Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
I just want to make sure this is legal because seriously thinking about building my own hackint0sh dirt cheap and sell them on eBay with a hefty profit.

You will likely not get in any trouble besides having a hard time upgrading doing this for yourself at home.

For several reasons, legal and practical, you do not want to resell them. The first reason is that Apple has a lot of incentive to protect their baby, and they will slap you around if you mess with their revenue stream illegally. The second reason you would want to avoid doing this, is the upfront cost. You will be out a lot of money for equipment, and $130 per copy of Leopard (you were not thinking about not including an OS disc, right?). The third reason is support. You would be selling computers that would break with every point upgrade, and you could bet you would be hearing about it from your user base. People that want to save money by buying a non-legit computer, yet do not have the know-how to do it themselves are not people you want to be responsible for supporting.
 
Realistically the build quality and design probably doesn't hold a stick to the Mac Pro, so if you're looking for a Mac Pro just go Apple Approved Refurb or new, or else you're taking a risk.
 
if you want to run OS X but don't want to shell out your cash on a Mac Pro, check out Efi-X. all you have to do is get the motherboard/cpu/graphic card that is in their Hardware Compatibility List.
 
if you want to run OS X but don't want to shell out your cash on a Mac Pro, check out Efi-X. all you have to do is get the motherboard/cpu/graphic card that is in their Hardware Compatibility List.

Lol, I already know about Efix. And I already know how to load leopard onto a hackint0sh and get all the drivers to work as long as I have the right hardware configuration and it costs me nothing to install.
 
Funny how I never compared it to the mac pros since I already know that the mac pros has a xeon and these just have a quad non xeon, I should know I've already owned the mac pro 3 times.

Anyways this is an xMac that people have been wanting and half the price of a mac pro.

ok good to know that you know. now all us readers know :) eheh

I've built hackint0sh's and while I wouldn't say it's easy but anyone with basic knowledge of computers can figure it out.
yes a lot of us have built hack's, just because you 733+ it up doesnt mean that you are like smart as. as a beginner i found it quite hard to get started. it was daunting finding information for my exact computer hardware components and it was hard to get a GPU that was supported....

not to mention updates.. dont even get me started on that lol.

I never posted or commented about how this was a better solution to the mac pro in price/quality. I just merely posted it about how this was the first clone that I've seen someone selling on ebay.

i know you didnt, because we BOTH know that it would never compare. dont we :p

I don't know why but everytime you post a different manufacture computer in these threads and while not really praising it over the mac equvalent or in this case people automatically assume that this is a mac pro replacement (which I never thought) attack without thinking.

we are a small group, we must protect what we have while we still have it!

I just merely posted to see if anyone has seen something like this for sale on eBay or if this was actually 100% legal. I would never buy something like this because I'm waiting for the nehalem mac pro and there are no other substituion. I can build one similar if not better for $900 if I wanted to anyways.

no it would never be legal, it has a hacked version of OSX so yea. i doubt it would be able to update to newer versions by itself aswell.. pain in the butt.

Realistically the build quality and design probably doesn't hold a stick to the Mac Pro, so if you're looking for a Mac Pro just go Apple Approved Refurb or new, or else you're taking a risk.

no of course not! it would be like... well.. nothing..i guess it would be pretty good in performance for the price, but not for the build quality.
 
1. "Build quality" isn't something you can judge from a picture. It's using the same parts as you could buy yourself.
The cost of a quality case, PS, and cooling - like a Lian-Li - would totally destroy any margin. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know what kind of PC you can build for $435 and still make it worth your while. Even if you pay yourself minimum wage with no benefits, and hide your business from the IRS, you still need to make $25 or you'd make more money mowing lawns.
 
Lol, I already know about Efix. And I already know how to load leopard onto a hackint0sh and get all the drivers to work as long as I have the right hardware configuration and it costs me nothing to install.


Aside from your pathetic lack of discretion regarding your brilliant new business model, have you budgeted the $100K to $250k in legal fees you get to spend defending your hackintosh business from our good friends at Apple legal? I didn't think so. Ingoring the End User Agreement dispute for a minute, your post admits you will be engaging in old school software piracy by copying Apple's software to multiple unts for resale.

If you want it, build it, but don't bitch when the vultures come home to roost. Just because you want something does not require a company such as Apple to build it for you.
 
Aside from your pathetic lack of discretion regarding your brilliant new business model, have you budgeted the $100K to $250k in legal fees you get to spend defending your hackintosh business from our good friends at Apple legal? I didn't think so. Ingoring the End User Agreement dispute for a minute, your post admits you will be engaging in old school software piracy by copying Apple's software to multiple unts for resale.

If you want it, build it, but don't bitch when the vultures come home to roost. Just because you want something does not require a company such as Apple to build it for you.

Uhhh... He's not Psystar. He's an end-user. It's not illegal for an end-user to do it, provided they also buy a copy of Leopard retail.

It's illegal for a company to SELL them, but not for an end-user to make his own computer, buy a copy of Leopard, and then make it a Hackintosh.
 
It's illegal for a company to SELL them, but not for an end-user to make his own computer, buy a copy of Leopard, and then make it a Hackintosh.
Actually, this is illegal too. The EULA is a contract that you agree to when buying OS X and it says that it can only run it on Apple certified hardware. If you install it on another system, you are in breach of contract and consequently the law.

This weirdness/craziness can be overlooked if Apple was simply interested in selling desktop computers.
 
Aside from your pathetic lack of discretion regarding your brilliant new business model, have you budgeted the $100K to $250k in legal fees you get to spend defending your hackintosh business from our good friends at Apple legal? I didn't think so. Ingoring the End User Agreement dispute for a minute, your post admits you will be engaging in old school software piracy by copying Apple's software to multiple unts for resale.

If you want it, build it, but don't bitch when the vultures come home to roost. Just because you want something does not require a company such as Apple to build it for you.

Thus the purpose of this Thread, to find out if its *legal* since someone else apparently is doing it.
 
Doesnt matter who's cloned first or whatnot.. the whole point is that someone is making money off it now. And on ebay at that!

If this is legit damn I think I'll start my own small ebay store full of customized awesome hardware preloaded with leopard hackint0shes!!

Well hang on... if it doesn't matter who made the first clone, why did you state the link you gave is the first clone when clearly it's not? It's also not the first time companies have made money from Mac clones.
 
Uhhh... He's not Psystar. He's an end-user. It's not illegal for an end-user to do it, provided they also buy a copy of Leopard retail.

It's illegal for a company to SELL them, but not for an end-user to make his own computer, buy a copy of Leopard, and then make it a Hackintosh.

That's not correct. It's illegal period to run OS X on anything but an Apple computer.
 
It's illegal according to the EULA, which has never been tested in court. Personally I don't care either way, because Apple isn't stupid enough to go after end users. Even if they win, they lose.
 
It's illegal according to the EULA, which has never been tested in court. Personally I don't care either way, because Apple isn't stupid enough to go after end users. Even if they win, they lose.
This is how I've understood it.

I don't think Apple, or any other software company wants their EULA's placed under legal scrutiny. It could get shredded, and cost their respective companies massive amounts of money.

For some strange reason, "Class Action Lawsuit" comes to mind if they lost such a case. :eek: :p
 
Well hang on... if it doesn't matter who made the first clone, why did you state the link you gave is the first clone when clearly it's not? It's also not the first time companies have made money from Mac clones.

First clone thats actually being sold on eBay.
 
That's not correct. It's illegal period to run OS X on anything but an Apple computer.

Really?
Name the country.

Psystar brought up a very good point with the First-Sale Doctrine, so from a legal standpoint, there's no problem with me buying Leopard and selling it to someone else -- besides, at that point I haven't even seen the EULA, much less read it.

When I buy hardware, I have the right to try and do whatever I want with it.
When I buy software, I have the right to try and do whatever I want with it.

What I don't have is the guaranteed right to succeed.

If I want to modify software already on my computer, that's perfectly fine.
If I want to install a boot loader with full EFI driver sets, that's perfectly fine.
The simple fact that my hardware is capable of running an OS supposed to be locked down has nothing to do with it.

As for EULAs, it's been mentioned that they aren't really valid, and that's true to a point. In most countries they're definitely not legal, for several reasons.
One of the biggest is that you can't prove who "signed" the "contract".
Good luck enforcing the EULA in that case.

Shrink-wrap licenses are an abomination and can easily be tampered with anyway.
You know that by law you can change anything in a contract and sign it?
If I edit the text of the EULA and click continue, I can easily say that Apple or whoever agreed to the terms, putting me on the same legal footing as them.

Personally, I prefer the well-engineered, whisper quiet computers that Apple makes over ones I build myself -- but if I were to build a hackintosh or a EFI-X certified computer I would NOT be breaking the law, so stop pretending otherwise.
 
still waiting for the pro tools to become hacked like this. its the same ****ing thing
 
Bottom line here: Buy at your own risk.

With this, you're not buying a Mac, you're buying a PC. For example, this desktop will never be able to hold 8 sticks of RAM like a Mac Pro. :p
 
Bottom line here: Buy at your own risk.

With this, you're not buying a Mac, you're buying a PC. For example, this desktop will never be able to hold 8 sticks of RAM like a Mac Pro. :p

I remember the days when even budget mobos came with 8 slots for RAM.
Of course, 8x16MB is still nothing ;)
 
I remember the days when even budget mobos came with 8 slots for RAM.
Of course, 8x16MB is still nothing ;)

I still remember the "640K is all people will ever need" from even further back. :eek: It came with sockets, not slots. :D :p
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.