Psystar, who, believe it or not, have taken to calling themselves, “the leading provider of Mac-compatible computers,” as if Apple doesn’t exist, has announced the release of the OpenServ.
According to Psystar, the OpenServ is capable of running practically any server software, ranging from Linux, Windows, to Mac OS X Leopard Server.
The OpenServ comes with a variety of choices, stemming from a single Xeon 2.5Ghz quad-core E5420 processor to Dual Xeon 2.66Ghz quad-core E5430 processors. It is available with anywhere between 4GB and 16GB of fully buffered DDR2 RAM, plus the OpenServ offers up to 6 drive bays on tool-less rails, in a rackmount form factor. The OpenServ is available in two varieties: the 1u version (referred to as the 1100) and the 2u version (2400).
According to Psystar, “the bare bones quad-core Apple Xserve costs up to $2,949, while a similarly configured Pystar OpenServ is available in a comparable stripped down form for just $1,599.”
See the OpenServ models here.
Source: Psystar
When is Apple going to squash this bug?
What is a “comparable stripped down form”? Is comparable? or stripped down? Can’t really be both.
Ahhh, hmmmm. Do they have 24 hour tech support?
If you are going to go cheap for a server, then buy a Mac Mini.
They’re probably still too small for now for Apple to care.
“the leading provider of Mac-compatible computers,”
They are right about this since Apple computers are real Macs, not just Mac compatibles. Sadly if Apple doesn’t pull their head out and make an inexpensive headless mac with a video slot, Psystar will probably be selling me my next computer.
I agree with you “Think”, Macminicolo.net has been a god send for our business. A Mac mini is less expensive than this “Openserv”, it’s officially supported, and it works great. Just throw an external hard drive on there and you’re set.
Psystar is digging a hole they can’t even comprehend. They will hit rock bottom, look up and realize they have buried themselves like no other. I should know. I dig holes like this with women ALL THE TIME.
Think their servers run with all fans blazing 24/7 just like their towers? Sign me up!!!
I have to say, I hope Apple sues ‘psystar’ into complete oblivion. Using someone else’s property and ideas (OS X) shows not only is psystar completely unimaginative (why not use the infinitely customizable Linux?), but thinks it has some moral ‘right’ to profit from someone else’s years of hard work.
If Steve Jobs is Hank Rearden, then psystar is apparently a company full of James Taggarts – looters to the core…
Oh, and does anyone else spot the irony of MDN doing their advertising for them in the Mac community..?
“We’ve just received this tape from an Islamist web site, we think it could be a secret communication to Al Qaeda sleeper cells. Let’s watch…”
To C1:
Al Qaeda is making cartoons from classic Woody Allen movies?
This company will self-destruct. Wait till they have software update issues.
@ Polly,
Are you running a stock Mini or are you installing OS X Server?
Anybody else using a Mini as a server?
@ Ampar
If only we could lock them all up Orgamatrons for a few years. I bet they wouldn’t stop bitching about Habeas Corpus!!!
@ OBill-Wan Kenobi
http://www.chrissyone.com/ is running on a Mini. I used to run Server on it, but I didn’t need anything more fancy than Client OS X, so it’s just running Tiger now. I rarely ever look at the UI, it’s sharing the second screen with my iMac.
PsyStar, well what are they up to? It is difficult to fathom. Usually one can get a clue from the name, in this case we have:
Psy
Star
Psy is usually used as an abbreviation for psychological, as in PSYOP.
Star is far off and bright.
As I said, it is a mystery.
As for A-Q, no mystery. Robin Cook was Foreign Secretary of the ‘Mother of all Parliaments’ in the correct time frame. Shortly before he mysteriously vanished from this world he had this to say:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2005/jul/08/july7.development
Part two was promised but never emerged.
MW = did
Did you? What? Think?
Oops no, we can’t have that, delete this post.
They just keep digging that hole deeper and deeper don’t they.
It’s going to get so deep that Apple might not have to lift a finger to bury them.
Why not let Psystar and other clone makers be for now, lure lots of new OSX users into the fold – the ones who usually complain that Macs are too expensive and would never buy a computer from Apple – then release the hounds. These new users would be invested in OSX by then and when they need to upgrade, would likely buy Macs.
I think Apple is just waiting for Psystar to get some net worth, so that when Apple sues them they can actually get some bucks.
You mess with the bull… well you know what you will get
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Clearly, for all of psystar’s ‘admiration’ of Apple’s OS tech, they haven’t taken to heart the fundamental truth of Steve’s philosophy – make your own hardware? Then make your OWN software, too!
If psystar had any self-respect or ambition to actually be taken seriously, they ought to build their own OS from the ground up, using a Linux kernel as a basis perhaps.
Instead, they remind us why Microsoft has never really gained an ounce of respect for its ‘innovations’ to date. Afterall, it took strongarming – coercion – to get Windows in people’s lives.
Apple never practiced that, and look where it is, today.
Being the creator of OS X, Apple is under no obligation to offer its work as public property. OS X can be as ‘exclusive’ and ‘closed source’ as Steve decides.
@zaxxon4: “Sadly if Apple doesn’t pull their head out and make an inexpensive headless mac with a video slot, Psystar will probably be selling me my next computer.”
So be it, then. Apple will NOT make a cheapo box for a loud minority of geeks. It’s not part of their business strategy to race to the bottom by selling low-priced, low-quality crap like Dell does.
The days of towers for home are numbered anyway…
Does it come with a sound proof room? Or is that an optional extra?
Wheat! Wheat!
HEY LOOK! Their bringing back the floppy. awesome
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Maybe psystar should include some optional extras… along the lines of sledgehammers? Crowbars? Acetylene torches?
Heh…
Anyhow, Asmodeus is correct. Just as Ferrari aren’t known (or interested in) five door sedans that are economical and inexpensive, neither is Apple interested in selling plastic-fantastic junk by the warehouse full.
Plus, those so slavishly concerned with the price – Apples actually work out much cheaper than a Windows machine with the equivalent bundled software. Want XP with iLife/iWork apps installed? Be prepared for another $2-3000 more than the list price.
Moreover, Apples cost virtually nil to maintain, compared to the anti-virus/spyware subscription fees on Windows, not to mention the quarterly ‘trashing’ of the OS because it couldn’t handle memory management and the like…
Be better informed, please.
Its ‘ORGASMATRON’ – ok?
Jeez, would you guys spell your sex fantasy machine’s names right?
‘You mess with the bull… well you know what you will get.’
Actually, no, I dont know.
What DO you get if you mess with the bull?
This HAS to be a company owned by Apple to test the waters. Otherwise Apple would have squashed them by now or at least sent them a nasty letter to stop.
@ fake watch
Typo, sorry. Its all good.
Interesting that Apple hasn’t done anything about it yet.
@OBill-Wan Kenobi
I’m running one of each actually. I have Leopard Server for my Mail and web. Then I also have a second mini with them to run my Daylite database (and be a backup webserver for heavy traffic)
My favorite feature on the 2400 is the floppy drive.
One of the missions for the PA semi group is to build Apple motherboards with features that no cloner can access and which yield performance levels that leave those cloners in the dust. The cloners’ business will simply evaporate and their investments will be lost.
Maybe Steve is waiting for them to make a little more money before suing their pants off. And maybe he’ll sue their customers too, just for fun!
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Any hackintosh is a gateway drug to a Mac. So all apple has to do is sit and wait. Wait until Snow Leopard comes and and is released into the wild. Apple is not saying anything because letting Snow Leopard run on non Apple hardware is the plan. It is no longer “Apple Computer.” Apple is a software company!
Release the clones!
By the way I have 5 macs in my house. When this happens I will be installing it on some older pc hardware I have. I will also be using it to bring my parents and sister into the Mac community.
It will happen. Microsloth won’t be able to stop the tide then!
If I was a conspiracy theorist I would almost venture to guess these guys are probably very close to Apple, or running a black-ops project directed by someone from Apple.
What is really great about Psystar for Apple is that it creates the illusion of competition, at the same time without spending a dime Apple gets Psystar to work as an independent research lab and do free market research. Apple may not be ready to try the PC economic model again just yet, but it would be fun and interesting to see what might happen as a social/economic experiment in the next year. Another question Apple must learn soon is how well can OS X run on commodity hardware actually powering large enterprises and data centers? If the finished Snow Leopard were to run server farms powering the MobileMe platform on a pure Apple Cloud, it would be nice to test the cost and performance of hosting on less specialized parts, no?
If/when Apple want to really shut down Psystar it would be really easy. People already mentioned the possible ways.
But for the immediate future, even if Apple does nothing, what harm can it come? It’s not 1999 anymore. The reasons why this time is different from the past where lowly priced Mac clones nearly ruined Apple is simple – 1) Mr. Jobs is at the helm; 2) OS X is hardcore and delivers; and 3) Apple no longer relies on selling the OS and desktop for its survival.
If you are an Apple hater/enemy/competitor, say MSFT, RIM, or Ubuntu, would you really be rooting for Psystar? More popularity and mindshare for Mac OS only means even less user interests for YOUR system and products.
@Asmodeus: “It’s not part of their business strategy to race to the bottom by selling low-priced, low-quality crap like Dell does.
The days of towers for home are numbered anyway…”
I’ll give you the fact that Dell makes cheap hardware. But almost anyone who finds the Mac-Mini good enough for everything but gaming, knows that Intel integrated video IS “low-priced, low-quality crap.” As someone who likes to play games on their computer, I think it’s unfortunate that it’d be cheaper to buy have a Psystar machine for gaming AND a Mac-Mini, than it would be to buy the only Mac that hav upgradable video.
Making a gaming capable pc is NOT making a cheap one, but it is also not a system that uses server parts. It’s something like this: http://www.commodoregaming.com/us-en/Game+PC/Commodore+g.aspx
Pisstar has nothing to do with Apple, sheesh, what a bunch of noobs.
Apple will break all the Pisstar clones with a software update. They will wait until Pisstar has a significant amount of hardware in the field, then break the update path and let all of Pisstar’s customers take the company down through support nightmares.
Apple will never go back to C L O N E W A R S !
Examine where the MAJORITY of Apple profit comes from, it’s not from software. I love Apple software tho. Logic rules!