We go away for a few days, and what happens? The lamescream media is still rabitting on about Apple putting the boot in and, as far as we can tell, without mentioning the fact it had aready been done by Blanka and Narf.

But there's a difference.

B&N's effort was genuine - jenyooine - although, like so many things, it went largely unreported by you know who.

"Hell froze over this week as Apple Computer unveiled Boot Camp, a free program that will allow its new Macintosh computers with Intel microprocessors to run Microsoft's Windows XP operating system as an alternative to Apple's OS X," opined Robert X Cringely in a New York Times op ed. "The news media were agog and Apple's stock price zoomed at the announcement."

But, "In my view, it was mildly interesting, but hardly the revolution Apple users want to see."

Hell freezing over? Mildly interesting?

Anyhow, as CNET's Charles Cooper asks, "Dare I say this aloud? Boot Camp is a gimmick."

Why wouldn't you say it out loud, Charles? Afraid of a Mac attack? They can be nasty ; )

Be that as it may, Apple had, "zero interest in getting people to use Windows on a Mac," he says. "No accident that Apple's not going to support Windows on the Mac. They want the voyeurs to take a peek at Mac OS and be seduced by all its charms."

And thanks to the Apple press core, the story is still running endlessly, beating out events of real importance.

But, as Bob X says:

"Now, here is some breaking news: word in Silicon Valley is that another reason Microsoft wasn't surprised by Boot Camp is that the company has been quietly working with Apple for months to make sure that Windows Vista (the next generation of Windows, which is supposed go on sale next January) will run on Macs with Intel chips.

"If that is true, we can expect Apple to make it possible to run Windows Vista alongside its own operating system by putting an improved Boot Camp into the next version of OS X (which we can guess now will also ship next January). I don't know if the folks at Apple would then actually sell copies of Windows Vista preloaded on their hardware, but it is hard to imagine why they wouldn't, since it would be an easy source of revenue and be popular with business customers."

Don't bother to stay tuned.

Also See:
New York Times - Microsoft's Mac Attack, April 8, 2006
CNET - Dare I say this aloud? Boot Camp is a gimmick, April 10, 2006
real importance - Windows on Macs, April 6, 2006