Hackintosh clone surfaces in the Argentine

First Psystar, now OpeniMac. It appears that Apple's lawyers may soon be playing Whac-A-Mole with upstart cloners. Apparently, Psystar's latest legal troubles - the dismissal of the company's anti-trust complaint against Apple and the upgrading of Apple's suit against them to include alleged DMCA violations - haven't deterred …

[Anonymous Coward]

El Reg yet again leaps, only to find themselves clinging to a ledge on the face of Mt Conclusion...

Now that OpeniMac folk may have a pair of massive, billet steel, prestaciones or it may well be that El Reg has, yet again, gotten the wrong end of the empanada.

This humble latin startup is not building Apple clones and to suggest they are doing so is, frankly, slanderous. What we are looking at is a simple, run of the mill x86 desktop that is, as they say, as capable as any Macintosh. More so, perhaps - it is THAT good.

No. I put it to you that there is absolutely nothing about the OpeniMac that even remotely suggests an attempt to duplicate or emulate the functions of an Apple Macintosh. Quite the contrary, in fact, when they go to great lengths to point out that they will not warrant that on their machines "[an] application will function properly as it would on an Apple computer.". If only Dell were so dilligent with their disclaimers.

Together with "OpeniMac will not be legally responsible for the use of the computer by the user in any way." we have, more than anything, a harsh judgment of our rabidly litigious society. Modern boilerplate has to speak directly to the sociopathic Myspace moms and the mind numbingly stupid, alike. Anything you do, to that person, with this computer - it is your own fault. Further, those Apple programs wont run here - you are foolish to think they might.

This OpeniMac is clearly a PC - not some sort of iMac constructed in some sort of open fashion without the blessing of the Apple Corporation. There is nothing to see here. There is no need for anybody to sue anyone over anything.

[Chris]

Anti Competition Laws

And Apple fans laugh at Microsoft for "anti competition".

Why the hell shouldn't you be able to put OSX on any machine, provided it runs, and you have a licence? Oh, because Jobs can't rip you off for top price for 3 year old spec machines.

I actually quite like OSX too. I just hate Apples business style, even more than Microsoft. For the money ALL of their hardware is an absolute joke.

[J]

@AC "El Reg yet again leaps..."

Er... What about the "Mac OSX original" then, eh?

[Anonymous Coward]

@J

Sadly, I must confess to pitching for "tongue in cheek" and falling somewhat short of the mark. Alas.

[Martin Lyne]

No company..

guarantees software will run on a given [non-bespoke] machine , not even the software comanies will make any similar claims. Do Apple guarantee shit will work on Macs?

[Anonymous Coward]

@Chris

If you have a licensed copy of OSX then go ahead and run it on a PC.

Only problem is that Apple do not sell stand-alone copies of OSX. You either get a full license with your Mac or you buy an *upgrade* to an existing license in a retail box.

Apple owns OSX and they can do whatever they like with it as, unlike Microsoft, they haven't been charged let alone convicted of being an abusive monopolist.

Because that's the closest I could get to an icon that looks like a Troll.

[Ascylto]

@chris

"And Apple fans laugh at Microsoft for "anti competition"."

These is a slight oversight here, Chris ... Microsoft have actually been found GUILTY of anti-competitive behaviour (amongst other things) in a court of law!

"Why the hell shouldn't you be able to put OSX on any machine ..."

Duh! Because one of the reasons OSX runs so well (with its faults) is precisely because it runs on Apple hardware and doesn't have to run on a Dill 2000, Swoony Vario, Toeshiva M3600D et alii, aliorum ...

"I actually quite like OSX too."

So, here's the truth ... You like Apple software BUT because you can't run it on some cheapo hardware you throw your toys out of the pram! It's not Apple's business style you hate ... it's their prices ... well I hope they keep their prices high to keep the lovely shiny Stevie's babies away from the Lower Orders!

Paris. Because she knows a nice shiny one when she sees one!

[Anonymous Coward]

nice

So might not run the apps, no support, probably crashes. Just like Windoze huh? :-D

[John Watts]

@ Anti Competition Laws

There's a world of difference between "this is what we do, take it or leave it" and "this is what we do, take it and don't take anything else or we'll make you suffer".

[Anonymous Coward]

@Chris

You can't install OS X on non bona fide Apple hardware because the EULA forbids it.

Don't like that? Don't try and do it then.

Apple commands a mighty 5% market share. Hard to accuse them of being anti-competitive, tbh.

[Vincent]

That monitor in the picture...

Is the same one that I have!

And is it just me, or is the tower a little on the ugly side?

Getting a Mac "on the cheap" is all fine and well, but what's the point if applications might not even work properly?

Evil Jobs because he won't release a cheaper MacBook/iMac.

[Anonymous Coward]

RE: Anticompetition Laws

@Chris: "Why the hell shouldn't you be able to put OSX on any machine, provided it runs, and you have a licence?"

Because that's against the terms of the license. The license says the software is only to be run on Macs. You either accept the license or you don't. You can't have it both ways.

[Anonymous Coward]

To "J", possibly not the sharpest lightsaber in the academy

I think he was being sarcastic, dear.

[pctechxp]

lower your prices

If you want to cut this kind of piracy Steve, you need to cut your prices.

Note to author: Any chance of you changing that Whac-a-mole link to a site where you can actually play a flash version of whac-a-mole?

[Robin]

@J @AC "El Reg yet again leaps..."

Especially as it offers an optional dual boot with XP or Bista.

[Chris Shewchuk]

@ Chris

Because to Apple, hardware and software aren't two separate products (integration of iTunes/iPod, for example). Apple drives hardware sales with their software (sort of the reverse of the games console strategy), and although software's role is increasing, a large portion of Apple's revenue still stems from hardware sales (Mac OS X/Macs, iTunes/iPod, etc).

Because in order for Apple to successfully make significant money from an unrestricted, licensed OS, the company would have to go to great lengths to prevent widespread piracy. Not to mention deal with an almost infinite variety of machines rather than a handful. Which means your beloved OS would be encumbered with serial numbers, activation woes, driver issues, and a higher price to counter the extra resources needed to tackle those problems. All of which Microsoft have struggled with (and take more flak for than they deserve, in my opinion).

And lastly, because there are alternatives out there. If you disagree with Apple's business strategy that strongly, there's always a Windows or Linux flavour waiting for you.

[Anonymous Coward]

Top Price For 3 year old hardware?

My 8 core Mac Pro cost less than the equivalent Dell when I purchased mine! Yes some parts of the range are overpriced but the Mac Pro is actually very reasonably priced and when running either XP or OSX spanks everything else into the ground.

I hate the irrational and uninformed Apple hate as much as I hate the smug Apple fanboys. It's all as stupid as my Spectrum is better than your C64/Amstrad.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Capabilities of a mac, price of a PC"?

So it's still useless, but at least it is cheap?...

I thought the point of these was to help mac addicts - they buy one initially with a crappy OS, then as they learn about actual hardware, they can format it and install Linux, then they are actually using a good OS on good, non overpriced hardware.