When Apple released the first of its Intel-based Macs, there was
immediate interest in running Windows on them - not necessarily to
replace Mac OS X, but as an additional option, allowing Macintel
owners to run software (like Microsoft Access database) that doesn't
have Mac equivalents without performance-sapping workarounds like
Virtual PC (which isn't available for the new Macs in any event).
There was an initial optimism; it ought to be easy. After all, these
Mac models were using the same sort of Intel CPU as all millions of
Windows systems. But as I pointed out in my January 24th article,
Windows on Intel Macs? OS X on PCs? Don't Hold Your
Breath, it was harder than it looked.
The Intel Macs use a new-generation startup called EFI Extensible
Firmware Interface) rather than the PC-standard BIOS used on nearly all
Windows systems. Windows XP (and earlier versions) has no built-in
support for EFI.
In fact, while there was early hope that EFI would be supported in
the upcoming Windows Vista operating system, Microsoft recently
announced that only 64-bit versions of Vista would have EFI
support.
The Intel Macs are 32-bit systems.
As it became clearer that getting Windows to work on the Intel Macs
would be a challenge, Houston shipping broker Colin Nederkoorn decided
to formalize the challenge. He offered what started off as a $100
reward and solicited donations to up the ante for the first
demonstration of Windows running on a new Mac. Eventually nearly
US$14,000 was donated to OnMac.net.
There were some conditions: Windows needed to coexist with the Mac
OS, the two operating systems must not interfere with one another, and
upon boot up, a user would need to be able to choose between the two
operating systems.
On March 16th, two Bay Area software developers, Jesus Lopez and
Eric Wasserman, won the prize. (Lopez says he never owned a Mac before
buying one to work on the challenge).
Details of the steps necessary to create a dual-boot system have
been released and are available for download from OnMac.net. They have
been open-sourced, allowing the developer community to improve on
them.
I haven't tested them, but while they appear do-able, they're not
for the faint of heart. As a first step, they require setting up
separate partitions on the Mac's hard drive for OS X and Windows.
Using Disk Utility on the OS X install CD, this would require nuking
your current OS X installation and all the hard drive contents. An
EFI bootloader is included in the download.
Apparently, when the grey screen with the Apple logo appears at the
beginning of startup, this process allows a user to press the
down-arrow; that brings up a Windows logo on the grey background.
Pressing enter confirms the choice of Windows, and bootup continues to
the Windows XP system.
The solution has been demonstrated working on 17" versions of the
Intel iMac, the new
Intel Mac mini models, and
the MacBook
Pro.
Nederkoorn is hoping that the open-source development will help it
evolve into something that's easier to apply for nontechnical computer
users. 
