The hacking guru Maxxuss has announced preliminary patches for Apple’s latest release of OS X for Intel, version 10.4.4. According to his website,
This is a preliminary release of my Patch Solution for the official Mac OS X on the Intel platform. Ultimately, it would allow you to run this Mac OS X release on a generic x86 computer (SSE2 required). There’s still a lot of work and documentation to do, like support for SSE2-only CPUs, a proper installation procedure and a PPF patch. However, if you like to play around, this will get you started.
“The significance of this event is huge. While many users were able to run OSx86 on their PCs last summer, the general feeling was that Apple hadn’t implemented their final security solution. That much was true,” The OSx86 Project reports. “Onlookers have told us that 10.4.4 is a serious step forward in security, utilizing many of the same technologies as the 10.4.1 and 10.4.3, as well as the obfuscated code that Apple filed a patent for a few months ago.Few expected this final version – or at least the version that shipped with the first Macintels – to be easy to hack. What this means is that Apple’s best attempts to secure their OS have, ultimately, failed.”
Full article with links here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews reader “Since_IIci” for the heads up.]
(Cue ominous music) Is the Dvorak Theory coming true?
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Related articles:
Apple offers hidden poetic warning to would-be Mac OS X for x86 hackers – February 15, 2006
Apple puts ‘Don’t Steal Mac OS X’ message to would-be hackers in Intel version of Mac OS X 10.4.4 – January 13, 2006
Dvorak: Steve Jobs eventually intends for Apple’s Mac OS X to run on any x86 PC – August 08, 2005
Theft ticks me off.
Yeah. This is great. The Russian hacking guru Maxxuss has hacked OSX. We can now install it on every PC.
So that the Russian hacking guru Maxxuss can collect our credit card and bank details every time we use the machine.
You’re really going to trust this guy? Anyone who does this deserves to have their bank account drained.
All software should be free, all food should be free, all healthcare should be free, all housing should be free, all education should be free.
We should be all free to pursue are own natural talents without worry of money. Imagine the society we would have, the peace we would have.
All for one and one for all.
Mark
Didn’t you just describe Star Trek?
Is that Mark, or Marx?
Does this come as a surprise to anyone?
I wonder how good it will perform on more or less identical hardware (to avoid drivers causing problems).
It seems every time someone trumpets that they have hacked OS X to work on non Apple x86 machines, there is always the caveat of “some work still needs to be done. drivers to fix etc”? I thought ‘running’ meant booted up and usable for real work. Not just getting a half-assed desktop to limp onto the stage.
Typical PC user – Can’t see the bleedin’ obvious staring him in the face. Don’t waste time pissing around with hacks and patches that are more trouble than they’re worth – BUY A BLOODY MAC!
So where are the comments that nobody is asking to run OS X on their PC?
Once people find that there really is a much better alternative to the Hack that is Windows. Bill Gates will not sleep at night.
Mark,
Where would all the software developers, farmers, doctors, nurses, construction tradespersons, and teachers come from? Wouldn’t they all be persuing other natural talents? Maybe we would have unliimited poets, artists, musicians, sex therapists…..
the peace we would have. (Total and absolute chaos)
(And I’m not intending to insult those in the arts… they earn a living too
Welcome to the desert… of the real.
maybe its all just a test by apple to see if there is a demand to release OSX for generic PCs? ? it would impact their hardware sales a bit but come-on, think of the benefits, it worked for microsoft
What concerns me the most is the misconception that Average Joe will get from headlines saying Mac OS X was “hacked”, not understanding that this means people who have more time and knowledge than Joe AVg does, have been able to get OS X to run on hardware that isi identical to a Mac (at least the specs on the inside.)
The typical layperson will think that Mac OS X is just as easy to break into as a Windows PC, and that a flood of badware is right around the corner.
YES!!! free sex-therapists!
can i place my order for 10 please?
Apple won’t mind. It’s not like hardware revenue is that big a deal. Here is the end result of their masterful work:
Most of the guy’s at the x86osx site seem to end up buying a mac anyway, i don’t see it as a true threat to the platform. More likely a catalyst for more mac interest and sales. Hopefully some of these guys will work on the x86 Darwine. Sounds like thats goin well. I think someone got the windows version of photoshop going! Its all too exciting in the mac world at the moment.
Only computer geeks play around with hacks. No average computer user or business person is willing to deal with all of the incompatabilities that comes with it. I don’t use my computer as a testing ground and neither do most. Only a few on the underground will even know about it if it’s true. Get the real thing.
What is the COST of this piracy?
I assume that not only has this theif used a non-retail copy of OS X for Intel (which can only be purchased with a Mac) but has most certainly violated the End User Agreement by hacking it.
I like that it is a proof of concept. That I can get behind. Make it work, put some demo video of it working on a website, contact Apple as say – hey, If I can do it, so can you!
But making it public for the world to steal isn’t cool.
re: mark
All software should be free, all food should be free, all healthcare should be free, all housing should be free, all education should be free.
We should be all free to pursue are own natural talents without worry of money. Imagine the society we would have, the peace we would have.
All for one and one for all.
——
urm… yeeees.
Lets all go back to living in caves then.
Because if everything is free then say goodbye to progress of the human race and civilisation as we know it.
10.4.5 update available
Wonder if this is Apple’s response.
“All software should be free, all food should be free, all healthcare should be free, all housing should be free, all education should be free.
We should be all free to pursue are own natural talents without worry of money. Imagine the society we would have, the peace we would have.
All for one and one for all.”
ummm….USSR tried that, and it came crumbling down. You can’t expect people who are virtually taken care of by their government to actually try, can you?
We need the geeks of the world to try OS X on their old x86 hardware. Once they see and use it many will be convinced to give Mac hardware a try. The geeks are the ones that influence corporate IT departments so this is a good first step.
He’s not Russian… he just hosts his site on a Russian server so legal action cannot be taken upon him…
Some even speculate he’s an old member of Apple’s own AIX team.
Fact is, Apple asked for it when moving to X86. It’s geek stuff but things can get real messy if, within time, it becomes easier and easier to crack or maybe Steve has some secret plan we are not aware of.
X86…
Please remember to turn on your sarcasm meter for my earlier post on hardware and please return your tray to its upright position.
Quote for the day:
“Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning.”
– Rich Cook
Mark et al
First find peace inside yourself, then the human race will make progress plus on the way you will eradicate fear.
As I see it apple release 9 updates to each OS (based on Panther alone admittedly), even if it was hacked to enable widespread usage all they have to do is break it every couple of months and most people will be pissed off and not bother again. Their short term usage might convince them to go and buy an actual mac to retain the experience but forego the constant breakages. Apple wins.
It won’t last long or this hacker will get Apple’s lawyers on him. Have a nice day in prison dude!
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Mark,
Not in this world. You speak of the afterlife where the devil is defeated.
In this world if all were sheep there would still be wolves who would destroy, kill and cheat. This individual who hacked the security is a good example of those who don’t believe the rules apply to them.
Even StarTrek had to add a monetary system back in to the story line.
Back to the article
when you lie with dogs, you get fleas…
Why is it that so many want to “hack” whatever runs on an Intel chip?
Which raises the one and only concern I ever had about moving to Intel based technology:
What about security? Just the fact that MacIntel has begun to awaken the sleeping giant that is Windoze users, makes me quake in my boots. Think about it (or for that matter don’t, you’ll sleep better), all the busy littel virus makers that seem to be primarily in the Windoze domain are going to see new territory. So just by the sheer, [shear?] numbers of “hackers” that we didn’t have to worry about before the switch… — Well — are they startin to look our way?!?!?
Sometimes I just don’t have a good feeling about this Intel thing. I hope Steve’s got something up his sleeve, and I hope MDN is correct that the OS itself is inherently more secure. I’ve honestly never read any evidence to back up this belief, so basically I’m going on faith, as are the rest of us “end user” types that have grown up with and thrived on Mac.
So is there? – – Any evidence I mean? Obviously too much proof opens the security gates, but really, what evidence is there that the OS itself is what’s keeping out the bad things.
Jeeeez!
“If you worry, will the future change?”
– Kwai Chang Caine, Kung Fu
Theft ticks me off.
The ticks that have relocated you were misdirected. From what I understand (and IANAL), using the OS on another machine other than the one covered by the license is a violation of that license. Not theft. If he got the OS from some BT or website, that would be considered receipt of stolen property, but the hack to install OSX onto a generic PC would still not be considered theft. If the receiver of the OS thru BT had made plans with another to arrange the transfer, that could add conspiracy charges related to the theft but again, conspiracy to commit theft is not theft.
If he takes his hacked version of OSX and offers it thru BT or some other avenue, that could be considered theft though the common term used is piracy. But that’s not what’s going on. They are distributing the patch to make any OSX for Intel work on a generic PC. That would fall under the DMCA.
In truth, I’m trying to find a way to load OS X on one of the old Dells lying around my area just so I can poke around for “fun” things to do to it.
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What I’d really want is for VMWare to offer EFI emulation in its next release… that would really accelerate my “poking” around that OS.
<I>If I ignore the future is the past worth anything?
– Mr. Peabody
Hi, Mark here.
Actually, I believe America is great because of compition and private ownership. I was just quoting my liberal teachers at my school.
I know, off topic. But you must admit some people out there do actually believe what I said above. And free software is part of it. I was just taking free software to an extreme.
AmeriKa is turning more socialistic and everybody is entitled to something. Again, the Napster culture and the free software culture is what me post what I did above.
Dvorak is only partly right. People will be able to test drive OS X on generic PC hardware, which will make many of them future Mac customers. It’s a form of stealth marketing. As a stockholder in Apple, I am not worried about this, in fact I am depending on it.
Remember, Microsoft originally succeeded in the market because of the piracy spreading their product around and locking in their eventual customers.
” I was just quoting my liberal teachers at my school. “
Do the teach grammar, punctuation and composition?
All software should be free, all food should be free, all healthcare should be free, all housing should be free, all education should be free.
We should be all free to pursue are own natural talents without worry of money. Imagine the society we would have, the peace we would have.
All for one and one for all.
Thats a gret idea Mark
Why dont you start and we will watch and see how it works for you
MDN word “although”
as in
Communism is a beautiful idea “although” it will never work in a real society
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!!!
The weekly meeting of
The International Anarchist Society
will meet PROMPTLY every Tuesday at 7PM
Thank you for your time
Mark:
In the realm of personal computing – I believe that MS has been and is the number one motivator for consumers to cop the attitude that somebody owes them something, and if they’re not going to get it then they’re going to take it anyway, one way or the other.
I’ve been out of college for awhile now but often get the opportunity to work with interns fresh out of school. I have to say that I’ve been amazed, even shocked that otherwise level headed individuals, who would never think of lying, cheating or stealing (as far as I know), have absolutely no qualms about pirating computer software – none. 98% of them are Windoze users and my impression is that they feel MS has made all of the money they will ever need, as a company or group of individuals, and that they [interns] have an “invisible” right to take what they want to as a result.
When power of any kind becomes highly centralized, especially politcal and economic power, the masses inevitably become — un-nerved, I guess you could say. History has shown this over and over again. Bill has given away a lot of money, but did I personally get a computer from him (and in case I need to say it, I don’t want one from him – nothing personal), did you?
Here’s where I’m going – If the personal computing market place had a plethora of choices, hardware and software, like it should, I believe that the attitude of the young and understandably restless would at least be slightly less self centered, and that stealing software would still be laden with some sense of conscience. Believe it or not, I think this lack of conscience when it comes to stealing software is mostly MS fault. We have a radically skewed consumer market place when it comes to personal computing and I think this is the inevitable outcome.
How about spelling, Dr. Golly?
“Do the [sic] teach grammar…”
I know.
My grammer and grammer is awful.
I admit it.
Part of my problem is I think faster then I type and I don’t proof read what I type before I hit the send button.
It use to really bug and embarress me, but now I don’t care.
Oh well, life goes on. I have bigger problems to worry about and I am trying not to stress of ver the small stuff.
I do download music and software illegally. I know it is wrong. The software I download I don’t really use. I try it out and then never relaunch it. It is wrong no matter what. I music I download I listen to a couple of times and then never again too.
I can make all kinds of excuses, but what good will it do. This subject has been debated many times and everybody here has hear both sides over and over again.
Mark
I find it quite insulting that OS X will be sullied by being installed on unworthy beige boxes.
I’m going to go wash my hands
Oh, yeah. This was “easy” to hack. How many weeks has 10.4.4 for Intel been out?
You need to read what this guy had to do to get OS X running on a non-EFI system. This wasn’t a tweak here and a patch there. He had to rewrite large chunks of the system!
This “hacked 10.4.4” is actually a FrankenOS rip-off of 10.4.4 with significant differences under the hood, including the Dock, the Finder, and the kernal!! Nobody is going to use this.
Hackers are so funny. I honestly mean that. They pat themselves on the back for “beating Apple”, not even realizing that Apple has won the war. Want to pirate OS X for your cheap-ass Dell? Go ahead! But look at all you’ll have to do!
(And remember, each new update will break your hack, so have fun doing it all over again.)
Mark,
You should move to Canada.
With your luck though you’ll probably end up being amoung the 30% who don’t have Government jobs or Government handouts and you’ll actually have to work to pay for everyone else who is living in Utopia.
Someone always pays for paradise one way or another.
Repeat after me:
L-E-O-P-A-R-D
I’d hate to be the Doctor. Work all day… Don’t get paid. Wow! Like a linux programmer.
Funny how this comes out the day/after we get 10.4.5…like Apple doesn’t have a clue. As soon as a widespread crack (that’s what this is) of the OS is out Apple throws out a new release and everyone is then running an unsupported and old OS.
Like nobody would want to be a doctor w/o financial rewards? Guess you don’t got any doctors in your familly.
THE teach all kinda stuff at them schools. Just not proper redneck. My favrit langooage.
What’s unique about this act? DUH
1) A RELEASE version of OS X has been cracked to run on non-Apple Branded hardware.
2) Apple has already released a newer version of their OS.
3) Sony still makes more patches to stop homebrew than Apple ever will
M$ being helped along by piracy..ok someone just point me to the evidence to support that claim.
As a non-share holder, because your personal finances have anything to do with this, I couldn’t care less as the dynamics of the Computer market have completely changed for Apple.
Note to Cultists: There will not be a predictable product cycle, therefore new powerbook tuesday, speculation wednesday, and macweekend ™ have all been cancelled; all sports programs will proceed as usual.
We will see machines released from Apple faster than their OS is cracked and benchmarked.
IT HAS ALREADY HAPPENED w/ the MBPs