Apple announced official today that the next version of OS X 10.5 (Leopard) will be released on the 26th of October. I consider this great news, just too bad that I mainly use my Mac Pro for Windows XP.

I’m using Boot Camp for this of course, which allows OS X users to install various versions of Windows, such as XP and Vista. It includes all the drivers needed for the hardware. When all is installed it is possible to dual boot, meaning, upon boot you can select what operation system you want to boot. It is of course also possible just to let it boot into a selected OS each time.

Boot Camp is a great product for us who likes the quality of the Mac hardware but needs to run Windows XP due to work. But so far Boot Camp has been in beta ever since it was released, latest release was 1.4 beta. I would have liked to link directly to it but the page about it has been taken down after they announced Leopard for the 26th. Some of the pages do direct to the Boot Camp information for Leopard, so have a look at that on

This also means no Boot Camp for people who run OS X 10.4 (Tiger) unless Apple decides to release a standalone version.

So based on this it must mean that Boot Camp is no longer in beta and will see the light as final release together with Leopard, no surprise really.

There are new drivers according to the new feature page. I just hope there will be some serious updates also. I made a small wish list of things I would like to see improved, all related to Mac Pro, as this is what I got.

1. Better support for ATI X1900 XT graphics card.
   This is a known issue on the forums, that some fail to get Windows booting and some have issues with blue screen of death when it is rebooted, or just that display is trashed with random graphics. I have had these issues and still have them from time to time. Not a big deal for me; just requires an extra reboot. But really, this should not be the case.
2. More than 2 GB of memory.
   Windows XP can handle 3 GB normally but when running on a Mac Pro it is limited to 2 GB no matter what configurations are done to Windows. MacBook Pro can handle more than 2GB, so it is related to the firmware of the Mac Pro (I assume).
   Mac Pro itself can support up to 32 GB when using OS X but I doubt that many can afford this.
3. Support for multiple graphics cards.
   I can not confirm this problem but according to the forums there are serious issues (such as it does not work) when using two ATI X1900 XT cards or combinations of ATI and NVIDIA. I have been considering to getting more graphics card as I got an unused monitor here but as long as there are doubts about if it will work I will wait.
4. Sound and sound plugs.
   This might just be an issue for me or maybe I have done something wrong (or is using wrong plugs). I’m not able to use the sound plugs at the back of the Mac, so I have my speakers connected to the headset on the front.

I don’t think that’s a long wish list but let’s wait till after the 26th and see what Apple has improved. I’m pretty sure that I will upgrade but who knows maybe they do release the final OS X 10.5 to developers with paid membership.