Can Apple stop the Open Computer?

Posted Tuesday, 15 April 2008, 01:46 HST @407

15 April is tax deadline day in the United States. Next month, many US taxpayers will get a rebate check that President Bush hopes they will spend to boost the flagging economy.

Why not spend that check on a new computer? According to Good Morning Silicon Valley, Psystar will sell you an Open Computer. It’s an Intel PC that ships with an ugly case, a fresh copy of Mac OS X Leopard and a few software drivers generated by the open source osx86 project.

Why pay Apple’s hardware prices when an Intel PC can run the Mac operating system? It’s easy to build your own Mac-compatible Intel PC, and use the open source software and a copy of Leopard. In fact, this is a fine project for a student who has the resources and time… as long as they do not sell the final product.

Wired has pointed out one small problem with Psystar’s plan: Apple’s user license for Leopard specifically states that the operating system can only be used on Apple-branded hardware. Psystar cannot really sell a Mac operating system with a beige-box computer.

Perhaps this is why Psystar changed the product’s name yesterday. It was listed as “OpenMac”. The Mac name is trademarked by Apple, of course.

MacRumors has more information for those who are interested.

I sense a cease-and-desist order coming from 1 Infinite Loop in Cupertino, California.

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16 July 2008: Apple can stop the Open Computer

Tags: Apple, copyright, economy, hardware, mac, open-source, software, trademark, USA

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billso

According to Engadget, Psystar won't give up any time soon.

billso

Now Engadget says that the OSx86 project participants are questioning Psystar's rights to resell their open source software.

Netkas, the author of the EFI emulator, which allows a stock PC to boot Apple's OS, has changed his license terms to prevent commercial use of his software.

Charles Arthur, a report for the Guardian, tried to track down Psystar's offices in South Florida. His article is hilarious.

Someone in Miami is having a really bad week!

billso

ZDnet has posted a good update on the Psystar OpenMac mess.

billso

MacWorld has a great article on how to build your own Mac clone from off-the-shelf parts. Assembling copmuter is the easy part. Adjusting the BIOS so that Leopard and the OSx86 shims will boot the computer can be tricky.