If you haven’t heard, there is quite a bit of buzz about Psystar home-built Open Computers. Essentially, these boxes are PC hardware set up to run an unmodified OS X Leopard kernel. When you see that they start at $399 + $155 for the OS pre-installed, you can imagine that the Mac guys are hopping on these.
So what’s the problem? Well, the OS installation/distribution is against the End User License Agreement (”EULA”) and, therefore, just waiting for a lawsuit by Apple. In that doc, it says the OS cannot be installed by end users on anything other than an “Apple labeled” computer. CNET has an interesting take on this:
If Mac OS X was the only operating system in the entire universe, and Apple required you to use its hardware, lawyers would have a field day.
For that reason, it seems interested users should buy now before everyone’s favorite benevolent monopoly (Apple) shuts the company down.
Paul Murphy with ZDNET goes one step farther and speculates “this particular group is going nowhere because there’s no real value in using even lower quality hardware to compete with Apple’s already low quality hardware”. Honestly, I haven’t yet read of anyone who has actually received their Psystar computer so, at this point, who knows what the true value is going to be other than an interesting legal challenge.
Get one of these Psystar Computers while you can. Not only is their payment processor giving them problems, but the looming EULA challenge by Apple is going to make this a short lived experiment.
Technorati Tags: Psystar
5 Comments
No because the company is quite likely to be a fake.
April 20th, 2008 at 3:57 pm. Permalink.
Given the possibility that Psystar’s Open Computer business might soon be put out of business, resulting in even less tech support after the sale, along with all the technical problems with wedging OS X into a non-Mac– even if they don’t go out of business, the only reason I can see for buying one quickly, is if one simply wants what may become a curiosity piece, no better than any other low to medium-end PC, and you have extra spending income to satisfy that collector’s urge. I can see such a purchase being justified, if one also gives an equal amount to charity. Then again, buying up Psystar’s inventory might help pay their upcoming legal bills, which could be seen as fulfilling one’s charity obligations.
April 22nd, 2008 at 12:23 am. Permalink.
Super blog!!! Love the tech advice.
May 1st, 2008 at 5:23 am. Permalink.
The website Engadet did a write up on this system. They bought one, unboxed it and did some benchmarks.
It faired pretty well.
http://www.engadget.com/2008/04/30/psystar-open-computer-notes-benchmarks-and-video/
I’m really on the fence about building a hackintosh. I have three PCs in the house. Two Macs and one Dell Wintel. I’d love to replace the Wintel with another Mac but don’t have the cash to do it. I can build the hackintosh. If it doesn’t work, I’ll at least have a fairly decent Windows PC.
May 16th, 2008 at 9:35 pm. Permalink.
Great comments Max, John, Joe. (*L* I like “hackintosh”) The EndGadget article is a great one - multiple pages of pictures and commentary.
May 17th, 2008 at 9:00 am. Permalink.