Never had any Apple products, be it computers, Ipods etc (or any other 'Icrap) or software. Never trusted them simply because they seemed too 'closed' to me I suppose.

But I do have to ask, and undoubtedly it's going to sound like a supid question on this thread: why bother going through that hassle to run a Macintosh OS? What's so special about Mac?

There's obviously some big reason why they still sell, I've just never known what it was apart from what they looked like.

Maddox speaks the truth:

http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=macs_cant

There is great irony in Apple getting upended with Mac clones.

If anyone is unfamiliar with the sordid tale of Apple history, let me tell you a tale of intrigue and betrayal . The story I'm about to tell is dark, terrifying and full of evil deeds, so you might want to put the kids to bed.

In the 90's Apple had begun licensing the MacOS to clone makers like Radius and PowerComputing. All was happy in Macland except that the clone makers still needed to buy an ASIC (application specific integrated circuit) from Apple in order for the MacOS to boot. Plans were underway to eliminate this burden by creating a PowerPC platform that did without the ASIC; it was called CHRP (Common Hardware Reference Platform).

Soon, Apple's customers began to notice that the clone makers were outpacing Apple in hardware and prices, selling newer, faster machines for less than Apple was selling older, slower machines. Soon Apple's hardware sales began to suffer.

It was around this time that an ugly troll king by the name of Steve Jobs reconquered his former Apple kingdom. He began to meddle in all of Apple's affairs in order to make Apple profitable again. So, did Steve Jobs make Apple a leaner, more efficient beast that could compete with the clone makers? No, Steve Jobs knew the easiest way to compete with them would be to kill them in their sleep. So when the clone makers were resting in a peaceful slumber, Jobs killed CHRP and then withheld the ASIC from the clone makers, putting them out of business overnight and royally screwing Apple's biggest support base.

After this, many who had been skewered by Apple's sword in the back would never trust them again. After all, how trustworthy is a king when he murders his own subjects in the night?

I'm actually a bit surprised that the 9600 GT works in OS X, since the latest Mac-compatible video cards are 8800GT's

Eulas are stupid pieces of shit. Nobody reads them, and nobody cares, and sometimes they hold up in court and sometimes they don't. Its the most pathetic thing in the world.

Nearly all eulas even have "XXX reserves the right to change or modify this agreement at any time without notifying you". You don't have to be rocket scientist to see that that is BS.

according to apple itunes eula:
you also agree that you will not use these products for...the development, design, manufacture, or production of missles, or nuclear, chemical, or biological weapons.
NOW WHY THE HELL CANT I DO THAT?

god I hate eulas

Netkas is friggin furious. PsyStar is using his PC_EFI v8 software to install/run OSX, same as I am on my PC. The difference? I'm not selling mine, PsyStar is.

It's a Hackintosh, a regular old OSx86 box. Please don't pay these scam artists, pay the talented hackers that made all this stuff possible.

This is AWESOME! I hope Psystar stays in business, this is the perfect alternative to overpriced mac hardware.

Ha, i have the same case for my office PC. A cheap Asus case, not horrible though, I think it was like $45 with a power supply. Convenient stylizing for a mac wannabe.

The issue here is not one of legality. It is perfectly legal for a company to sell the OS and the machines. It's even legal to install the OS, as long as the process used to do so was reverse engineered and not lifted from Apple's code. The DMCA doesn't come into play in this situation and there is nothing barring them from doing this legally.

There are at least three issues that they face:

1. The OS license forbids use of the OS on non-Apple equipment. The legality of Shrink Wrap Agreements and other forms of EULA are still in debate, with some jurisdictions finding them unconscionable and others say that they were enforceable. Still, the end-user is the one the violates the terms here, so Apple's recourse would be against the buyer, not the seller.

2. Apple is likely to allege that there is an infringement on their IP, specifically as it relates to the bootloader and EFI. This allegation has the propensity to bring the DMCA in to play. Even if the process was completely reverse engineered and therefore legal, the company will wind up paying big money to prove it.

3. Apple has deep pockets and a propensity to sue. The problem with this is that they can bring such a big legal arsenal to bear that a small company goes broke just trying to defend themselves, even on issues where it's not clear (or not even likely) that Apple would win.

Apple will try to use their muscle to force an injunction against the vendor at first for issue number 2. That will be the issue that they have the likeliest chance of gaining estoppel, specifically because Apple has the luxury of picking the court they want to sue in. After that, then they go for the other issues.

I don't understand why some companies have a blatant disregard for the legal system. It's suicide.

"You agree not to install, use or run the Apple Software on any non-Apple-labeled computer, or to enable others to do so."

So... if I put a Apple sticker, it'd be perfectly legal then? From my interpretation, that would "label" it as an "Apple".

Those OpenMac cases are Asus' TM-210/211! So I have the case covered!

Psystar may lose, but if pirates get a hold of this then Apple is going to lose lots more.

I got Mac OSX 10.5.2 installed on my AMD machine. Got everything installed and working right, but Mac was just never meant to run on a AMD platform. Firing up World of Warcraft and it would crash as it launches. Apparently Blizzard uses code that only likes Intels.

The best way to get a Hackintosh is to have pure Intel hardware. Nearly everything has to be Intel, including video and chipset. It's possible to run Hackintosh on AMD, but you'll have to run a lot of badly made up drivers, with hacked kernal which can be trouble when Apple updates it.

Netkas joker website doesn't render properly in Firefox.

Do you have a link... for... curiosity?