Engadget has their hands on “the first Psystar Open Computer shipped out for review,” Nilay Patel reports.
“We’re just getting it set up, but check out the unboxing [photos],” Patel writes.
See the photos here.
MacDailyNews Take: Focacta from the packaging to the plug.
MacDailyNews Note: From Psystar’s online FAQ: Can I update my Open/OpenPro with the Leopard OS using the Apple web site or the Leopard Automatic Update Feature [sic]? We do not support that feature of the operating system. Supported updates will be listed under support on the Psystar website. Future operating system updates may cause severe system problems. Only install updates that have been tested and posted to the Psystar support website.
Wow. It sounds like a kitchen blender! Or an XBox 360!
The horror! A Mac with parallel and serial ports? This is an abomination. I need eye-bleach. Please Apple — KILL IT!
Not that I’m any expert on Yiddish (and the word is of German origin anyway), but MDN, isn’t it spelt vercochtet?
Gotta say, vercochtet it definitely is…
Love the way the had to label the buttons, shows the market they are aiming for.
On second thoughts shouldn’t the buttons say ‘Pull’ instead of ‘Push’ – to make more sense to Windows users.
From the photos it looks like some junk bought from the Dollar Store or Wal-Mart.
What about service and support? Can’t call Apple for the OS problems because it’s not supported on that machine. You’re pretty much on your own.
You really do get what you pay for.
Apple. Real Intelligent Design®
Those look like Leopard disks. I looks like they’re reselling Leopard rather than pirating it, but doesn’t their FAQ page say they don’t recommend customers try installing Leopard on their own as it is so difficult. What use are the disks other than protect Psystar from piracy charges?
Oh, it IS just a cheap plastic case with cheap components. So basically your average PC box assembler, name or otherwise.
That’s why I’ll stick with Apple. Best quality with a genius eye for detail at a very reasonable price, through and through.
” There Can Be Only One “
Whoever buys this POS deserves it. You want a cheap Mac, then get a Mac Mini. Or a refurbished Mac from the Apple Store. Don’t make a mistake by getting this flawed Dopplegaenger!
Pystar Looks Like Crap.
Windows Vista :
1. The newest in a long line of crappy OS’s from Microsoft. This one promises to track your every move, so watch out all you internet pedophiles out there!! they’ll know who you are!
Gary finished downloading a few videos and suddenly the FBI crashed through the door. “Damn you, Windows Vista!” He screamed whilst they hauled his ass to the pokey.
2. The OS from hell that promises to make your life miserable and wish you can throw your previously fine computer out the window.
My computer is a f*@#$ mess since I changed to Windows Vista.
3.Microsoft’s newest Operating System, the successor to windows XP. Windows Vista takes all the worst features of Windows XP, and makes them worse, moves them around to new, hard to find locations, and adds a ton of new features. Some of these new features are:
*Explorer windows that regularly freeze up
*A proprietary web browser, Internet Explorer 7, that comes packaged with the system and cannot be uninstalled or deleted.
*400+ MB RAM usage right off the bat.
*Built-in DRM to restrict a users ability to do most anything.
*UAC (User Account Control), a wonderful feature that questions the intelligence of its users by asking if they’re sure they want to do what they’re trying to do, then double-checking that they didn’t accidentally press “Yes” when they meant “No.”
*Shadow-copy, and other similar hidden processes, that keep hidden backups of your data files to ensure that your privacy is always compromised.
*Little backwards-compatibility.
*New versions of old familiar tools that remove all those pesky progress displays and status indicators, so you have no idea whether the program is actually doing anything or not (because that’s none of your business). For example, the new checkdisk and defrag.
*A complete new set of security holes for virusus, adware, trojans, etc to exploit.
*The new “aero” interface, which is incompatible with almost everything non-Microsoft.
Windows Vista is also known as Microsoft’s latest attempt to create a product worse than windows ME.
lmao!
It’s spelt “focaccia”, isn’t it?
Anyway, what’s a box got to do with bread?
Apple needs to sue these folks for making Apple’s OS X work in such a sweat shop… it’s not far to the best OS in the land!
Why ANYONE interested in a Mac would spend $3.00 on this is beyond me. Just load Windoz and be done with it.
Lousy; screwed up; washed up; (vulg., shitty, crappy, full of shit (vulg.); (adj.) farkakt פֿאַרקאַקט
Approximate pronunciation (Northern Yiddish / Southern Yiddish): far∙kakt’
Back in the Day, I worked at Microage’s Integration Center and assembled and customized ten’s of Thousands of PCs, Macs and UNIX systems and servers. I can still spot and cheap poorly assembled system from 10 miles away. This is a cheap 32 Bit legacy board with 32bit PCI slots that you’ll never be able to add a PCI cards to and have any confidence that they’ll work, this is assuming of course that you can find PCI drivers for MacOSX. There is so many 8 and 16 bit legacy chips and subsystems on the board that it looses 30% of it’s performance in bus bottle-necks. The lowest end Mac Mini will most likely run circles around the Psystar cheap box.
The first calls to Apple Tech support that they get on these cheap systems will be the end of Psystar. I even put money on Psystar starting to referring tech support issues to Apple after they’ve been shipping these systems for at most 90days. It’ll take them that long to figure out that support cost money and lot’s of it, when you’re selling cheap computers. Just talk to Michael Dell about the cost of supporting a cheap low end system compared to a high end system. You’ll find the cheap system costs you 50 to 100 times more to support then a high end system does.
There’s still not enough journalists asking the questions I want answered: who are these people behind Psystar, and what are their motives?
You’ve got this Psystar company which appears out of the blue, haphazardly changes their address info a few times (while blatantly lying about a “recent change of address”), and claims to be selling computers in violation of the licenses of both Apple and the programmer who came up with the EFI firmware hack. Psystar’s first impression comes across as both shady and amateurish. If all they did was steal peoples’ credit card info, it wouldn’t be much more than an unusually high-profile internet scam.
But if they’re actually shipping working machines, that changes things significantly. They’re not just taking peoples’ money, they’re building and shipping working computers to customers. And they apparently aren’t too concerned about copyrights or the legal ramifications of what they’re doing.
I’m starting to wonder if Psystar has any shadowy ties to the folks who make money from organized cybercrime. They can’t be blind to the trend away from Windows toward OS X, and OS X isn’t the laughably easy target for exploitation that Windows is.
So instead, they manufacture and sell cheapish Mac clones which come preinstalled with a modified version of OS X. They make it so the OS can’t be updated via Apple’s normal system updates, instead picking and choosing updates and listing them on their website. This could allow for some “hacked” Darwin files under the hood (which are provided courtesy of their preinstallation) to steal users’ personal/financial information, participate in spam botnets, etc. – perpetuating the status quo they’re accustomed to on the Windows side of things.
Yes, this may be in the realms of wild speculation, but this whole Psystar thing has been bothering me ever since the story broke, and this is one of the few scenarios I can think of that fits what we know so far. I sincerely hope that some enterprising tech reporter will take the time to carefully compare Psystar’s preinstalled Leopard with the real thing, to see what’s different.
MW: big, as in this story doesn’t seem to be getting smaller anytime soon.
I just puked in my mouth a little.
eeeewww, it has a parallel printer port!!!!!!!
Apple’s silence on this is deafening. Maybe they are happy to have a retail sale of MacOS X on an obviously limited PC that they will never have to support in warranty or upgrades and gets some of the experience into the hands of the PC geeks who refuse to fully switch.
Maybe it is MS who should be worried about Psystar.
It’s the same reason that Apple is silent about all of the Hacintosh pages out there. Once people see what a Hackintosh is all about and how bad the performance and stability is, the problem will solve itself.
“So instead, they manufacture and sell cheapish Mac clones which come preinstalled with a modified version of OS X. They make it so the OS can’t be updated via Apple’s normal system updates, instead picking and choosing updates and listing them on their website. “
This is absolutely not true. It is a regular, out of the box, vanilla copy of 10.5. The hack, which was developed BY the OSX86 boys is to the EFI which allows standard Leopard to install and run….
Since Mac “Box assemblers” use standard PC parts (Intel, GeForce, Radeon) there are no driver issues if you build the clone right..
What you end up with is a machine that is fully expandable and faster for 1/2 the price (or more of a Mac)… Of course, The Fanboys here could case less about expandability and performance. What’s REALLY important to them is that their computers “LOOK” sexy and delicious!
Of course, Apple could easily “break” it with their next software update. Just as easily they could allow it to update if they wanted to,,, But they will break it. Who would ever by a Mac when you can get 3 times the machine for half the price..
Focacta:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=focacta
Hmm, no Firewire standard not too expensive to add on but no iLife??!! What kinda Mac or Mac Clone wouldn’t be caught dead w/o iLife preinstalled!! Wait, maybe if they were like really old, obsolete, pre-G3 and or used off of eBay!! BTW I’ve gotten much better boxes from eBay shipping old stuff! LOL
OK, I missed it at first but Psystar is authorized to offer OS X 10.5X software updates that are pre-approved by testing done by Psystar. Hmm, where’s the Apple lawyers? LOL Oh wait, I’ll bet they’re waiting for a couple of hundred of them to go out then break ’em with a software update time bomb style or they’ll force Psystar to refund all of their customers money after the boxes go south and force them to send ’em Mac Mini’s to replace ’em!
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Apple’s lack of response to Psystar tells me new owners are sitting on a ticking time bomb much like <a href=”http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080430112525.htm”> except way dumber.
Yeah and next time I’ll proof read my HTML. I wonder if M$ is hiring?