Running XP-home on iMac -- really ready?

Thinking maybe buy the iMac, install and run XP-home like I am presently for familiarity (yeah, security blanket) while I play with OSX on my own learning curve and come up to speed with it at my own pace.

Question: Does XP really/truly run on the iMac -- like I am accustomed to on my existing PC -- or are we talking "sort-of-but-not-quite" beta-stage development?

Serious anxiety. Hoping you "switchers" may understand.

take a look at this program from apple.... it is still in beta as you will see from the website but it pretty much has all the answers there...
info for dual booting on a mac
boot camp

xthisisRomancex said:

take a look at this program from apple.... it is still in beta as you will see from the website but it pretty much has all the answers there...
info for dual booting on a mac
boot camp

Click to expand...

Whoa! Reads like grand experiment to me. Especially dislike the idea of wireless keyboard and mouse not working with it. Also reads like there may be many other inconveniences lurking. Thinking maybe better wait a while if running XP is important part of the decision -- which it is, actually.

Running XP is totally native on any intel mac. There is no emulation involved whatsoever. Bootcamp does have a few steps to get it working, but they are not hard to do and not very time consuming. Like I think I told you in another post, XP is blazing on the iMacs, as well as Macbook Pros. You may have a couple obstacles such as some peripherals not working because of driver issues but thats it. If you are fluent in XP there is no reason not to do what you suggest, running both OS's.

For "most aggressive member" it seems to me you have been most attentive and helpful here as well as in your other responses to me. Thanks.

Lets just say I have been in your shoes, which is why I am able to help. You seem like a pretty intelligent guy so I have no doubt that installing Bootcamp would be a breeze for you. Before Apple got involved with bootcamp, running XP on the intel macs bootleg style was somewhat of a pain because there were missing drivers for video and other assorted things. Apple solved that problem by providing them with Bootcamp. I vote that you take the plunge and buy a 20" iMac for the family. You basically kill two birds with one stone by having the ability to retain your safety blanket that people like us call XP.