onmac.net
Hackers Get Windows XP on Apple Computers
The game has now been changed. This signals a massive “reset” of the players and field and a new game is about to begin.
And how did this all happen? I believe this is a perfect example of the power of the Open Source model of software development. Microsoft said it could not be done. Apple refused to take part. Folks bellowed about EFI, lack of drivers and why should we even be playing this game to begin with?
And some upstart from who-knows-where figured it out in under a month.
The challenge was to get Windows XP to boot on the new Intel-based iMac
Some nut put $100 of his own cash into a pot and said; “Come and add your cash to the pile I plan to give to the person who can make this work.” A month goes by and the pot is up to over $13,000. Wow! You mean that is all it takes for someone to stay up nights and figure out how to make XP boot on a Mac?
There is simply no way a large firm like Apple or M$ could pay $13k to get this type of functionality. And this is just the beginning of the hacking. Most folks who will throw in improvements will do so for nothing. BitTorrents already has the bootable working Mac OS X 10.4.4 Install DVD for x86 machines floating around. Another week, maybe two, and someone will create a simple installer. Running multiple OS’s at the same time can not be far away.
1,000 motivated hackers will always beat the best in-house team of developers given an equal start. There are 10’s of thousands of developers out in the world who love to hack this way. Everyone contributes a little something. Many hands make light work.
In-house developers have a two main advantages: They know the platform and the requirements. If there is no money in the pot, they also have the advantage of getting paid.
Open-Source Development, on the other hand, has a few benefits itself. The main one is just about unlimited resources. The USA got rich not because we were the smartest or had the best natural resources. We had an unpaid labor force that would work 6 days a week from dawn ’til dusk. China now has a similar labor force and it is raising even quicker than the USA did. Open-Source developers work for little or nothing and are motivated beyond reason.
The only way closed-source development will continue to excel is by hiding the platform and the requirements. Patents are key here since they allow the patent holder to define the rules of the game.
Am I rambling? Certainly. It is 3:30am and I am a happy camper. The seed of change has been planted. XP will run on Macs and Linux already does. If Apple makes the best hardware and choosing OS X means you can run the three most popular OS’s… why choose? Why not have it all?
The future is bright indeed.