An IT consulting firm in Miami has taken to offering for sale something it initially called the OpenMac, but is now calling the Open Computer. This machine, the firm claims, can run OS X, and it is being branded as a less expensive alternative to the Mac Mini.
The problem is the Apple End User License Agreement for Mac OS X. Someone working for Psystar (pronounced SY-star) told Information Week that the firm intends to challenge Apple’s EULA in court. Good luck with that. Though I have to say, I’ve been wondering about the possibility that someone would try to sell a generic PC running OS X for some long time, ever since Apple started the move toward the Intel architecture. It seems to me that if a Mac can run Windows or Linux or OS/2 or whatever else strikes your fancy via virtualization on a Mac, that there should be some kind of allowance made for running OS X via virtualization on a box that originally comes with Windows. Apple would likely disagree.
That’s not what Psystar is doing however. It’s selling these boxes with Leopard installed directly on them. Or is that what it’s really selling. It would be one thing to sell a Windows box that meets certain hardware specifications, and then let the user bring their own copy of Leopard, and install it as a dual-boot option according to publicly available instructions with a “do this at your own risk” caveat.
Either way, I’m guessing a few people on Apple’s legal team are busily writing a cease-and-desist order today.
This has little to do with the Apple EULA! Its called copyright/patent infringement, Apple has these on their Mac file system!-you cannot sell this on a hard drive without a license from Apple-it is a federal crime to do so! This company is selling these illegal hard drives. They are bull-shitting the public in focusing on the EULA, they will either disappear or go to jail!
What is funny about this story is the legs that the press have given it. But what about the actual computer itself and the company that makes it? First, a little digging around shows that this company just doesn't seem to have existed prior to last week. The companies address changed overnight, last night after this story broke, from some dudes 3 bedroom home, to another "office" space. So lets get this straight shall we? Some guy in his garage in Florida with internet connection says he is going to take on the 4th (or is it 3rd) largest computer maker in the world and undercut them by so and so much money. No one has seen said computer and no one has researched if this "company" has the means or backings to even make a demo model more or less the ones they are selling online. They admit they are breaking the law, but note that it is an unjust law. That mean lawyers which equates into money; lots and lots of money that will be required to fend off the giant and prove their case. The point is, instead of given some guy name "Bob" working on his little homebrew computer project more free advertising what doesn't a tech reporter get off their butt and do a little due diligence on this Pystar's operation. At current, you are setting people up to waste a great deal of money by leading them to buy something I'll bet you isn't anything more than the figment of someone's over active imagination.
i like the way mac is now - an exclusive club of people willing to shell out little extra money for a good computer. if mac becomes as easily avilable as windows machines are, it will greatly compromise why i buy apple products in the first place - user friendly, elegant and they just works seamlessly. if mac becomes computer for the mass, then it would become difficult for apple to maintian the quality of its products (look at microsoft and its windows.) i wanna use mac and let the mass use windows. psystar, please stop making clone mac.
A blog on the daily doings of Apple and the many companies in its orbit, with insight and analysis by two longtime Apple-watchers BusinessWeek Senior Writer Peter Burrows and BusinessWeek.com Senior Technology Writer Arik Hesseldahl.