Friday, April 21, 2006

Windows apps native under OSX?

Robert Cringely gives his take on Apple's Boot Camp (via Slashdot), arguing that the reason behind the release is that Apple will not only offer dual-booting with Windows Vista, but the ability to run Windows applications running natively, without a copy of Windows at all...
... I also believe that Apple will offer in OS X 10.5 the ability to run native Windows XP applications with no copy of XP installed on the machine at all. This will be accomplished not by using compatibility middleware like Wine, but rather by Apple implementing the Windows API directly in OS X 10.5. - Robert Cringely
Perhaps so, after all Apple has had access to the full API documentation via a cross-licensing deal since the late 90's. With this as a starting point, and the long planned move to Intel up their sleeve, perhaps this isn't as crazy as it sounds...

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous12:28 am

    It amuses me how such a distinction is made between implementing the Windows API on top of OS X and a "middleware" layer like Wine, seen as Wine is merely an open source implementation of the Windows API, bundling it with the buzzword middleware doesn't change the fact it's nearly the same task as implementing the API again using cross-licensing, except Wine developers had to use guess work, open docs and reverse engineering, while Apple already have access to the information.

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