BEIJING, March 17 (Xinhuanet)-- A pair of Californians have won a competition to find a solution to allow users to boot Windows XP on the new Intel Macs from Apple, gaining them more than 13,000 US dollars in prize money.

    Previously, Mac users wishing to run Windows on their machines were forced to do so using emulation¡ªessentially an extra layer of software¡ªthat would enable Microsoft's OS to work with Apple hardware. But such solutions were slow and imperfect. The current fix eliminates the need for this extra layer, allowing Windows to run ¡°natively¡± at about the same speed it would clock on a PC.

    The victory of the two anonymous winners gives hope to those seeking to abandon their dual-computing lifestyle. At the same time, it may force companies like Apple, which has allowed only its own operating system on its machines, to rethink this longtime strategy.

    In January, Colin Nederkoorn of Houston began taking donations for a prize to be awarded to the first developer who came up with a way to boot an Intel Mac into either Mac OS X or Windows XP. Within days, he had raised thousands.

    Nederkoorn had set a March 23 deadline -- later extended to March 30 -- for a dual-boot solution, and had promised that if no one came up with an answer, he would donate the money to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).

    Two men collaborated to come up with the solution, said Nederkoorn. Although he said they lived in California, he wouldn't disclose their names, saying that they wanted to remain anonymous for now.

    To produce a dual-boot Mac, users must customize a Windows XP installation CD by burning a new disc that includes the custom bootloader files. The Mac must also be partitioned -- a disk partitioning utility is included with the machine -- so that Mac OS X and Windows XP can co-exist on the same drive. Enditem

(Agencies)