“Hackers have circumvented the changes in Mac OS X 10.6.2 to allow the latest upgrade to Apple’s Snow Leopard to run on netbooks with Intel Atom processors,” Sam Oliver reports for AppleInsider.
“When Apple released Mac OS X 10.6.2 earlier this month, Intel Atom support was missing from the release,” Oliver reports. “Though no Apple-sanctioned hardware uses the Atom processor, some low-cost netbook users would use the hack to install OS X on their systems.”
Oliver reports, “The hack applies only to a select number of ‘Hackintosh’ users, as not all who install Mac OS X on unauthorized machines use netbooks with Intel Atom processors.”
Full article here.
Apple has to defend its licensing system or the courts will take it away from them. No more crocodile tears from the Hackintoshers, please.
Maybe I’m a little naive here but, why doesn’t Apple just go back to putting a physical chip in their hardware and make is so the OS won’t install or work without that chip?
@ Beowulf
The initial difficulty with using Apple’s OS X was that it was built to run on IBM Power PC processors, which don’t use the same x86 architecture that most Intel and AMD processors utilize. By switching to an x86 architecture, Intel has opened its OS up to being ‘hacked’… if you can really call it hacking.
@Paul Johnson
Give me a break. The relatively small segment of people running OS X on non-Apple hardware are looking to fill a need that Apple hasn’t addressed. Apple knew that switching to Intel’s architecture would result in small amounts of non-official usage…it’s not going to make a noticeable difference for a company with $25 bn in the bank, especially with the increased switching over to Mac.
Does Apple have the right to try to defend its product? Sure. But users will continue to circumvent the relatively mild obstacles and use OS X on non Apple hardware. If you purchase OS X, and you’re clever enough to run it on your system, more power to you. That’s the tech trend, and Apple either has to open up, or deal with the “hackers”
@Yakov,
While OS X initially shipped on PowerPC Macs, NeXTStep/OpenStep ran primarily on Intel hardware, although it had been ported to a couple of other architectures, including SPARC.
It was a non-trivial exercise to bring up OS X on PowerPC, and its Intel port continued to be developed in parallel for quite a while before the intel version was released.
lol fanbois are angry now
I thought the Atom cpu was used in toys?
“Circumvent” implies that Apple was actively disabling the ability of Atom processors to run OS X. I thought it was merely that Atom processors couldn’t handle the latest update, because it used instructions that the Atom processor didn’t support.
——RM
This is great news as the hackers win yet another battle against Apple. They bitchslapped Apple pretty good this time. OS X must be freed from Apple’s INSANE monopoly.
Apple is paying attention, why wouldn’t they, this is part of the R&D;.
Go Hacintosh!
As is pointed out in the feedback below the linked MacWorld article, there is a much simpler fix. And it is relatively old news. Hackers very quickly provided fixes at least for the Dell Mini 9 & 10 (whose hardware make them two of the best candidates for running OS X).
If apple was deliberately trying to exclude the atom (i suspect they were), then they weren’t very serious about it. As I understand it, the fix was just to chanfe the reporting of the processor to the OS to make it think the atom was an intel core solo. There was no real problem with the atom per se.
@atom ant
They bitchslapped Apple pretty good this time.
Put down your pom poms, k cupcake? Otherwise, I’ll send Ferocious Flea after you.
@kevt
the fix was just to chanfe the reporting of the processor
whatever the fsck that means… what’re you making stuff up now?
G4 Duelie is just a stupid apple fan boy. He doesnt care about freedom the way the hackers do when they fight Apple. G4 duelie is more interested in protecting monopolies like Apple and Microsoft.
Atom Ant:
wrong forum. Go away.
Predrag—another piss poor apple fan boy. What a complete jerk.
@ [atom Ant®™] piss poor is anyone buying a cheap ass crap toy with an Atom inside.
I’m a proud 20+ year card carrying Apple fanboy. I was drinking Flavor Aid when you weren’t even a sparkle in your daddys eye before he knocked up your mom and went to prison.
Adam Ant you are not qualified to lick the bottom of my boots you little hemroid on a fleas butt. Now piss off and go play in traffic before I turn on my vacuum cleaner and suck you up and deposit you into the bottom of a ladfill.
Hello CRAPple,
Welcome to the world of Microsoft. Soon, very soon, you’ll gather enough interest that the hackers, trojan writers, malware players and general nasties will come your way.
Good luck. You won’t win.
http://www.bing.com When it comes to decisions that matter, Bing & Decide
You must be able to see it, Mr. Jobs. You must know it by now. You can’t win and same with your little company . It’s pointless to keep fighting. Why Mr. Jobs? Why do you persist?!
http://www.bing.com When it comes to decisions that matter, Bing & Decide
@I’m a PC
Already infected, I see… Well, Mac attacks are not going to happen just because you keep saying that they will along with thousands of other PC’s. Nor will it happen just because you want it to happen in order to justify/satisfy your desire not to be wrong in choosing an inferior computer experience and then defending it to the death.
MDN refers to this malady as Stockholm Syndrome. I perceive it to be the same weakness that leads the gambler to keep going at the table until every last cent is gone because his/her luck “has” to change sooner or later.
The MacOS is not invulnerable. But it will never be as porous as the Microsoft OS either. And nothing that you can do, say, write, or wish will make it otherwise. You have hit bottom in the AA sense of computing, and it is now time to start fresh with the MacOS…if you can bring yourself to admit that you have a problem.
@Beowulf
It would be pointless to use a chip.. someone would just hack the OS to remove the code to look for the chip.. and then torrent it out for all to get.
Atom Ant wrote:
“This is great news as the hackers win yet another battle against Apple. They bitchslapped Apple pretty good this time. OS X must be freed from Apple’s INSANE monopoly.”
First let me state that I currently own an MSI Wind dual booting Win7 and SL 10.6.1. But to say that Apple has an INSANE monopoly is stupid. How can a company have a monopoly on something it created and sales. So should the Coca Cola company be forced to allow Pepsi to make coke? Or McDonalds to allow BK to make Big Macs? Hell no. OSX is Apples product and they can do with it what they please.