One quibble is that there's no warning given at this point that if the Windows partition you create is larger than 32GB, formatting it as FAT32 instead of NTFS will not be an option during Windows installation (this is a FAT32 limitation). This will affect the ability to transfer files between the two operating systems Apple's OS X can read and write to the Windows FAT file system, but has read-only access to NTFS. Windows XP can't access the OS X HFS partition at all without third-party software. But that barrier could be a blessing in disguise, since it keeps the OS X partition relatively safe from the flood of viruses, Trojans, and spyware that are much more common in the Windows world. A word to the wise, however the Windows installation here has the exact same need for regular, frequent patches and updates as any other Windows instance.
There are a few other rough edges in Boot Camp. During Windows installation, if you choose anything other than the C: partition to install to (and of course the Windows installer gives no warning here), you can instantly wipe out your OS X partition accidentally. Printing out Apple's installation instructions and following them to the letter is advisable here, particularly for novice users.
In addition, Apple says the iSight camera, the Apple Remote, the USB modem, and the MacBook Pro keyboard backlighting aren't supported, but all of the other hardware on my iMac was fully recognized and supported, and worked virtually flawlessly. I had one early instance of failure to wake from sleep in Windows, requiring a hard boot, but it wasn't repeatable. The system time doesn't transfer automatically from OS X to Windows, so setting Windows to grab the time from a network time server is a good idea. Finally, Windows cannot boot from an external drive, so carrying around a self-contained Windows XP installation on a FireWire or USB drive unfortunately isn't currently an option.
Clean, Easy, and XP
Those relatively minor caveats aside (and Apple says it's working on fixes for the remaining hardware and time issues), Boot Camp was clean, easy, and enabled full-speed native use of Windows XP. Using Boot Camp, you can't switch back and forth between operating systems without a reboot. If you need that capability, a beta version of a virtualization product from Parallels has just been released, which might be worth a look.
Apple's senior director of Mac OS X product marketing, Brian Croll, says Boot Camp is designed for two main kinds of customers: those who have a handful of mission-critical Windows apps they need to run, and potential switchers to Mac who want the security blanket of being able to run Windows "just in case." If this logic proves sound, Apple may have a big winner here, and Microsoft certainly won't mind selling some extra copies of Windows to Mac owners.
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