“The Apple Developer kit version of MacOSX x86 has indeed been fully cracked! An anonymous source has sent us a video showing MacOSX x86 booting natively on a PC notebook Mitac 8050D (Pentium-M 735/1.6GHz),” MacBidouille reports. “The boot phase is rather fast, and the error message at the end is simply due to an right/authorization error due to the kext allowing PS/2 support.”
MacDailyNews Note: Recently, reports that Apple is using an authentication scheme using a TPM chip (Trusted Platform Module) in their Intel-based developer Macs to prevent Mac OS X from running on generic PCs.
MacBidouille also has a “second video showing the boot on the same hardware, the permission error was repaired. We can see the “About this Mac” panel, Apple System Profiler and CHUD prefpane showing information on the processor (frequency, cache etc…).”
Full article with link to the movies here.
MacDailyNews Take: Has “The Dvorak Prophesy” begun? (ominous music, see relaed article below). Or perhaps it’s “The Harrell Prophesy?”
It was Jeff Harrell who wrote for The Shape of Days on June 8, 2005, “There is nothing at all that prevents the version of Mac OS X that runs on the developer transition machines from running on any PC with compatible components… I estimate that we’re down to a matter of hours before Mac OS X 10.4.1 for Intel hardware is available for download on Internet software piracy sites and peer-to-peer piracy networks… If I can think through this stuff, Apple’s management can think through this stuff. This is the most awe-inspiring stealth marketing move I’ve ever seen.”
Harrell continued, “According to reports, Apple’s bundled iLife applications, major selling points for the Mac operating system, are already Intel-native and run at full speed… Given Apple’s experiences with software piracy, particularly the rampant software piracy that spread developer builds of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger all over the Internet this past spring, Apple’s management from the top down knows full well that this developer preview will be in the hands of every kid with a cable modem within days of its release. Most of them will be able to install it on their own computers and run it and the full suite of iLife ’05 applications at full speed, and run most existing Mac software in translation. As a result, Apple will give thousands, possibly millions, of people a taste of Mac OS X running full speed on their own PCs. Apple’s giving their potential future customers a free taste, that’s what they’re doing. It’s a try-before-you-buy deal.”
[UPDATED: 10:20am. Changed take to remark upon and review Harrell’s June 8th article.]
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Dvorak: Steve Jobs eventually intends for Apple’s Mac OS X to run on any x86 PC – August 09, 2005
DRM chip in Intel-based developer Macs prevents Mac OS X from running on non-Apple PCs – August 05, 2005
Report: Apple’s Mac OS X Intel kernel employs DRM to prevent OS from working unless authorized – August 01, 2005
Apple Intel-based Macs for developers runs Mac OS X and Windows XP – June 23, 2005
Apple’s ‘Mac OS X for Intel’ developer build reportedly running on Tablet PC – June 16, 2005
Video of Mac OS X 10.4.1 for Intel running on Dell laptop posted online – June 13, 2005
Report: Apple Mac OS X 10.4.1 for Intel hits piracy sites – June 11, 2005
yeah, i just checked the downloadable mpegs..
these guys have gone out of their way to show that it’s not a fake.. they demonstrate about 5 different ways through the ‘demo’ that it is definitely running on a 1.6 Pentium M laptop…
*groan..
Dvorak?! He just took the idea from Cringely.. come on.. give Rob his due!
Who cares. I could NEVER EVER trust a hacked OS!
“Has “The Dvorak Prophesy” begun?”
no.
1 tweak from Apple and it won’t work again. If people start trying so hard like this to hack the OS then Apple will put in a DRM chip.
It’s a developer’s kit. As we all know, that is not the final product. Jobs will take care of it by issuing the edict to utilize the DRM and a TPM.
These people are just ASKING for Apple to use DRM and that is just not cool for us REAL MAC USERS. I wonder how much time it took to do this.
Mark: I agree, I would never trust it either, but still….this PISSES ME OFF SO MUCH!!! Even if it worked better than OSX on a Mac, i don’t care- I just don’t care. This little story has ruined my day-which was going unusually good.
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Yes, but look at all the other attempts to use DRM, its been stripped withhin the first few months of release. Hopefully Intel’s hardware soultion proves a little more challenging.
if Apple secretly put in some sort of unique serial number in each copy of the developer OS so they could track any copies (hacked or not) released into the wild back to the guilty party who broke the NDA? If so, I doubt even the best software hacker in the world would be able find it buried in there to change it. I bet someone gets MAJORLY busted over this.
Perhaps Intel and Apple are embedding custom calls in the new processor which will only be in CPU’s in Apple Hardware.
Adding Altivec instead of MMX into the processor and eliminate all legacy components and calls will make the processor, cooler, smaller, and faster. Also, it would make it more dificult to install OS X on non-Apple hardware.
DRM can be hacked. Altering the CPU is more difficult to get around.
“…This little story has ruined my day-“
Did you have it in your head that this wasn’t going to happen? No set of permissions, or even DRM scheme, is going to hold the übergeeks out for long.
Apple is most likely supremely unconcerned with this, and will only institute harsher measures if the eggheads in question try to make this an easy procedure for the masses…
MacTel hacked? That is great news for Apple. If hackers want to go buy $129 retail packages of OS-X and go through all the trouble to put OS-X on a generic PC that should be no problem for Apple because they’re getting full retail for the OS.
Rather than beefing up the hardware protection, I predict Apple will focus on “authentication” so they can have tight control over bootleg copies of OS-X and other cool Apple software.
Seriously guys, this is not a big deal. Jobs isn’t going to do anything about it because it’s not going to matter to anyone. There will be some that will put OSX on their PCs just for the novelty of having it on their PCs, but that’s it. Corporations aren’t going to be buying Dell’s with the idea of illegally putting OSX on it. Casual computer users and buyers are not going to go through all the steps required to run OSX on their regular PCs.
I don’t understand why so many Mac users get crazy over DRM.
Yes, it would be wonderful if we lived in a utopia where everyone was honest, but we don’t, and companies need to protect their business.
Nobody seems too upset that Apple takes steps to ensure that people can’t shoplift hardware out of an Apple retail store. Why is stealing software any different?
Face it. Unless you are publishing freeware, DRM is an unfortunate reality if you want to stay in business.
Yeah but you never know when someone streamlines the process and puts a whole program for prepping your PC for OSX on Limewire or something. Sure, it dosn’t sound likely, but thats what they said about getting OS X on a PC and look what’s happened……
is this really news?
No! I think anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock knows this has been possible since day 1 of the Intel announcemnet.
Out in the wild? Could be, but my guess is Apple has built in some type of self destruct code that once a certain day hits, the developer version won’t boop period.
My biggest concern has been and remains that Windows will boot on any new Mactel box….. so that now, even tho it may be eaiser for developers to port their software to Mac in Intel, all they really have to do is just say…. “Why should we bother? Just buy a copy of Windows, and you can run it on your dual boot MacIntel, and then run all the software in the world!!”
Am I not the only one who also thinks the “try-before-you-buy” idea is not really that genius? The people who are “trying” are the kids who love to hack. They probably also build their own computers. So while the theory is that they’ll try Mac OS X, love it, and buy a Mac, in reality they’ll probably just build their own computer and install their hacked copy of Mac OS X. Apple never makes a dime off of this.
Really, Apple should just release it to the wild. OS 10.5 Jaguar should run on ALL PCs, whether Mac or not. If Microsoft could get rich off an OS, so can Apple. But people will start buying Macs because the computers themselves look better. If everybody starts installing OS X, then Apple makes a killing and the only difference between their computers and others is the looks. And then Apple wins.
I’ve been using Macs since 1990 and I think this is a good thing, and one that Apple must surely have known would happen…if and when Apple licenses the OS, they’ll ship millions upon millions, and the world at large will know how it is to have an OS that just plain works. The OS is where you win the war. Apple’s best in class OS deserves to be on as many desktops as possible. If even 5% of the folks who buy a generic x86 OS decide to try Mac hardware, we’re talking about unprecedented sales…cheer up everyone!
heh. The Mac web waited a day and a half to pick this up from MacBidouille, even though everybody’s been watching it and drooling, right? lol. Well, cool. I hope things get exciting.
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Let the hackers have their fun and when the retail version come out they will again be blocked. By then they will know the glory that is OS X and we all know once you go Mac, you never go back!!!
Jobs and Co. don’t want to go down the Microsoft road. They want to control the whole widget. They want Apple computers to be unique; the only ones running MacOS.
The developer macintels were built quickly using off-the-shelf Intel motherboards, with some sort of software hacks to try and make the OS hardware specific, because it’s easier to write code than alter hardware. Those hacks are obviously no good. But even as we read this, the designers and engineers in Cupertino are working on making the hardware for the production macintels in such a way that only Apple computers will run MacOS. And when 10.5 is released, it will only run on Apple computers.
Russell,
I think 10.5’s name is Leapord. Jaguar was 10.2
Jobs will use this as justification alright – but not to release a standalone version of x86-OSX, but to install DRM chips on every stinking Mac product Apple makes. He’ll point to stuff like this hack, then rend his shirt & cry to the heavens,
“I had no choice – NO CHOICE! Don’t you see? I HAD to preserve the inviolability of our OS! Installing that egregious piece of technology had nothing – NOTHING – whatsoever to do with giving media conglomerates (like, ahem, Pixar) near total control over what audio and video you buy, and what you do with it, and how long it lasts on your computer … I wasn’t gonna do it; I was forced to, by those vandal hordes, those … those HACKERS! So, you see I MUST be forgiven … bwa hah haahaaa … sniffle … Now excuse me as I go wipe my nose with a few of my thousand dollar bills.”
This has been the plan all along folks. Intel x86 over PPC – or over AMD for that matter – for ‘performance’ reasons?? Come one! How long are we going to continue to be that kind of gullable? The DRM world is being foisted upon us, and it is NOT all good. We all better wake up to that fact before there isn’t any recourse but to hack OSX, in order to take control of what you own again.
Welcome to the wonderful world of the x86. It’s a jungle out there
I agree, who wants a hacked OS, I need the real thing. I got burned bad on a hacked XP a few years back. That’s life. I want the OS and I want it on a Mac so I am happy with my G5.