“Maui X-Stream has re-released its controversial CherryOS emulator but the software still appears to be a rip-off of an open-source software project, according to experts,” Ryan Singel reports for Wired News. “Maui X-Stream, a Hawaii-based software company that sells streaming video products, re-released the $50 CherryOS on Tuesday. The software emulates a G4 processor, allowing Windows XP machines to run Apple Computer’s OS X operating system.”
“The company became embroiled in controversy last October when it offered a preview release, which experts said was simply a repackaging of a free, open-source emulator called PearPC,” Singel reports.. “Dave Schroeder, a senior systems engineer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, looked at both October’s preview release and Tuesday’s release and did not like what he found. ‘I’m surprised at the gall of some people,’ Schroeder said. ‘This is obviously PearPC…. When you examine the executables, it’s still got so many identical strings that aren’t just generic. CherryOS is still using significant amounts, if not all, of PearPC’s code as the emulation engine.'”
“But Maui X-Stream President Jim Kartes categorically denied using any of PearPC’s code,” Singel reports. “Nothing prevents CherryOS from using PearPC’s code, since the open-source project is licensed under the Free Software Foundation’s GNU General Public License, which allows anyone to use, modify, share or sell the code. However, the GNU General Public License has a clear stipulation: Anyone using or modifying the code must also license their product in the same way — for free — and provide the source code. The provision is intended to keep free software free. In the case of CherryOS, if the company is using PearPC, it must release its code to anyone who asks, which would make it difficult to sell the software for $50. Columbia Law School professor Eben Moglen, the Free Software Foundation’s chief counsel, said if CherryOS uses PearPC’s code, the developers could sue for damages under copyright law.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Orange. We’ve always wanted a four-fruit article. Mission accomplished!
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Is ‘CherryOS’ legal? Apple’s Mac OS X license disallows use on PCs – March 09, 2005
CherryOS released, runs Mac OS X on Windows XP PCs – March 09, 2005
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
So what changed between the original release of Cherry OS and now? It is not like graphics acceleration was added to the code so the performance would make it next to useless.
On the other hand, Windows users could view it as a window into the future. Either they will abandon Microsoft for Apple or they will upgrade to Longhorn which will almost certainly copy features from OS X.
Only four fruits? I’m surprised you resisted the urge to say “Legally and ethically, CherryOS looks like a real lemon…”
Thank you Follower . . . I now have coffee all over my PowerBook.
So why would anyone buy CherryOS rather than just downloading PearPC? I suppose it could be for ease of use, I’m not sure if PearPC can be downloaded in a pre-compiled executable installer or whether users have to compile it themselves.
I can see fiddling with PearPC to see what it’s about. Geek curiousity. But only folks who:
A) are already experienced users and
B) already have an OS X license might be curious about it and they likely have Mac…
Anybody who buys CherryOS deserves what they get.
I frankly don’t see what the big deal is (especially when it’s probably cheaper and easier in the long run to pick up an old G4 machine or Mac mini and try OS X). Your time has to be worth something if you actually want to be productive in any way with OS X.
“if the company is using PearPC, it must release its code to anyone who asks, which would make it difficult to sell the software for $50”
I don’t agree with this statement. If Maui-X does come clean and release the code, they would still able to sell the software like Red Hat and Novell. Many people are willing to pay some $ for better manual and easier installer.
Only reason no one should be running CherryOS or PearPC for that matter is, they won’t able to run MacOS legally on the emulator, unless Apple begin selling a full license version of OSX (I think $499 with a coupon for free Mac mini is fair market price for such box).
perhaps Apple will do to CherryOS what M$ did with Connectix’s Virtual PC; buy the company and try to kill it, then realize the value of having their OS on a competitor’s machine. I had Connectix’s VPC 4 back in the day, which was nothing to sneeze at. M$’s new VPC 7, while not as fast as having a PC laying around, has the benefit of having the same company doing the emulator and the OS; it is generally useful for doing what I need to do with the few pieces of PC only software I still need to use three or four times a year.
“Anyone using or modifying the code must also license their product in the same way — for free — and provide the source code. The provision is intended to keep free software free.”
This part is simply untrue. They are confusing Free (as in free beer) and Free (as in Freedom). Any GPL code used in a product means the resulting code has to be shared for free or for a small shipping fee. The product made with GPL code can be charged for, but you can’t control what your customers do with the code. They could redistribute it if they want. He may “steal” GPL code all he wants, as long as he later gives out the source code to his entire product.
Since they’ve already denied using the code when it was totally clear that they were indeed using it… I bet they’ll keep this up as long as possible, then finally cave and start delaying on the actual source release. Or they could challenge the GPL in court, which would fare very badly for them, but would be an excellent win for the community.
Hey, You buy a PC, you’ve already contributed a portion to M$ for the operating system license. That’s on almost every single machine sold. Unless you wanna pay Apple to use their OS, you shouldn’t steal it. Just because you’ve already been robbed by Sir Bill, doesn’t mean you can do it. You bought the PC knowing the problems they have, so deal with it. That was you’re choice.