EFiX Allows Mac OS X to Boot on a PC

[BenRoethig]

I just don't understand people's obsession with running OS X on PCs, especially if it's not saving money. ...Bragging rights I suppose.

In many cases it is saving money, its just not for the cheap dell users. $2200 is unaffordable to most of the old PowerMac users and the iMac isn't close to being up to the task.

He: You're wrong.

You: Not if you change the question entirely from what we were talking about!

lol - Nice work. Does that ever work for you in real life?

He's not wrong. In single dual threaded apps like games a DC 3.0ghz is going to be faster than a lower clocked quad or eight core. The additional 2 or 6 cores are either dormant or run background apps. Because OSX is designed for multi-processing doesn't mean that apps automatically take advantage of it.

 

[SiliconAddict]

Too bad this doesn't really extend to laptops. The new Precision M4400 is a heck of a nice system and with next day business repairs I don't have to be without my MBP, that I'm in the process of selling in the next couple months, for a week just to replace the optical drive. plan is to sell the system with the original Tiger install and use my PURCHASED Leopard DVD on it, assuming I can get everything working which is going to take some futzing. Apple's draconian EULA be danged. They got my money and I have a paid for license. That is all I care about.

Honestly its the lack of a higher end turn around options that has finally turned me off of the Mac experiment. Not the OS. Love OS X. Since I got my MBP in Feb '06 I have been without my laptop for just under a month. In one case the result caused me to turn in a project 3 days late. Because of course these things are just used for play and no one ever needs fast turn around time for repairs.
Unacceptable for a company who touts themselves as a premium computer company. Even Dell, for all their screw-ups, will send a tech out to my location, be it home or work, to repair the system. Apple? Depot or drop it off at the Apple store. Is it any wonder why people want to hack OS X on other company's hardware?
At any rate. this is a good thing AFAIC.

PS- The HD, RAM, and CPU on the M4400 is user accessible and upgradable. When was the last time a Mac laptop could have its processor upgraded by normal means?

 

[nanofrog]

In many cases it is saving money, its just not for the cheap dell users. $2200 is unaffordable to most of the old PowerMac users and the iMac isn't close to being up to the task.

It may also be quite attractive to those who already spent $$$ on a recent PC, particularly gamers, and those who like to experiment. The process of a hackintosh could be a good learning expirience for anyone in IT, Software Engineering, and a few others.

He's not wrong. In single dual threaded apps like games a DC 3.0ghz is going to be faster than a lower clocked quad or eight core. The additional 2 or 6 cores are either dormant or run background apps. Because OSX is designed for multi-processing doesn't mean that apps automatically take advantage of it.

Hopefully, Snow Leopard will help this issue. I've seriously thought that 3rd party developers have been waiting on the OS developers to make a move, and vice versa to better utilize multiple cores.

Ye old "chicken and the egg" thing.

 

[macidiot]

The text in all of their pages say "blah blah blah" goes here. Such as "Support information goes here"

very slapped together website, and it seems its just vaporware anyway.

Never mind that it is a hardware device, but Gizmodo, a very legitimate site, tested the device themselves.

So hardly vaporware.

 

[isoceles]

My question is what happens when the EFI-X chip shorts out because you forgot to turn off your neon case lights and fans.

As far as the crying goes over price, there is always going to be a few left out in the dark. Do what a lot of us Mac owners did and SAVE your money and buy a refurb from the Apple site or take your chances on Ebay.

I bought my PowerBook 1.33 around 4 years ago and I am more than happy with it. I guess it's all about what you are getting a Mac for. I would definitely pay the premium for Mac over a slightly faster PC for the following:

OSX:
1. Mac Fonts (PC Fonts look like doodoo) Can't have that when presenting to clients
2. User Experience - Intuitive OS loaded with solid features that I use daily to help me work faster
3. Drastically less Spyware/Viruses = Less time wasted = Less money wasted. What is your time worth?

Hardware:
1. Backlit keyboard
2. Monitor stays true to color longer
3. Case/Keyboard has good build quality and is silent
4. I love the design

The only gripe that I have had is of how hot the laptop gets. It's prbably not safe to have all that electronic stuff near your crouch anyway.

I hope this makes sense. I'm too tired to proof this.
A little Advice: "Save your money and buy good whiskey."

 

[danbirchall]

Am I just old?

Or do other people here remember the days of x86 plug-in boards for Macs? (And Sun workstations, for that matter.)

Thanks, akoblentz, for saving me the trouble of explaining that EULAs are not law.

 

[loafyucf]

not trying to fight

here are some solid numbers

a dual g5 1.8 which runs at about 145f and could x-bench about 100 points with upgraded ram and video card originally cost $2500 in 2005, could be had on ebay for $800 - $1000 now

a quad core hack at 2.4ghz runs at 85f with a custom heatsync (not water cooled). Cost $1000 now. x-bench at 200 points. and the upgraded video card doesnt have a premium for having an apple bios. comes with pci and pci-e slots, and you might have to work a little to get the video card working.

a core 2 duo iMac at 2.8ghz runs somewhere in the 120f. with no expandability x-bench at about 140 points.... I could go on

I like apple and I've owned a bunch of em. I just bought a new MBP. When they switched to intel the made a statement that when u take away all the flash and smudgable aluminum, inside they are just a pc. OSX is derived from open source materials. It's a very refined and polished linux distribution.

If your serious about working in the digital realm, the means to the end of the day, the next big break through, putting food on the table... these are all that matters.

Also time waisted in hacking up a hack will pay for buying the MacPro. Spend more time with your loved ones. Buy from the Apple store .

Sources -> My own experience, http://www.intelmactemp.com, http://db.xbench.com/

 

[macidiot]

You are not legally buying OS X. You are buying a license to OS X. If you violate the terms of the license agreement, then the license is void. It's not a complicated concept.

Yes, but efi-x isn't selling or installing osx. afaik they are selling a hardware dongle which makes osx think the pc is a mac.

Now if Apple's efi instruction set contains proprietary code and efix stole it, then there is cause for legal action. This would probably be the basis of any Apple suit.

While installing osx on a non-apple product might technically be a violation, its irrelevant in this case. You don't really sue a company for illegal actions that its customers might do. I highly doubt Apple will start going around checking each and every end user installation of osx, let alone start suing individuals. They don't even copy protect osx.

 

[hajime]

I just don't understand people's obsession with running OS X on PCs, especially if it's not saving money. ...Bragging rights I suppose.

Here is one reason: The MBPs have faulty Nvidia GPU and the Macbooks are not powerful enough to do high-end stuffs.

 

[gifford]

How could it not save money? You have no idea do you?

I could build a $3000 mac pro for $1200 tops.

I would prefer my money went to a company that deserves it. OSX would not exist if we all bought these ****** knock offs.

 

[johnasmith1914]

Unbelievable. They are taking something that is free (OS X on PCs) and trying to make people pay for it!!!! and it doesn't even run as smoothly as if you did it yourself!!!!

and it only works on gigabyte motherboards!?!?!?!?! retarded.

kalyway needs to sue these mofos for trying to make money off a free thing.

 

[richard.mac]

…

kalyway needs to sue these mofos for trying to make money off a free thing.

actually netkas created PC EFI emulation. Kalyway, iATKOS, Leo4All etc. use it. netkas was screwed around by Psystar too by using his open source work for profit. not cool.

 

[johnasmith1914]

netkas made OS X???? I can't believe it was one dude that made an entire OS.


Netkas needs to sue these EFIX dudes, Apple, and Psystar.

 

[bolibic]

I just don't understand people's obsession with running OS X on PCs, especially if it's not saving money. ...Bragging rights I suppose.

Not everybody wants the hardware configurations apple provides. For example, and for a desktop PC, the iMac 20" has a really bad screen. The graphic card options, in general, are limited.

So or you become an Apple "fanboy" and swallow the things you don't like, or you just simply look for another way to get them.

 

[bolibic]

I never liked osx running on non apple branded computers.

Tastes are like colors, so you're free to like whatever you decide, but.... That attitude smells to "Apple fan-guy".

A mac is made of many parts, some times is good to realize that not all are perfect for some people.

 

[bolibic]

Agree! +1

Someone has to say it so I'll bite

They're not. Compare equivalent hardware between Apple and other name brands--looking at ALL the specs for an honest and complete comparison--and Macs are right in the same price range. Sometimes more than a given competitor, sometimes less.

What they ARE is:

a) More expensive than building your own or getting a cheap (for a reason) brand like an Acer. The same is true of Dell, HP, Sony, etc., so you can't call Macs relatively expensive on that basis. Rather, you should say that ALL name brand PCs are expensive. (Or even that any PC you didn't build at home is expensive.)

and

b) Available in fewer configurations. So you might find a particular name-brand PC config that meets your needs for cheaper--but you have to admit that it does so by omitting some things. Things you don't personally want, so that's perfectly reasonable to take into account--but it doesn't make the Mac overpriced.

This new product addresses b) rather than any price difference between comparable Macs and PCs.

 

[richard.mac]

netkas made OS X???? I can't believe it was one dude that made an entire OS.


Netkas needs to sue these EFIX dudes, Apple, and Psystar.

no, Netkas created PC EFI v8 which allows EFI emulation on a PC which in turn allows the install of patched versions of Mac OS X made by Jas, Kalyway, iATKOS etc.

 

[bolibic]

Just a conspiracy theory, but ... it sounds like some PC manufacturers are getting concerned that thier market share is under threat by apple so they are providing the gateway to allow for mac compatibles

I reckon if apples market share gets to much bigger this is just the tip of the ice berg. we could see some antitrust lawsuits in the pipeline.

The conspiracy comment. Second page. I guess you were late

We, consumers, install Leopard in a crappy PC. So we, consumers, decide that we need something that Apple doesn't give to us.

Of course when consumers want to spend their money, it's better for you, business, to get the sales. This are market rules.

 

[bolibic]

Maybe de-evolution at work. Apple has a product that people want - OS X. They only want to sell it under certain conditions. They created it. They invested in it. Why do people feel they have a right to steal it just because Apple doesn't sell it under the conditions they want?

Steal? Well, I paid for my copy of Leopard. Mainly for my notebook, but I did try it on a PC (With my notebook off and the famous Apple label). So please, apologize for your F.U.D. about stealing.

People, we, consumers, want other products, and if no one is gonna build them, we will build them, because is what we want for our needs. Companies helping us in our "mission" of getting what we need, will get the money.

But what kind of consumer are you when you buy things you don like, don't fulfill your needs and in the end, you don really like.

 

[deggs37]

No you couldn't.

Uhh yeah I can, run on over to newegg.com and take a look around. You would be surprised to find 4 gigs of ram doesn't actually cost $400.

But whatever. Ignorance is bliss for fanboys I suppose.

 

[HyperZboy]

HINT: Remove the AppleHWSensor.kext from your SYSTEM/LIBRARY/EXTENSIONS folder and you'll probably also solve that 2 minute Leopard boot time assuming we're talking about an NVIDIA graphics card.

A little birdie told me the delay has to do with Apple's OSX heat sensing extension on proprietary Apple graphics cards, which the average PC graphics card may or may not have or may have different causing an operating system hang during boot when all the temps are originally tested.

Oh, and the Hackintosh craze will most likely continue until Steve Jobs jumps off his high horse and releases the mythical low-rise mid-range lower cost TOWER that so many consumers want, but yet Steve Jobs stubbornly continues to think they don't want beyond all sense of reason!

 

[bolibic]

What game will you be playing? A Windows game? You don't need OS X to play a Windows game, and you don't need a Mac Pro to play a Windows game. Mac Pro applications are designed to use multi-core machines and will scale with the extra cores.

Mac Pros are for professionals. Getting work done. Sure, they can also play games, but that is NOT why people buy them. Do you get it?

???

And professionals don't play? Are professionals always serious? They don't smile, they don't have fun?

Do not consider me a professional then. I have my Wii, my guitar hero and my trackmania. Unfortunately.... we all know... even you, yes you.... that windows is only for games. Boot, play, close... like a game console.

 

[deggs37]

I'd like to see that. Considering the Intel Xeon E5462, which is the 2.8GHz quad-core chip in the Mac Pro, runs you about $850 a piece. Nice try.

Well I wouldn't waste money on a server chip. Instead I would buy this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115041

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Yorkfield 2.83GHz 12MB L2 Cache

Gets the exact same benchmark scores and you wouldn't notice a difference in performance. Plus $500 dollars richer to go buy an iPhone or two.

 

[bolibic]

At the moment, this device facilitates copyright infringement. Assuming the device is itself noninfringing (which is no guarantee), there's still doubt as to its legitimate use. If such use can be established, they will be able to sell it.

Customers will be able to buy a copy of OS X, and customers will take it upon themselves to infringe copyright. However, so long as customers are spending $300 to add OS X to their own computers, and no one is turning it into a profit source a la Psystar, there's not likely going to be a particularly strong reaction. Apple has never cared about a niche market of hobbyists or the Hackintosh market, as long as it stays small and personal. Commercial enterprises cannot be tolerated, for obvious reasons.

F.U.D.

 

[Marx55]

The day Apple allows the great Mac OS X to run on any PC-Windows out there, Microsoft will be history in three years. It is amazing that Apple did not learn from the mistakes made 25 years ago. And now is the time! Grow market share to two digits and beyond. It is that easy!