS X is reallly quite superior in so many ways - ease of use, available software, unix roots, iLife, etc…. However, the one area OS X has been lacking is mainstream games.  Now with dual booting, there is really no reason not to buy a Macintosh.  I would love to use Muzzy Lane’s great game Making History but alas, no luck on OS X.

With OS X’s windows-friendly Server managing the two platforms is a cinch…kids can even access their documents on a shared resource!  It’s great news for education folks who are looking for the best of both worlds! 

The only drawback?  OS X users /will/ need to be very careful of the virii and spyware on Windows boxes now!!!!

Edit: Raph Koster asks: are Mac Games going to die?  I say: probably.

On 05 April 2006, Raj Boora inscribed the following thoughts about this post:

Hi Bill - I just blogged on this as well, one thing to point out however.  Schools will need to have a lab of the newer Intel Macs to do this (at about $700 for the mini that is reasonable) and lucky for us, that unless there is a virus that is going specifically after hardware or the OSX install through the Windows side, we should be safe (though that is likely how it’s going to happen anyway so point well made).

It certainly will help ensure that students now have the best tools for the job.  In my opinion, the iLife Apps are the best solution for many of the projects that we want k-12 kids to do when it comes to multi-media.

On 06 April 2006, Bill inscribed the following thoughts about this post:

Good points as always Raj.

I especially agree with you about iLife - I think they are the best classroom-multimedia tools you can find.

I think it’s the virus thing which makes me nervous.  Many rootkits so thoroughly embed themselves it is quite diffficult to remove them. I wonder if we will see a new after-market emerge for removal of windows virii from OS X? heh.

On 07 April 2006, Raj Boora inscribed the following thoughts about this post:

One thing that is a good sign for OSX protection is that XP gets a separate partition (that is created non destructively) and unless the malware can guess the name of the OSX partition I don’t think it will be able to make the jump.  That being said, it could format all partitions and fubar the entire works that way.

I like what MS said this week on malware - it gets so deep that the only way to get it out now is to start again.

On 07 April 2006, Dave McDivitt inscribed the following thoughts about this post:

Bill

This is interesting news.  I have some things in the works that if the good Lord willing and the creek don’t rise I could end up with enough money to invest in a portable lab for our school.  My school is pc and I want the lab for gaming purposes.  My decision just got more difficult—any advice??

On 08 April 2006, Raj Boora inscribed the following thoughts about this post:

Dave, I know you asked Bill, but if you want another take - for a gaming lab, get XP machines.  They are cheaper and for the time being easier to support gaming wise (especially if they are never allowed to go online into the “wild”).  At 3K a piece, a MacBook Pro is going to be a pricey alternative.

On 08 April 2006, Dave McDivitt inscribed the following thoughts about this post:

Raj

Thanks for the information.  I never really considered Mac until I read Bill’s post.  Hopefully the $$ will come through.