See, if Apple offered sub $1,000 towers with lower end parts people would buy them.
Not necessarily lower end, really. Nothing would make me happier than a mini tower with the same specs as the mid-higher end iMacs.
Why does Apple hate PCI slots?
See, if Apple offered sub $1,000 towers with lower end parts people would buy them.
You don't need a Psystar. Chameleon/Chimera are free and my Dell Optiplex 780 has been a great Mac for the past year and a half. Most recently I built CustoMac Mini's at home using UniBeast and they are great. Just google CustoMac and UniBeast all the info is there.
PS I also have 2 legit iMacs, a Macbook, an airport extreme and 2 iPhones in the family so the CustoMacs are just a hobby for me.
Nobody said it was a good clone. When you try to clone on the cheap, sometimes the clone comes out horribly disfigured.
Anyone ever use one of these machines? How did they run?
A non-Apple computer running OS X is, by definition, a Mac clone. It's OS X that makes it a Mac. And the cost of OS X is included in the purchase price of the Mac. But when you purchased a Psystar Open Computer, it was equipped with what was an OS upgrade (when you purchase a copy of OS X, it is assumed that you have already paid for the original installation of OS X, so you are simply paying for an upgrade, not a full install). In addition, I believe Apple demonstrated that Psystar equipped all of its machines with duplicates of a single copy of OS X (again, a copy of an OS X upgrade, not an authorized full install, which Apple has never sold, although it did license OS X to authorized clone makers in the bad old days when Apple was hanging on the edge of the financial abyss).
Yeah, the 700-800 (IIRC) computers that Psystar sold really proves a lot.
Not necessarily lower end, really. Nothing would make me happier than a mini tower with the same specs as the mid-higher end iMacs.
Why does Apple hate PCI slots?
Psystar managed to cobble together commodity PC components and find workarounds in the Mac OS X installation process to get their boxes to run...
In addition, I believe Apple demonstrated that Psystar equipped all of its machines with duplicates of a single copy of OS X...
Yes, you are correct, it was prior to OS X.I don't think Apple ever licensed OS X to clone makers. I think it was Mac OS 8 and Steve pulled them out in OS 9.
It proves people want a Mac desktop but don't want the overly expensive un-upradable Mini, the giant glass iMac or the $2,500 entry level Pro.
PearC does not pre-install Apple's operating system software. They just provide the hardware and certain software that allows for booting and installing a RETAIL BOX VERSION of OS X. No copyright infringement there. No modification of Apple's software. And since German laws make certain EULA terms illegal that Apple nevertheless still have in their EULA, Apple's legal department has zero case against those guys.
Well, you can still buy a PC with OS X on it in Germany: http://pearc.de.
German laws are different than US American laws. Microsoft learned that lesson back in the year 2000 with the so-called "OEM Urteil" when the German Bundesgerichtshof made it clear that several of Microsoft's EULA terms were illegal. This significantly changed Microsoft's business model in German and since then OEM and SystemBuilder versions can be sold and re-sold WITHOUT being bundled with a specific hardware.
Now Apple's EULA for OS X basically tries to force a bundle between their operating system and very specific hardware -- which essentially is the same what Microsoft tried to do with their OEM software license agreements.
PearC does not pre-install Apple's operating system software. They just provide the hardware and certain software that allows for booting and installing a RETAIL BOX VERSION of OS X. No copyright infringement there. No modification of Apple's software. And since German laws make certain EULA terms illegal that Apple nevertheless still have in their EULA, Apple's legal department has zero case against those guys.
On a technical note, I do not know how well those PearC machines work. I know from own experiments that OS X runs pretty well on certain Dell machines. I also know that Windows and Ubuntu Linux run very well on Apple hardware. And none of this is very surprising, because a Mac is basically just a standard, off-the-shelf Intel PC in a pretty designer case. So as long as the PC hardware resembles the hardware configuration of a Mac, there is no technical reason why OS X should not work on it.
It proves people want a Mac desktop but don't want the overly expensive un-upradable Mini, the giant glass iMac or the $2,500 entry level Pro.
A mini tower or at least a Pro that didn't break the bank for prosumers or someone that just wants expandability. What we all want is the old Power Mac G4 pricing and set up. Cheap lower specced single CPUs and more expensive dual CPUs.
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because a Mac is basically just a standard, off-the-shelf Intel PC in a pretty designer case. So as long as the PC hardware resembles the hardware configuration of a Mac, there is no technical reason why OS X should not work on it.
IIRC, when Psystar asked to produce receipts to demonstrate that it had purchase boxed OS X copies, it claimed it had lost the receipts a bold legal move that didnt pan out.
This. Now, if Apple sold a full retail version of OS X, then one could justify installing that on any machine. OTOH, a full retail version of OS X would cost $300, similar to the retail price of Windows 7 Pro. This is why Lion is $29.99. It's just an upgrade. To have the right to install it, you must have a legitimate copy of a previous version of OS X (which you would only have if you purchased a Mac, since as you point out, Apple never sold OS X as a standalone full install product).Yeah... that's interesting. But I think the problem we run into with your logic (at least according to U.S. laws), is that Apple (unlike Microsoft), doesn't really sell such a thing as a "full retail version" of OS X that's intended to constitute a legal license when purchased and loaded on a brand new machine that didn't first ship with another copy of OS X.
You can buy a copy of Mac OS X that's in retail packaging, and will do a full installation on a blank hard drive in a Mac. But the license agreement included with it is worded so it's still viewed as more of an "upgrade license" -- because every single Apple Mac system someone buys is bundled with a copy of some version or another of OS X.
When Microsoft tries to force bundling of hardware and software as "one unit", it's a more complex legal situation because Microsoft doesn't even make their own PCs. Any such situation is fabricated by them, thanks to agreements they force other manufacturers to sign and abide by in return for special favors on pricing of the operating system.
Ummm, I bought a Jaguar with a small block chevy engine from a small company in Los Angeles that produced them.
Could also buy the adapters and stuff for a DIY project.
Same thing?
See, if Apple offered sub $1,000 towers with lower end parts people would buy them.
See, if Apple offered sub $1,000 towers with lower end parts people would buy them.
the problem I have with apples model
for sales is they simply don't offer enough choice in systems. I now own a diy pc and 4 mac minis. I would rather not have the diy pc but I built it for 1k and it is a little bit better then the base 2010 mac pro 2.5k.
I like the fact the macs can run windows 7 and lion. Too bad my diy pc can't legally do this.Mac/appl has continued to not build a midsize tower that will do it all. Tv recording HT CD Gaming and computing. You have to own a mac pro for this> Or build a diy pc like I did.
My ht has a 46 inch tv a 1k diy pc and a 600 dollar mac mini.
I rather have a mini mac pro well one can only hope.