Excessively Nervous Apple Worries About Threat From Its Own Boot CampExcessively Nervous Apple Worries About Threat From Its Own Boot Camp

Apple last week delivered a far-fetched warning to investors that Boot Camp on Macs could backfire, and cause developers to write fewer Mac apps. That's just plain wrong.Boot Camp is an incentive for Windows users to switch to the Mac, which will lead to more demand for applications and therefore more -- not less -- Mac software.

Boot Camp is a utility that lets users dual-boot Intel-based Macs to run either Windows or Mac OSX. In a report to investors last week, Apple warned that developers might not bother porting applications to the Mac, relying on Boot Camp to give them access to Mac users.

But Apple doesn't need to worry. Boot Camp, and other solutions for running Windows on the Mac, are awkward. They're fine if you need occasional access to Windows apps. But they're no substitutes for running native Mac applications. If you really, really need to run Windows apps -- buy a PC.

Boot Camp is awkward because it requires a reboot. Once you're in Windows mode, you're no longer running a Mac. You're running a PC that happens to have a lot of Mac OS X bits on the hard disk. Want access to your Mac apps again? Gotta reboot.

Virtualization presents other option for Windows apps on the Mac. Parallels Desktop from Parallels, Inc., and VMWare Fusion allow users to run Windows in a virtual machine on the Mac. It's pretty amazing stuff. But I've been using Parallels for several months now, and I've found its dirty little secret: It significantly slows the performance of Mac apps while it's running. That makes it difficult to keep Windows -- and Windows apps -- running in the background while you're working on other things that require a lot of compute power.

Similarly, CrossOver Mac from CodeWeavers is an emulator that lets you run Windows applications directly on the Mac OS. But only a subset of apps are supported by CrossOver; its Compatibility Center lists 3,482 supported apps as I write this. That's a huge number and is quite impressive -- unless an application you need is not on the list. I tried running Second Life under CrossOver recently, it laughed at me.

No, if you're a user who absolutely, positively needs to run a Windows app as a business mainstay, there's only one real solution: Buy a PC.

And if you're a software developer looking to sell to Mac users, there's only one real solution: Write your application natively for the Mac. And that's trickier than just porting a Windows app -- you need to make your application conform to the Mac's user interface guidelines. Part of what make the Mac more usable than the PC is that application behavior is more consistent. (That is, except for when them cotton'-pickin' Windows-developin' varmints port their applications to the Mac without respecting the Mac UI. I'm looking at you, Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac.)

The Boot Camp warning to investors smells like the kind of thing that publicly-traded companies disclose because their lawyers tell them regulators require it, not because it's actually a realistic threat. Sure, if developers desert Mac OS X because of Boot Camp that'd be bad. But it would also be bad if Apple's Cupertino headquarters were hit by a meteor, teleported to another planet, or destroyed in a freak, 30-foot-high tidal wave of molasses.

What do you think? Do you rely on Parallels, VMWare, Boot Camp, or CrossOver extensively, or do you reserve those for occasional use of Windows apps? Leave a message below and let us know.