“Following its initial announcement and subsequent controversy last October, Mac emulator CherryOS has finally been released,” Nate Mook reports for BetaNews. “The $49.95 CherryOS was developed by Maui-X-Stream — a small Hawaiian company that makes streaming media technologies — and enables users to run Apple’s Mac OS X operating system atop Windows PCs. The software mimics the Mac G4 processor and touts complete access to a system’s hardware resources and networking capabilities.”
“Its creator, Arben Kryeziu, found himself in hot water last year amid claims the software was simply stolen from the open source PearPC project. With the code now under public scrutiny, it appears that such allegations are true,” Mook reports. “Although PearPC source code is freely available, its usage is governed by the GNU General Public License (GPL), which states that the code and any modifications must be offered by anyone that distributes it. Alleged GPL violations have forced companies such as Linksys to release their code, but the license has never been fully tested in a U.S. court of law.”
Full article here.
Maui-X-Stream’s Description:
With CherryOS — a G4 Emulator — you can install Panther, Apple’s award-winning operating system, onto your PC. In addition, you will be able to use many of the day-to-day applications such as Safari and Apple’s Mail. Perfect for learning a new environment, expanding your PC’s capabilities or finalizing your purchase decision.
A CherryOS trial, which will boot 14 times, is available for download here.
MacDailyNews Take: Windows XP users, if you want to run Mac OS X so badly, go pick up a $499 Mac mini. It’ll work much better for you; it’s easily worth the price.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
CherryOS Mac emulator for Windows XP slated for November 25th release – October 22, 2004
Run Mac OS X on a Windows PC with CherryOS emulator? – October 13, 2004
bunch of tools!!
it’s just gonna make windoze users think that osx runs shite
Rob Nash, maybe it will let them see how cool Mac OS X is, and then make them want to go buy a Mac to run it properly on. I think most people who will be the type to download and try this will understand the performance issues are due to the emulation.
I remember years ago having a Mac emulator for my Atari ST. It ran like shit but the fact that it let me taste what the Mac OS was like made me want a Mac, even though at the time, being a student and all, I could not afford it. Within a couple of years I did get a Mac, and SE/30 used and it still cost me thousands of dollars–that’s what they went for back then. Been a Mac user ever since.
Once you go Mac, you won’t go back baby!
Great news for pc user. finally they’ll get to try out the mac systems. From this you’ll get alot of people interested in the mac os.
Ah, but will CherryOS run under VirtualPC?
A silly answer deserves a silly question.
I wonder if panther orders will go up because of this? I’m pretty sure you can’t download panther illegally like you can with windows, the mac community seems a bit less into the illegal distribution of files than the windows crowd.
Jay Random, I was just about to download it also, so I could give it a try!! can u imagine running VP just to run OS X!! hilarious! but can’t wait tot try it!
Steve M,
Download limewire… you’ll have Jaguar in no time.
CherryOS is a huge hoax. Has anybody seen anything running yet? – see?
Oh man it crashed my XP machine….but Panther is still running on it.
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this is scary!
Good. Now Apple should start selling Full License version of MacOSX for $499. Remember, $129 package is for upgrade.
Honestly, I’ve run this thing on a dual Xenon Dell. The speed is bascially worse than Virtual PC.
Hey folks…..
Screw the registration process, go right to the link…
http://movies.mxsinc.com/CherryOS_Software.zip
Micro$oftopoly rips off Apple for Windoze in 1985. This bunch rips off Pear PC in 2005. What else in new? Nothing ever changes for the better in PeeCee land.
“Oh man it crashed my XP machine….but Panther is still running”
Hysterical – spilt my cup of tea! Good one giofoto!
If you ran XP Virtual PC inside OS X which was being emulated on a PC with CherryOS would it make the emulated XP faster and more stable?
All cherry PC is A Visual Basic wrappaer program to hide PearPC.
The speeds are identical. this guy is trying to steal GPL software. Not to mention that PearPC literally takes an Hour to boot up OSX. It works, but very, very slowly.
Uhm… the guy who finds out about CherryOS is not gonna be an amateur. this isn’t mass market..
they’ll find out about mac mini, before this..
If you really want to try out OS X, stop by an Apple Store, CompUSA, or an Apple reseller. They have Macs you can play around on for free, and can handle a purchase right there in the store.
A friend of mine wanted to stop by CompUSA to get specs for three computers to review for computer class. I asked her to include the Mac Mini in the review. We went over and she tried it out. Not only did she include it in her review, she says she will buy one as soon as she can afford it (hard times in our area).
Otherwise, supporting someone’s violation of the GPL (or skipping the registration and not suppporting it or the project it ripped off) and then breaking copyright law by downloading OS X, does not sound ethical. Running a slowed down version of OS X on a crashing emulator does not sound appealing at all.
s wrote:
“Good. Now Apple should start selling Full License version of MacOSX for $499. Remember, $129 package is for upgrade.”
Agreed.
Even without upgrade license considerations, by the time you get CherryOS ($49.95) plus Mac OS X ($129), you’re at $170 and well on your way to buying a Mac mini. And you still have a lousy slow-running setup.
Wouldn’t it be something if Tiger happened to include some “unannounced features” that break under CherryOS.
jus got some run run time errors from windows. doesnt even load
Moth Maiden – since that comment was directed at me I will respond to it.
Opinions are like……well, you know the rest.
Yours just stinks slightly more than others
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For $399 the Mac mini includes both MacOS X and iLife (total retail value of around $200). So you get the hardware for about $299 (or actually $249 since you don’t have to spend $50 on the CherryOS software). That’s a deal anyway you look at it and you won’t be running an emulator.
NoPCZone-
How do you like konfabulator…er I mean Dashboard. Or is that Konfabuboard or maybe Dashulator?
Guess it’s about the same in Mac land.
CherryOS/PearPC should be considered an Alpha version product. CherryOS is breaking the PearPC GPL and you’ll be breaking the OS X user agreement.
Emulation is only partial, there’s not even sound support!
Don’t waste your time. Don’t support a company that would release such a product.