Planning to dual-boot with your Intel based PCs with Apple’s OS X Leopard, or just want to install Leopard on your Intel PCs? Well here is how you do it: the crew at OSx86 scene managed to break the barrier with Leopard and found a way to install it in Intel-powered PCs, and just the day before the launch of the highly acclaimed OS. Installing Leopard on an Intel based pc requires the following items: burnable DVD and USB thumb drive.

OSx86 managed to work out two installation methods, first of which uses a DVD-RW to mount a DVD image of the OS, or just setting up a partition to load the install files from. The steps may look difficult at first glance, but the how-to steps are thoroughly outlined so there shouldn’t be any problems in trying it out.

Still want to make Windows walk the plank? Check out that list first before deciding to install Leopard first.

My experience is mixed, obviously their are some driver issues, but nothing a little hunting a pecking wont fix. But right now I am running Leopard pretty flawlessly, not really any huge issues that have came up. Most users have experienced a very long install time; I as well have experienced that same problem. It took close to 1 hour and 45 minutes to do the install. 

Overall I am pretty happy with the results; I am impressed with the tools that OSx86 crews have developed as well, kudos to them. I am currently living in a Windows based world, and it is sometimes is nice to venture out to something different, but Leopard really is not that different. Time machine is neat, but really that is about. You will never be able to knock Apple’s UI’s, but I personally don’t feel like anything is that different from other recent Mac builds. One thing I can say is that Apple is trying to make the switch easier for Windows users. I find myself eerily intrigued by the new finder, which some what resembles explorer.

Now the last question I face myself is if I would do this to my other machines? The answer is yes. Their are a lot of features that I absolutely love with OSX that I just cannot do with Vista, and vice versa. OSX is like that weekend vacation, its soothing, calm, and fun. But when it comes to the work week Windows is God, so I love them both, I will be doing this to most of my machines, but I think I might wait a little longer to do it though. OSx86 promises better builds that are a bit tighter in the code department.

Now all I have to do is get Ubuntu 7.10 back up and running again, anyone up for a tri-boot? 

Late last night we started receiving reports from readers experiencing problems with Windows Genuine Advantage authentication. Users of both Windows XP and Windows Vista were writing to say that they could not validate their installations using WGA, and one user even said that his installation was invalidated by the service.

The Windows Genuine Advantage support forum has exploded with complaints, as a result, and Phil Liu, WGA project manager, says that he won’t sleep until the problem is fixed. Windows Vista and XP are affected, 32- and 64-bit versions.

Microsoft is telling users who are affected that they should “try again” later, with some support techs telling readers that Microsoft is aiming to have a fix in place by Tuesday, August 28. That would mean the outage will last more than three days, given that it started last night (and may have started earlier; we’re hearing reports of some users running into this earlier in the week, on limited bases).

How does this affect you?

If you use Windows, do your best to avoid anything that requires a ping to WGA. That means you should stay away from patches and add-ons until the coast is clear. WGA will not reach out across the Internet and deactivate your copy of Windows, but you should avoid talking to a WGA server for any reason.

For those of you doing installations and upgrades this weekend, we recommend that you avoid activation at this time. Remember that you can run Windows legally for 30 days without activating.

If you attempt a validation and it fails, your install may be marked as non-genuine, which could lead to several annoyances. First things first, do not reboot a Windows machine that has been marked as non-genuine. Once you do so, you will lose functionality and the Aero interface. It would be best to wait until this problem has been resolved.

The cause

Right now we don’t have official word on a cause, but one source with familiarity with WGA tells us that the issue may be caused by updates to the service that were required after Microsoft expanded the number of activations keys available for Windows XP. However, the sense we get from Phil Liu is that Microsoft is pretty much in the dark right now.

More as this develops…