News Psystar launches Mac OS install tool

You can install windows on a mac, where is the problem with windows users doing the same. Apple only have to increase the price of the OS to compensate.

 

W00t! Good to see another Dell Mini owner who has gone down the OSX road . I had OSX (10.5.5) on my Mini 9 until recently, and everything works brilliantly - except for the mobile broadband. It worked, but it appeared to be defaulting to GPRS and not using HSDPA, with no way of changing it. I've gone back to XP for now. Was very easy to install and worked just like a "real" Mac. Of course, it helps that the Mini 9 & 10v use the same hardware as "real" Mac laptops, so there's very little customising required.

I would never replace Windows on my desktop rig for one reason alone: games.

However for the vast majority of the retail market, OSX on a wider range of hardware would go down a storm - it would sell like hotcakes. Even if it were restricted to certain PCs or components (think "Mac OS Compatible" badge on a PC), people would buy it in droves. Like it or not, the OS is very simple to use and very powerful to boot. It's a lot less intimidating to a new user than even Win7.

Of course, none of the above points are likely to sway the BT/CPC audience

 

I completely agree. It's just something that'd be fun to try out for a couple hours.

 

The people who don't see the advantage of being able to install OSX on their non-Apple systems obviously haven't seen the inside of a typical Recording Studio or Graphic Design Studio before.

Those workplaces are dominated by Apple through clever marketing where uninformed people are convinced that Apple systems are somehow 'simply better' for those purposes.
This means in turn that many of the software tools used heavily in those areas are tailored for use on OSX (Protools etc).

It also means that when the owner of a design studio or recording studio is showing off their facilities and equipment to potential clients, there's an expectation of seeing an Apple system somewhere in the list - A sort of snobbery whereby studios without an Apple aren't considered fully-equipped.

Being able to install OSX on an existing non-Apple system would make it a lot easier for a budding recording engineer or illustrator to join the 'Apple club' and be fully-equipped for a lot less, or at the least it would allow them to work on their skills and familiarity with OSX for the sake of fitting into the industry.

I'm not a fan of OSX but a stable method of installing it on my i7 studio rig to multi-boot between Win7/OSX/XP would be a very nice advantage for me.

 

Sadly, you have hit the nail on the head there. In the past, an Apple system used to be pretty much essential (from a technical point of view): firewire didn't really enjoy much support on the PC, but has been used on the Mac for a long time. And Firewire is far superior to USB for pro-level audio equipment; it's pretty much essential when you're dealing with 24 channels of audio going to and from the computer. PCs have long since caught up and overtaken Macs, but the Mac snobbery and exclusivity still exists.

Ironically, I happened to pop into the new Apple store in Cardiff earlier... Lots of shiny-shiny toys...

 

i would be one of those people who dont really see the point of osx... and funnily enough im in my last year of a sound engineering degree.....

i see your point that maybe it would help familiarise yourself with logic and/or final cut. firstly its a small niche market. secondly, those two arent really the things you need a lot of time to grasp fully. thirdly, im not sure a hackintosh necessarily fulfils an airhead clients expectation of an apple system. if they think thats whats needed, they probably want to see the shiny shiny apple casing too.

oh, and you mentioned protools specifically.... which works just as well, IMO better on windows.

 

I would really like to see what Psystar's rebel EFI does that Netkas PC_EFI emulation layer doesn't.

The Hackintosh community has been working hard for a long time now perfecting it's custom bootloaders and EFI emulation to the point that you can install straight off of a Retail Snow Leopard DVD and most stuff works.
You only need certain drivers for graphics, PS/2 input devices, and other non-Mac hardware.
If you have a Intel system you can boot from vanilla kernel too. You only need custom kernel if you have a CPU not supported by Apple natively (like AMD and older Intel chips).

Apple uses a lot of open source code anyways. It's not like Mac OS X is that special.
But they kind of are alone with using Objective-C as programming language and the frameworks Carbon and Cocoa has not been ported to other operating systems. Which if was the case would allow you to run Mac OS X apps on Windows/Linux (recompiled).
I guess most people don't care about the apps on Mac OS X after all. They just want the flashy OS itself.

 

"Once thing is for sure: Apple is unlikely to take this lying down."

/cough
Typo
/cough

At least, last time I checked, you didn't spell one with a "C".

 

Well i see the problem with psystar that they are parasites sucking off what people have been making for free.. i know sevel tools and we have a new in the builds to compite heads on with psystars rebel efi, that can do the same as they can but are better and are free...

All the tools and a lot of easy guides are out there the biggest problem is just psystar have better pr because we dont want to be hunted by apple...

So lest breake down what you get for the 50$ (soon to be 99$)

Bootloader, well there are Chameleon 2 and pc_efi v10 that do the same but are free.
Support, there we have irc and some really big forums.
Auto kext finder. Most systems dont need anything more then 4-7 kexts to run osx86 and thoes can be found with google or with the help of people on irc (Just know it might be short answers but you will get the kexts name)
updated bootloader (Ohh wait when apple have owned psystars a$$ you wont get anymore updates and the auto kext downloader dont work anymore)

So as it is i cant see the reson to get the psystar one other then they have better PR so they are known to the public.

Ohhh and just to say it.. i dont condole warzing the os.. i do own a Familiy License of Snow Leopard and i will recomend others that are seruios about this to get a license.. it is only 29$ and then you have giving some back to apple.

Well that was that from me now.. anyone want links then hit me a pm..

 

DriftCarl, it's about competitive markets and controlling monopoly power so that consumers benefit. Windows is the dominant desktop OS (not in the server room, that's a different story). Microsoft has, in the past, abused its position and has been convicted on a number of occasions for doing so (Google 'Microsoft Anti-trust' and you'll see how and when - don't Bing for it though because you won't find it - and that's another story). The European Commission, acting on a complaint from Opera, IBM, Sun, et. al. stepped in to prevent further possible abuse of consumers by Microsoft of its desktop monopoly. The importance of the Web Browser is set to increase with many predicting it to be the dominant platform of the future. All the key players know this and that's why the EC acted as it did. It needs to be remembered that the EC didn't prevent Microsoft from including IE in Win7. All it did was force consumers to make a choice about what browser they use. Many of those consumers wouldn't even be aware they had a choice were it not for the EC's actions. Those consumers would have continued to use a web browser that is (a) the least compliant with web standards, and (b) among the slowest of its peers.

 

I haven't been in there yet, but its nice to know it is there just in case my MBP or ipod decide to fail!

I may wait and see how the 12-core Mac Pro's are priced though..!

 

I had to pop in, never been in an Apple store before. Apple can make some very good looking kit, and it's rather an impressive sight in there...

Be warned though: St David's 2 is dizzyingly large - looking up at the ceiling made me feel all light headed. Although it looks like the perfect refuge in the case of a zombie apocalypse....

 

I've been slightly put off by the shop lineup - 58 stores, 50 of them sell nothing but women's clothes. Like Cardiff needed any more bleedin' clothes shops.

 

Well having a macbook pro with windows vista running under boot camp on mac osx snow leopard, its comparable to a lot of pc gaming rigs (laptop based). It's funny that windows runs better on my mac.

I love this company for making a software to help install osx on a pc - i would run boot camp with windows 7 if I purchased their software.

I don't understand what mac's deal is. I mean if they REALLY want to make a buck....LEAVE THE COMPANY ALONE FOR ONE! - AND FOR 2...

... Keep your prices the same on all hardware - you will STILL MAKE A BIGGER PROFIT by doing one thing and one thing only....


LET STORES WITHIN A 5 MILE RADIUS SELL MAC HARDWARE!!!!! you are killing your sales by limiting how close an outlet can be to another that can sell mac's!


Well I guess... you still need to drop the prices of mac hardware so people will actually build your sh*t at home and not get a pre-assembled box of sh*t. Most cant even afford a memory upgrade! put that in your pipe and smoke it while you try and sue this company mac!

 

saying that you are better off just because you run a purchased copy of Mac OS X on your Hackintosh doesn't change a thing. Apple would still hang you if they could. They don't want their OS running on anything but a Mac. It's a breach of their EULA actually.

I'm certainly not going to pay for a thing I will have to spend a lot of time getting to run suitably well anyways because it's not officially supported.

 

Compared to the rest of town, all the clothes shops in St David's 2 are brutally overpriced. And the reason I know this is that I have been dragged round many of them. Many, MANY of them... Guys, don't ever let your girlfriend/wife/partner/spouse/lover/mistress start dragging you along when they go clothes shopping. Never set that precedent - once you do, it will be expected for life!

I've read up a little bit about EULAs. There is serious doubt as to whether a EULA would actually stand up in court (at least in Europe, I don't know about the US) - it's an agreement that you're effectively forced to accept without having a chance to read it; you can't read the EULA without actually buying the product after all. It means that you're entering into a contract which you have no prior knowledge or understanding of, and there are serious doubts as to whether that's even legal; however, their validity has not been properly tested in court, as far as I'm aware (someone can probably correct me on that, I'm no legal expert). Sure, you could theoretically return the product if you disagreed with the EULA - but by this time you've probably opened the package and the retailer would not be likely to accept a return. There's no way you can fit the entire EULA on a product box. You could potentially go back to Apple for a refund, or take the retailer to court, but that's likely to cost you more money than you paid for the product in the first place.

And no, it's not officially supported, but there is a community out there very dedicated to getting it to run smoothly. Installing OSX on my netbook was simply a matter of downloading and burning a custom boot disk and buying a retail copy of Leopard. Boot from the boot disk, then swap to the OSX disc and from there on in, it's almost exactly the same as a real Mac - the only difference is that you have to install the Dell EFI program on first boot, which is a one-time scripted installation.

Besides, the EULA wording actually states that it cannot be installed on any computer which does not bear the Apple logo - I got a few Apple stickers when I bought my iPod touch, so does anyone want to legitimise their hackintosh install?