When Psystar announced it Rebel EFI package, the company was quickly accused of simply taking open source code, repackaging it, and selling it for USD 50. While selling open source code is not a problem, not making the source code available if the license demands it is. Netkas, famous OSX86 hacker, and a Russian site are now claiming they have found the smoking gun.
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Member since:2005-07-07
This is a company that put their necks on the line to support an idea that they think is right - that they can resell software they purchased if they want to. How can you so easily dismiss such an act, even if you disagree with them about whether they should have that right nor not (you seem to be on the side of not).
Pystar is a hardware company daring to ship OSX pre installed - if it took OSS to do it, that's even better, it demonstrates the power of the open source philosophy. The only gripe is with their disclosure practices, and it remains to be seen how they'll respond to this (I do have my doubts about whether they'll respond appropriately).
On the other hand, this could be just a skeezy company, trying to make a quick buck - on the other other hand they are fighting a tough and expensive court battle, and could just have been trying to get some warchest funds.
In any case, I don't see how to put them in a tiny box so easily - this is a fairly complicated matter, IMHO.
Member since:2007-01-22
well, if you make an agreement that you're not going to use macosx on a non-Apple computer and then you use macosx on a non-Apple computer, you are breaking your agreement.
Apple isn't interested in open hardware. So why not just leave them alone and reward those that *are* interested?
Member since:2009-07-24
All that has gone on up till now may have been 'complicated', but if they violated an open-source license when they made this Rebel thing, then the situation will instantly become crystal clear to a lot of people, including folks who don't even care about Apple and their stuff.
The ends do not justify the means.
Member since:2009-03-17
Member since:2006-01-06
Scum? WTF. Seriously, man, it's not cool labeling them "scum" because you disapprove of their dealings with Apple. I can think of a lot of reasons to label Apple with the same moniker, given the sleazy things they do on a daily basis.
Member since:2009-03-17
Member since:
2005-07-06
People are surprised? from a group of scum only scum can from them. I find it funny that people here are jumping around all excited about them being the 'knight and shining armer' when yet again, like EFI-X, yet another company riding on the coat tails of another persons/organisations hard work. Not only do they ride on the coat tails of Apples success, they do it off the back of a hard work done by unpaid enthusiasts. Yet another example of when if you can't trust a group to respect one groups hard work, how do you expect them to respect anyones hard work.
It has gone form a small group of enthusiasts sharing their experience and developing some work arounds to a group of people who have taken their hard work and NEVER contributed anything back. Screwing over Apple is one thing but it is completely different thing to do what Pystar have done. But like I said, given the shady businesses practices of Pystar, I'm not surprised it happened.