One of the tools that Apple includes with OS X that provides a safety net for new Mac users is Boot Camp. This feature has been around since 2006 and has been included with OS X since 2007 with the release of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.
The product has been upgraded to support new operating systems, like Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista 64-bit, and Windows 7. Usually users were able to decide which operating system they wanted to install. This is no longer the case with the new Mac Book Pros.
With the new MacBook Pros, the only operating system that works with Boot Camp is Windows 7, although you can still choose 32 or 64-bit versions. There are only three versions of Windows 7 that are supported: Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional and Ultimate. This means that Windows 7 Starter and Windows 7 Enterprise are not supported.
The reason that Windows 7 is the only version supported is that Windows XP is no longer being developed, outside of security fixes, and Windows Vista is too much of a hog, at least in my experience. The second reason is that Apple doesn’t want to put development time into dead platforms.
If you’re planning on buying a new MacBook Pro and need Windows installed, you may want to leave a little extra room in your upgrade budget if you don’t already own a copy of Windows 7.
Article Via ZDNet
