“Sources indicate that OSx86 10.4.3 – which, as reported in this space, contains increased hardware restrictions – has now been cracked in the same fashion as 10.4.1. It was initially thought that these restrictions would slow the progress of hackers, but it appears that it has done little to deter those tackling the challenge,” Mashugly repots for OSx86 Project.

“While Apple has promised to lock their operating system to their hardware once its released, one must wonder what method they will use and if it will be stronger than the current TPM restrictions. While the TPM technology is itself virtually uncrackable, hackers have been able to fool the OS into thinking it doesn’t need the TPM authentication,” Mashugly writes. “Will Apple ever be able to create a truly hack-proof OS? Right now it seems the score is Apple: 2 (leaked) releases, Hackers: 2 releases. With Intel Macs likely on the way in January, it’s game point and Apple’s move.”

Full article here.

Advertisements: The New iMac G5 - Built-in iSight camera and remote control with Front Row media experience. From $1299. Free shipping.
Apple USB Modem. Easily connect to the Internet using your dial-up service. $49.00.
The New iPod with Video.  The ultimate music + video experience on the go.  From $299.  Free shipping.
Connect iPod to your television set with the iPod AV Cable. Just $19.00.

MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s either genuinely surprised that this happened and very upset about all of this or this is phase three of the “Harrell Dvorak Prophesy”* (ominous organ music) which states:

“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.” – Harrell
“Allow for Apple to pretend to fight the OS getting out into the wild, so it can then say, ‘There was nothing we could do. This is the OS that people apparently want and need.’” – Dvorak

Could the otherwise frighteningly smart people at Apple really have thought that ‘OSx86′ wouldn’t leak to ‘generic’ PC hardware?

*The “Harrell Dvorak Prophesy” is sort of like Shoemaker Levy. Not as icy, but highly prone to violent collision with software’s current vaporous gas giant, Microsoft. Harrell gets top billing because he called his sighting in first.

Related articles:
Linux advocate calls for Apple to destroy Microsoft by selling Mac OS X for all PCs – November 20, 2005
Will future Intel-based Apple Macs offer multiple OS worlds via virtualization? – November 16, 2005
Apple patent application designed to prevent Mac OS X from running on non-Apple hardware – November 09, 2005
How Apple can win the OS war – October 19, 2005
Intel’s built-in virtualization tech could be one way to run Windows on Intel-based Apple Macs
Intel-based Macs running both Mac OS X and Windows will be good for Apple – June 10, 2005
Why buy a Dell when Apple ‘Macintel’ computers will run both Mac OS X and Windows? – June 08, 2005
Will developers stop writing Mac applications if Apple ‘Macintel’ computers can run Windows? – June 08, 2005
Windows users who try Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger might not want to go back – June 07, 2005
Microsoft: The safest way to run Windows is on your Mac – October 08, 2004