You’re really using an idiotic argument here, frankly I expected better from you, I used to respect you but the way you’re using bad marketing “logic” here is killing that. Of course you won’t see anything on your old software packages about not running on Macs because back then there was no possibility of that. The warning you seen about AMD are exactly the kind of thing I’m talking about.
And as for what’s different, well apparently there are enough differences that Boot Camp doesn’t even work on all the machines:
http://www.engadget.com/2007/10/13/apple-said-to-be-prepping-boot-camp-fix-for-24-inch-imacs/
And Vista apparently doesn’t like it (though you can work around it):
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306882
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=199000536
A fellow here can’t use his sound card:
http://www.versiontracker.com/php/feedback/article.php?story=20070816103249510#comments
And there’s more out there if you want to Google it. Most of the problems seem pretty minor, but there are problems, which means there are differences, which means any QA guy that’s earning his paycheck will demand his company do a full regression running under Boot Camped Windows before declaring support.
The other problems were from installations in which the apple hardware was not standard... one for a FireWire sound card (certainly not standard)... and the problem with the 24inch white iMacs occurs only with one specific make of upgraded graphic card (the ones with the standard card do not exhibit the problem) whose Windows driver was not included on the Boot Camp driver disk .dmg file with the original Beta release... and all of these, except for the issue with the user not having bothered to install the included driver disk on OSX.5, are issues with Boot Camp Beta... and are installation issues with getting Windows to run properly not issues with running third party apps.
It is likely that Windows itself would have problems with the Firewire sound card (that's really a strange bird), the user not installing the drivers for his specific hardware, and the upgraded Mac graphic card. None of these issues strike me as an issue that a third party app help desk would encounter. They would be obviously OS installation issues. I'd call Apple.
Boot Camp, and with it the drivers, was still in beta. It's also apparently related to the myriad of problems Vista has had on many different systems, especially with the drivers.
Are you saying the QA guy should get multiple systems from every OEM and build thousands of DIY systems in hopes of covering every possible hardware situation?