I use Windows 10 on my iMac more than I do macOS. I like the ability to fully choose one of the two most successful operating systems. I like the right not to deny myself any applications and games. If iron allows, why not?
Unfortunately, Apple has other plans. Bootcamp days are numbered, and the impossible must happen for this trend to reverse. Even Microsoft got tired of waiting and simply announced virtualization as the new standard for running Windows on a Mac.
Everything suggests that in two or three years, as the last Mac on Intel processors loses support for the latest versions of macOS, we will lose both the application of the same name and everything related to Bootcamp in the Apple ecosystem.
And this sad.
How is Bootcamp different from some Parallels?
It’s an iMac, and thanks to Bootcamp, it’s a complete PC.
Bootcamp virtualization is better because you run the operating system as is, directly on the hardware of your Mac. This is not an emulation, as in Parallelsnamely the full Windows.
No none restrictions for applications, games and OS customization options – this is the same “Windows” as on any PC.
In Bootcamp you 100% Mac hardware power available, and not what remains after Windows emulation and the needs of macOS running in the background. Games, software, the system as a whole works incomparably faster than they are in a similar virtual machine.
Why is bootcamp dying?
Bootcamp users are no longer able to install some Windows 10 updates.
Bootcamp is no longer interesting to Apple. The company left Intel for its ARM processors. It is logical to leave native compatibility with Windows overboard: since they began to burn bridges, then in a big way. As part of a new policy of decoupling Macs from PCs as much as possible, the Cupertinos are getting rid of platform ballast that arose at less fortunate times.
In recent years, before the announcement of Apple Silicon processors, it became clear that the company had completely lost interest in Bootcamp. Newer MacBooks and iMacs still work with Windows 10, but with a lot of caveats that are slowly growing. For example, there were problems with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth drivers – some of the 2017-2019 firmware have survived to this day.
Bugs that appear with the release of major updates to Windows 10 began to be fixed for six months or completely forgotten. By the way, now all Mac owners with Bootcamp have an error installing one of the Windows 10 security updates – and nothing can be done about it. She’s been like this for three months now.
AMD drivers for Mac were last updated in Summer 2022.
Drivers for Radeon video cards built into some Mac models have practically ceased to be updated. A whole project of alternative AMD drivers for Apple grew out of this story – bootcampdrivers.com. I use these myself. They work more or less normally, but sooner or later this shop will be closed.
For those who don’t know, you can’t just update the video chip driver in Bootcamp: the standard AMD driver installers do not recognize the Mac hardware. You can only use special versions of the software available in dedicated section of the AMD website.
Third-party drivers are still more or less saving the situation, but only delaying the inevitable finale.
Its content is updated once a year, sometimes two years – or even abandoned on some ancient version of the driver, which may cause some fresh games to not start or specialized software to not work. For example, the latest driver for Apple’s penultimate Intel Mac, iMac 2020, is 2 full versions behind the real one (21 against 23).
Finally, Bootcamp in general does not support Windows 11 installation. The Apple installer does not want to recognize the ISO file of this version of the system. If desired, the restriction can be bypassed, but there is virtually no support for Win11 at the level of official drivers.
What can revive Bootcamp on Mac?
The bright future of the Mac, according to Apple, has no place for Windows.
Nothing but one – significant, potentially critical falling Mac sales.
This is a business, no wonder. Bootcamp as an idea originated when Apple could sacrifice the identity of the Mac for the sake ofABOUTmore sales. “Switchers” had to be attracted by anything, even by completely erasing the macOS partition, if only they bought the laptop itself or a monoblock with an “apple”.
Now this strategy is absolutely uninteresting for companies: services and a closed ecosystem are increasingly driving revenue. The idea that someone will buy a brand new Mac and wipe Ventura off it for Windows 11, in the current Apple value system, looks like an iPhone 14 Pro Max with Android 13 on board. This is impossible.
Mac sales, even now, in times of a clear recession in the consumer electronics market, are not falling much, staying afloat relative to the statistics of competitors from the PC world. There is no prospect of a sudden “rollback” of Apple’s strategy.
So bootcamp now living out the last years, and will soon become the property of the so-called “obsolete” Macs – with all the ensuing consequences. Let’s wave to him. Someone like me will be bored, but in the general mass we are a minority, and our opinion of the company is clearly not interesting.
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I use Windows 10 on my iMac more than I do macOS. I like the ability to fully choose one of the two most successful operating systems. I like the right not to deny myself any applications and games. If iron allows, why not? Unfortunately, Apple has other plans. Bootcamp’s days are numbered and the impossible must happen for this trend to…
Nikita Goryainov
@ngoryainov
Editor-in-Chief iPhones.ru. Thanks for reading us. Have a question, suggestion or something interesting? Write to [email protected]
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