“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
