WINE-like technology in Leopard?

What if Apple went beyond Boot Camp and let users of its next operating system, OS X 10.5 “Leopard,” run Windows programs right in OS X?

It’s an interesting question, and one raised by Tonio Loewald in his blog. Go ahead an read that entry; I will still be here.

As Daracot, who posted a comment on that blog, hinted, this could be big. If Apple could let users run .exe files right in OS X, it could remove perhaps the biggest reason people use Windows: The huge number of applications that only run in Windows.

Of course, the interface changes are still there, and slightly unsettling at first to Mac newbies. The colored balls on the upper left hand of windows being used to close them – as opposed to the X everyone in Windows is used to – is a big shock, as is the Dock, the Application menue, and the lack of a button labeled Start.

However, those are easy to overcome. Enticed by a lack of viruses and malware, perhaps a significant number of users just might “Switch.”

Update, 2007-07-10: Daniel Eran over at RoughlyDrafted.com says the so-called Red Box or WINE in OS X won’t ever exist, due to the extreme complexity of the Windows API (more accurately APIs, plural), the effort required to do such a project, the embarrassment of seeming to admit that OS X is nothing without Windows programs (not true, after all!), and the lack of real benefit. His argument makes a lot of sense, but we can still hope, can’t we?

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