Mac to PC Prize

Apple’s switch to Intel based machines makes it possible to actually run Windows (rather than emulate Windows) on a Mac.  Who made this possible?  Was it Apple?  Microsoft?  Intel?  No, it was Jesus, Jesus Lopez.  David Pogue writes about the patch and the innovative prize that motivated the programming.

Colin Nederkoorn created "a contest Web site, OnMac.net.
The challenge: to figure out how to install Windows on an Intel-based
Mac. The prize: a pot donated by interested parties all over the
Internet, seeded by $100 from Mr. Nederkoorn.

The doubters:
plentiful. "You do realize that it’s not technologically possible
without rewriting the bootloader?" wrote one respondent. "Take your 100
bucks and save it."

The winner: Jesus Lopez, a  San Francisco-area  programmer who collected a pot that had grown to $13,854.

…It runs most Windows software beautifully, but the rough edges are a
reminder that these are the earliest days in the Age of FrankenMac….

Thanks to Daniel Akst for the pointer.

Addendum: Chris Rasch points out that Apple is now also getting on the bandwagon.  (I like this warning, "Windows running on a Mac is like Windows running on a PC. That means
it’ll be subject to the same attacks that plague the Windows world….")

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