Yep, this post is being written on an iMac.
I successfully installed the Tablet PC OS this morning using
Apple's Boot Camp and the Tablet PC OS from my MSDN subscription. I'm using a Wacom Graphire3 Tablet for the digitizer.
For the most part the Tablet OS is running as expected, although as you can tell from the drawing above that I created on the iMac, I am running into some issues. For instance, the ink is not being smoothed out as it is being drawn. Normally ink on a Tablet PC is much smoother than this. I think this is a driver issue. Similarly, the Tablet Input Panel (TIP) does not appear when hovering over editable fields. I can bring up the TIP using the TIP button in the task bar, however, and the handwriting recognition appears to be working just fine. I'm guessing I don't have everything installed correctly and that's why the TIP isn't appearing on hover.
How did I install the Tablet OS on an iMac?
Actually, the installation process is very similar to that described in the Boot Camp documentation. There are two exceptions, however. For instance, I used a Tablet PC OS Windows XP disc and not the standard Windows XP CD. Apple indicates that Boot Camp does not support this permutation of the OS--if I understand correctly, it's because the Tablet OS comes on two discs and at install time there is no way to eject a CD and swap to disc two. This problem can be avoided, however, by creating a DVD image that contains all the necessary files (all the files from the Tablet OS disc one and two). I used Nero to burn a bootable DVD from the Tablet PC OS files included in my MSDN subscription. Then when Boot Camp reaches the step where I need to insert a Windows XP install disc in the "CD" drive, I use the DVD instead.
To ensure that the OS installs the Tablet features I plugged in a Wacom digitzing Tablet during the install process. I'd read about some systems hanging if any devices outside of a USB keyboard and mouse were connected to the Mac at the time of Windows installation, but I didn't run into any problems. Just to be careful, I plugged in the USB digitizer after I saw that the standard device drivers were installed.
Other than this change, the installation proceeded just like others have talked about and went surprisingly smoothly.
Until I clean up the driver and TIP issues I'll hold off on any comparisons to Apple's InkWell technology, but already I can see some pretty major differences--even with the Tablet ink not working up to its normal level.
Update: Silly me. To fix the problems I was having with the pen and the TIP I simply needed to install the
Wacom Tablet PC driver. Now the ink is smooth and the TIP pops up as expected when the cursor hovers over an edit field.
Update #2: In a related story:
Barb Bowman describes here how she installed Windows Media Center Edition (MCE) on a Mac.
The Tablet PC OS Welcome screen running on an iMac
Handwriting a message in Microsoft Journal
Trying out Tablet PC apps on an iMac. Clockwise starting from the top left: ArtRage, Microsoft Flash Cards, Microsoft Equation Editor, and Agilix GoBinder Lite