The news has been out for a few hours already, but we were waiting for some official documentation and sources until we would publish it: Psystar, the Macintosh "clone" maker, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Apparently, the small company has a debt of USD 259000. The filing was made on a voluntary basis, and according to Psystar the financial troubles arise from the economic downturn.
To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Member since:2007-05-12
First, I'm not claiming either one to be true. I'm just saying that "most likely" doesn't cut it. It's one or the other.
Second, installing drivers is not worst case, it is *the* case. Since Psystar's hardware is not an exact replica of Apple's machines there has to be some degree of modification or the OS.
However, third, the extent or mechanism of that modification is something I don't have any information about (but it seems neither do you or Thom). It can very well be a bunch of third party kernel extensions, which is certainly not a hack - in fact that's *the* way you add hardware support to the OS. But it may just as well be kexts posing as Apple's own, which is on the fence, or even modified versions of Apple's kexts, which lies firmly beyond the fence.
At the end of the day, I don't really see the importance of this, since it is neither the reason for the bankruptcy, nor the cause of the lawsuit, but if Thom fancies writing an article on the subject, I'd much rather see researched, factual information, than a pile of speculation.
Member since:2005-07-13
"Second, installing drivers is not worst case, it is *the* case. Since Psystar's hardware is not an exact replica of Apple's machines there has to be some degree of modification or the OS."
Thats not true. just as Intel's chipset drivers for windows cover a borad spectrum, apple's drivers are less specific than one might think and a suprising amount of configurations can be used "out of box" (ish). Apple doesn't go to great lengths to modify the hardware they use, so its not that different from what you can find online, if you know what to look for.
Member since:2005-10-12
or even modified versions of Apple's kexts, which lies firmly beyond the fence
Not necessarily. In the US this will count as a permitted use under copyright law, which explicitly allows you to make changes in the cause of inter operability.
It will violate the EULA of course, but no more so than that act of installation on non-Apple hardware.
Member since:
2008-06-24
You can run a Linux bootloader (called boot123, 132, etc) that will load the UNMODIFIED OSX Discs. Therefore, OSX isn't "hacked". It's a Vanilla kernel, install, and AFAIK, drivers. Worst case is you need to install a few drivers after you install it (not sure).
So what's your definition of 'hacked' ?
Edited 2009-05-26 20:21 UTC