Boot Camp: what is it?

Boot Camp is a software developped by Applein cooperation with Microsoftdesigned to run natively Windows on Mac hardware. Using Boot Camp, you don’t have to choose between macOS or Windows. You can install both, and you can switch between them simply by rebooting and selecting the other operating system.

The configuration of Windows 10 on a Mac requires an image ISO of Windows 10 provided by Microsoft. Boot Camp combines Windows 10 with installation scripts to install the hardware drivers of the targeted Mac computer. Boot Camp currently supports Windows 10 on Macs dating from mid-2012 or newer.

History before Boot Camp

Prior to 2006, there was a clear line of demarcation between Apple Macintosh computers and Windows-PC. macOS could not work on computer, and Microsoft Windows couldn’t run on Macs. This created a big divide between the users of each system. It was not uncommon to hear heated discussions between two users about which system was better. A few brave souls tried to take a holistic approach by trying to run both systems using virtualization software, but even that had limitations. If you wanted to use the full functionality of both operating systems, you had to buy both a Mac and a PC.

But, in 2006, everything changed. Indeed, that year Apple began to abandon its PowerPC processors and offer Mac hardware equipped with processors. Intel like those used in PCs. This allowed Windows and apps Windows-based to run on Mac hardware like on PCs. At the same time, Apple released Mac OS X Tiger (10.4), the first Mac operating system compatible with Intel processors.

Incompatibility with Apple Silicon Macs

Shortly after WWDC 2020 (the conference annual developers) and the announcement of the transition from Intel Macs to processors RMA, the senior vice president of software engineering at Apple has confirmed that Boot Camp will not be compatible on new Macs but will remain available on Intel machines. The reason given by Apple is Microsoft’s strict policy on the distribution of the ARM version of Windows, in particular due to an agreement with Qualcomm.