I was wondering.. could one just buy an intel machine and buy OS X and have a mac without the Apple price? I am guessing NO is the answer, but wasnt sure. Thanks.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Can OS X boot from an Intel Based PC?
- Thread starter jburrows500
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
The answer is no. Hackers have managed to run it unstably on PCs, but it is in violation of the OS X license.
sushi
Moderator emeritus
Yes you can. Folks have been able to do this.
However, just as WildCowboy stated you would be in violation of Apple's Mac OS X licensing agreement. Therefore you it would be illegal for you to do this.
So in effect, Apple not only makes the software, but also mandates it is run on one of their machines... I thought for some reason 5 or so years ago I read that Apple was open source thus allowing anyone to make an Apple machine.. must have got it wrong or something... I wish there was more selection on the hardware side.. if you want a machine that will run windows, you have 100 choices.. I walked out of Compusa this afternoon as I just felt it was too much of a compromise.. wanted the mini with a nice HD 22" monitor but didnt want the core duo only.. oh well...
Bill Gates
macrumors 68030
Well he said "and buy OS X" which wouldn't work. You'd have to illegally obtain a copy of OSX86, so no store-bought copy would work.
GimmeSlack12
macrumors 603
A little over 10 years ago there were Mac Clones, they were competitive machines and were less money. But when Steve Jobs came back to Apple one of the first things he did was stop the clones.
pseudobrit
macrumors 68040
http://www.apple.com/opensource/
http://www.opensource.apple.com/apsl/
Did you look into the iMac line for your computer needs?
bousozoku
Moderator emeritus
You can use the non-GUI part of Mac OS X, called Darwin, on any machine and put KDE or GNOME or some other GUI on top of it, just as you can with BSD or Linux and you can do it for free.
I thought I remember those.. man that was 10 years ago... Glad I wasnt dreaming it anyways..
Bill Gates
macrumors 68030
Can you really put Gnome on top of Darwin? What sort of package management does it use? I'm very interested. 🙂
sushi
Moderator emeritus
Unfortunately, Apple bore the brunt of the R&D costs which allowed the clone companies to undercut them in price and performance.
So what happened, rather than increase market share, for the most part, the existing market share was divided up among Apple and the clone makers.
This was obviously not good for Apple which is why the clones were cancelled.
pseudobrit
macrumors 68040
balamw
Moderator emeritus
sushi
Moderator emeritus
I guess I should have said that the clone licensing system was cancelled by Apple.
Sun Baked
macrumors G5
Or it can be said that Apple stopped licensing further copies of their OS and ROMs for use by clone makers. And it didn't help the platform that Windows NT was also yanked.
The CHRP clones lived long past Apple and Microsoft refusing to grant them an OS, and eventually became white box Linux PPC machines.
With the current variations alive and well.
Sort of odd that the likely shot at expanding the PPC market was Amiga, but the G5 introduction and financial problems left the Amiga OS in the dust.
Before the G5 there were several PPC chipsets being made (besides the Apple ones), don't know how many are left today.