“The Psystar story takes another twist as the company now vows to stand up against Goliath Apple promising to fight Apple’s end user license agreement that accompanies Mac OS X 10.5,” Travis Hudson reports for PC World.
“Psystar recently unveiled a $399 Mac Clone called the OpenMac, which has similar internal hardware as Apple’s $2000 Mac Pro. The kicker is that the Psystar computer runs on the Mac OS X. Psystar is now in clear violation of Apple’s EULA,” Hudson reports.
“Now Psystar has come out of the gates swinging as it plans on fighting Apple’s EULA by slinging around some antitrust law violations,” Hudson reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: As of this article’s timestamp, Psystar continues to sell their “Open Computer” (née “OpenMac”) for US$399 (2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 Processor, 2GB of DDR2 667 memory, Integrated Intel GMA 950 Graphics, 20x DVD+/-R SATA drive that is Lightscribe-capable, 4 rear USB Ports) and their “OpenPro Computer” starting at US$999 for the base configuration (Intel Core 2 Duo 2.6GHz, GB of DDR2 RAM, GeForce 8600GT 512MB, 150GB 10,000RPM hard drive) via their website (which actually seems to work today).
We wondered what happens when Apple releases Mac OS X 10.5.3 and subsequent updates? From Psystar’s FAQ: It’s best to check the web for this information but when in doubt don’t update it. You may have to reinstall your OS X if it is a non-safe update.
Cringe, then shudder.
This is all a publicity stunt. Other outfits have tried this before and are today nowhere to be found.
Macromancer:
It’s not and it’s just, as in “it is”.
I am willing to pay for a Mac to get a Mac.
Who’s with me?
http://www.psystar.com/contact.html
Check it out, they’re right next to the Miami Airport to make their quick getaway!!!!
But Psystar raises an interesting issue. I know that Apple says you aren’t allowed to run Leopard on non-Apple equipment. So Apple have a right not to support it. But company warranty is not government law.
Do I have the governmental legal right to try to put any OS on my Mac, given I purchased the copy of Leopard legally?
I know that Apple will threaten them, but may not sue since if Apple looses the case then much more will be at stake for Apple (and ironically MS).
There are no antitrust issues.
Antitrust law involves collusion between multiple companies to substantially control a market. Apple is a single company that can legally have complete control over their own product.
These morons must be getting the same legal advice SCO has been getting…
Not quite the same spec as the Mac Pro, but more evidence that Apple needs a lower-end tower. If these were sold exclusively outside of the US without an OS, they’d probably sell a lot of them.
Most people could get by just fine with 10.4.11 anyway.
“If these were sold exclusively outside of the US without an OS, they’d probably sell a lot of them.”
Like a certain unlocked cellphone (swap carrier for OS)? Hmmm.
im sorry arent truth and accuracy the same thing with regard to an article, i mean if it wasnt accurate it wouldnt be the truth right?
you can tell parts of a story that are true/accurate, but unless you give the whole balanced picture it isnt good journalism
“Most people could get by just fine with 10.4.11 anyway.”
Until 10.6 changes the world.
@brocktoon
sounds like you have been watching too much Fox news
i mean you could tell a story that a woman killed a man and that would be truthful and accurate but completely neglect to mention that it was inself defence, to be accurate you must tell the whole balanced story and good journalism often asks questions to engage its reader/viewer.
I have to agree with other posters that I would like to see more balanced views given by MDN, with more questions asked of apple, i have come away from this often feeling that I have been told what to think rather than make up my own mind. Opinion pieces are great but have to be a written a bit more from a neutral standpoint than we are getting.
Lot’s of new posters, probably all very close to Miami.
@Macromancer and Ampar… I stand corrected… it is just misleading
Unsupported hardware is bad for Apple because if customers buy this product and then find that it stops working when the next OS update comes out, who will get blamed by the press ? Apple or Psystar ?
Apple gets no financial benefit from the sale of these computers, but if they prove to be unreliable, users will say that their Mac doesn’t work properly. It’s a double negative for Apple as they lose a sale and also get the blame when it goes wrong.
While I agree that there is a market for a Mac midi tower, I don’t think that illicit clones are the solution. I’ve always felt that the way forward is for Apple to licence a few PC manufacturers to make Apple-approved computers to be sold as OS X-compatible computers, with strict controls over the exact hardware specification and the quality of the components.
Open mac is running a store bought version of OS X. It’s running on an EFI emulator so OS X thinks it’s a mac. Some extra kexts might have been added to the install to get audio working.
An apple update isn’t going to do anything bad to an open mac install. It’ll behave like a regular os x install on a real mac.
to fight ass-h&los;BRING IT ON SMALL FRY
seems like a publicity stunt if ever i heard one
I still want to know who’s behind Psystar. The fact that they’re vowing to “fight” strongly suggests to me that Psystar is a pawn in someone else’s game to damage Apple’s seemingly unstoppable Mac momentum – either directly (by forcing the issue and being able to sell PC clones that can run OS X), or indirectly (by bringing up the old “Macs are unnecessarily expensive” myth, as is already happening).
Contrary to MDN’s take, I don’t believe this is a “publicity stunt”. Somebody means business here, and it’ll be interesting to find out who that is.
Who can argue with jesus?
This “company” is obviously in it for the short term gain. They may indeed sell enough of these to make a huge profit. I’m guessing that is their “business plan”: sell and run.
What is the warranty? When it is found that they do not support these machines will they refund?
I feel for the people who buy these things; they should be informed that their new purchase will work minimally (that configuration is pretty weak) and for only a limited time.
To jesus et al:
I do believe that MDN can balance or not balance, but the final call belongs to MDN. MDN get their take because MDN belongs to MDN. This forum allows agreement or disagreement or, if you will, balance.
Thank you for your attention. That is all.
what a pointless post, contribute something valuable other than an insult, or at least if you are going to insult back it up with some reason
i agree that there could be loads of customer service issues with this that apple could be blamed for, however we should be talking about the points it does raise such as low cost way to entering the world of mac.
Apple has achieved it with the Ipod, why not the mac?
and i cant comment on america but here in Britain we do seem to pay a hefty premium for apple goods compared to similarly specced windows machines, i recently asked a friend what she was planning to upgrade her ageing desktop to, she said id like a mac but i cant afford it so im going to have to stick with windows. I think a lot of people are in the same position.
i dont think they were questioning the right of MDN to provide almost hysterical goebells like reporting, just the fact that it isnt good journalism
thank you, that is all
Personally, I think Apple’s EULA violates quite a bit of other laws/human rights. Imagine that Sony would sell music that plays anywhere and the EULA would only allow you to play it on Sony players.
It would be Sony’s good right to engineer their music downloads such that it is hard to play on another player, but that is not the same as “forbidding” something that is quite easy to do.
It looks like this world uses double standards for music and Software.
What if software vendors would prohibit running Windows executables under Wine?
What if the entire software industry would issue such restrictive EULA’s?
What would come of such excellent products such as VMware?
In a time of virtualization, it also sounds inappropriate to prevent people to run software on whatever processor, emulator, than one cares to choose. The distinction between hardware/firmware/emulation/virtualization is getting more and more blurry.
If M$ wants to prohibit running Windows under virtualization, everybody hollers this can’t be done. Apparently Apple can do this without much controversy.
In my opinion, Apple is welcome continue to make it difficult for others to run their OS, but it should strike the restriction in their EULA.
Goebbels-like reporting… Really. Really?
That is all.
Pystar is just another leech trying to profit off another open source project. If you really want one of these clone boxes, go to osx86project.org. Download the install instructions and hardware compatibility lists. Buy your choice of quality parts from a reputable known source. Then donate some funds to the project to ensure your box will still work in the future.
Apple is too expensive! My trusty G5 died a few months ago and I decided to get a Mac Pro but on my way there I stopped in at Best Buy. After looking around I decided to buy an HP Quad Core and a Hp 17″ Intel Core 2 Notebook all for 2100 bucks. Installed Mac OS 10.5.2 and 2 months later not one single crash or bump. And I saved about 600 dollars. But what these people are doing is wrong. If you want to build a mac build it yourself. Installing 10.5.x is not easy and basic computer skills wont get you through the install and setup process.