Poll: Firewire/USB bootability

I often start up my PowerMac G5 from a Firewire external hard drive into OS X Tiger. According to my understanding, ever since the first G4 Mac was introduced (in 1999?), Macs have been able to start up from FireWire external hard drives. I even read a post that a USB external device was able to boot a PowerBook G3 into OS 9 (www.macintouch.com/usbflash.html).
This feature of external bootability has been one of the advantages of Mac over Windows. PC's with Windows XP/Vista (as opposed to Intel-based Macs with Windows) have always been unable to start up from USB/Firewire external devices. When a Windows guru needs to start up his/her PC from a hard drive placed outside the PC, he/she has to open the PC and pull out the ribbon cable from the inside of the PC and stretch the ribbon cable to the hard drive outside the PC. Because bare ribbon cables are subject to environmental electromagnetic interference, the data transferred in such a configuration are not reliable. So, Mac people are lucky regarding the external bootability. (By the way, if a Windows guru gets tired of opening the PC every time he/she needs the ersatz "external" booting, then he/she would put a ribbon cable connector on the PCI slot door like www.startech.com/ststore/itemdetail.cfm?ProductID=SATAPLATE1)
However, Apple can drop old features from new products. I would like to know whether Intel-based Macs are still able to start up from external volumes.
Anyone who has ever tried to boot an Intel-based Mac from a Firewire/USB external device, please let me know whether it was successful.
I also would like to know whether anyone was successful in having a USB external hard drive boot a PowerMac G5 into OS X. My Maxtor OneTouch external hard drive has both a USB 2.0 port and Firewire ports. With USB connection, this Maxtor drive fails to boot my PowerMac G5. On the other hand, with Firewire connection, it is successful.
Furthermore, I would like to know whether anyone was successful in booting an Intel-based Mac into Windows XP/Vista on an external Firewire/USB hard drive with Boot Camp.
I also would like URL's of Apple's announcements that confirm or deny external bootabilities.
<edited by host. see new [url=http://discussions.apple.com/help.jspa#terms]Terms of Use, section 2.4[/url].>
If you are a novice user who are unsuccessful in Firewire/USB booting because you do not even know how to select the startup volume by the Startup system preference or by the Option Start, then refrain from participating in the poll although you are welcome to leave a message.
Thank you in advance.
Andy

According to my
understanding, ever since the first G4 Mac was
introduced (in 1999?), Macs have been able to start
up from FireWire external hard drives. I even read a
My PowerBook G3 can boot off Firewire too. Mac bootability from an external drive goes back to the old external SCSI hard drives a couple decades ago, so my PowerBook 160 (circa 1992) can also do it. Learning that Windows can't boot from an external drive always gets an "You have got to be kidding me" reaction from Mac veterans.

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