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Nope.

And..

I don't want to come off sounding like your typical anti-corporate zealot, but there's a big big BIG difference between a 12 year old girl violating copyright law and a multimillion dollar company violating copyright law.

What about a guy in the middle of the ocean?

Have a look at:

http://www.cherryos.com/

Now they are saying: :: CHERRYOS IS NO MORE ::

and they are linking to:

http://emaculation.com/

What they hell are these guys doing now?!?!?

Cherry Open Source Project

I'm a technical editor for EDN Magazine, and am scheduled to be in Maui on vacation in early May. While I'm there, I've scheduled (several weeks ago) an onsite interview with Maui X-Stream, the promoters of CherryOS. Yesterday morning I got an email from company president Jim Kartes clarifying Slashdot's earlier heads-up that the software had been pulled, and yesterday's CherryOS website revision; "Due to Overwhelming Demand, Cherry Open Source Project Launches 5.1.2005".

Here's what Jim says: "Brian. Here's the deal. We have decided to change CherryOS to an "open source code" product. We will do so May 1st because we need a few weeks to prepare for this. We will be charging only $14.95 for this to cover our cost of development, plus ongoing development as well as marketing costs. We are doing this because we want all to see that we have not lifted source code from other sources."

I suspect that the PearPC development team, and many of the rest of you, have lots of questions for the folks at Maui X-Stream. Please visit my blog posting at EDN's website and suggest general topics for discussion during my interview, along with specific questions that you want me to ask Jim and other company representatives I meet with. I'll report back to Slashdot after the meeting, both here and on my blog.

The whole thing happened because of lack of trust from the free software community. I bet BitMover wouldn't care much if there was an odd person in OSDL reverse-engineering the client to make a port to his pet OS or to learn good programming. Instead RMS kept preaching that BK is evil and must be killed and replaced, and I guess too many people listened. Would you do anything for people with such hostile intentions towards you? And so RMS created the very situation he was warning people about. Which was probably exactly what he wanted.

This is not to say that reverse-engineering is wrong. I have a right to read your source or binaries as any copyrighted book and use general ideas I learned in my future proprietary or open-source projects. I think I will go to read some Emacs code right now to get some hints for my future BSD-licensed project. Yum! What is wrong is plagiarism or fighting people who are trying to help.

If there were no copyright then I could give away copies Cherry OS all day long.

Last time I checked CherryOS costs $99.99.

straight from the horses mouth
the link even includes reference to the software used for the comparison.

The test was conducted using UltraCompare, a standard tool for application comparison. The test used CherryOS 1.2 and PPC 0.4 Pre as the basis for comparison. The UltraCompare test works by running through every possible process of the application. The results show the matching number of bytes and gives a consensus on whether the core architectures of the two products are the Same, Similiar or Different. As you will see from the results below, CherryOS and PearPC are radically different products.

apparently running "diff pearPC.exe cherryOS.exe" is all you need to do.
ironically, the screenshot included on the page appears to me to be more evidence that they include similarities. something that, in the binary, is even more damning.

and no, the UltraCompare site shows no evidence that it can "[run] through every process of the application"

PearPC
CherryOS

But remember, the GPL itself is not specifically "tested", per se, because GPL software developers assert them rights granted to them via copyright on an individual basis. This makes it a sometimes long and arduous process to assert rights and/or prove infringement, but hopefully more precedent will help.

Since the provisions of the GPL have been upheld in a case in Germany as well, maybe PearPC will be able to more easily defend itself against CherryOS, which has blatantly taken GPL code, without release of source code or attribution, from PearPC and several other GPL projects:

eWeek has a general overview of the situation:

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1775386,00.as p

Below is a comprehensive collection of evidence, which runs the gamut from CherryOS including original PearPC graphics, extremely unique strings and error messages, debug code from PearPC, the same unique MAC address as PearPC's default network adapter, shared specific functionality, including bugs, and so on:

http://www.ht-technology.com/cherryos-pearpc/cherr yos-pearpc.html

http://www.drunkenblog.com/drunkenblog-archives/00 0501.html
http://www.drunkenblog.com/drunkenblog-archives/00 0503.html
http://www.drunkenblog.com/drunkenblog-archives/00 0504.html
http://www.drunkenblog.com/drunkenblog-archives/00 0507.html

http://starport.dnsalias.net/index.php?show=articl e&id=348

http://forums.pearpc.net/viewtopic.php?p=16178#161 78
http://www.tliquest.net/ryan/cherryos/
http://dhost.info/kourge/en/projects/frauds/cherry os.php

Additionally, PearPC project authors are already asserting their rights under the GPL:

http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg _id=11116974

And a general compilation of some of the evidence so far against CherryOS:

http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg _id=11125509

...it would be great. but i'm curious WHEN cerry os will be released... http://www.cherryos.com/

And don't forget about PearPC's impostor perfume cousin, now in cherry scent.

Actually, they still claim they will release Cherry OS on November 25.

As a direct result of the overwhelming response to our October 12 announcement, and in order to provide current and future customers with the timely service and attention such high-volume demand requires, MXS has chosen to extend the beta development for CherryOS. In order to accommodate those who were inconvenienced by the interruption of immediate access to the CherryOS download, and to further validate this breakthrough product, MXS will provide a free trial download of the CherryOS software, in addition to the purchase download on November 25, 2004.

It'll be interresting to see if they will actually still try to release it after it's already been proven to be a fake.

If someone trips over the power cord, or the power goes out, does she have the patience to start over?

So the G3 Emulates at 50Khz with PearPC. Bet she wishes she could have used Cherry OS!

Maybe you missed the post about Cherry OS the other day. It's not a native x86 Mac OS, but an emulator that runs it.

I agree. The following was taken directly from the CherryOS website:

"CherryOS has been tuned for performance. You can expect to get about 80% of your processors power when working in the Apple Environment. For example a 3.2ghz P4 would run as fast as a 800 MHz G4 machine."

Found here.

It seems the author of Cherry is really claiming 25% of speed or so. If it was really 80% your 3.2Ghz would yield 2.56Ghz not 800Mhz as he says below. Funny math. "CherryOS has been tuned for performance. You can expect to get about 80% of your processors power when working in the Apple Environment. For example a 3.2ghz P4 would run as fast as a 800 MHz G4 machine." http://www.cherryos.com/what.html

Now that the seemingly Pacific sized wave of traffic has rolled over Hawaii based cherryos.com, some more information can be gleamed from it's now visible pages. Their press release contact is stated as Jim Kartes.

Jim also happens to be the admin and tech contact for vx30.com. A quick Googling of his name brings up several links, including the website for MauiGiclee, a Maui based printing company which lists one Jim Kartes as it's president. How many Jim Kartes can their be in Hawaii? 411.com lists only 1. Finding info online is fun.

Further Googling and whois searches show that Jim has a hand in many things Maui.

Lets list a few of em:
http://www.mauionline.com/ (Paradise Television Network Inc)
http://www.vx30.com/ (Video Steaming Tech)
http://mauigiclee.com/ (Print Production)
http://cherryos.com/ (Emulation Software)
I'm sure the list goes on. Jim's a busy man, you see.

Predictably, all these websites sport the same type of Java Applet video found on cherryos.com. Seems like VX30 (aka MXS Inc.) has been busy supplying Java based video steaming tech to a lot of Jim's other businesses.

At any rate, these businesses (excluding, by nature of this thread, the cherry in question) seem to have been operating for some time, the oldest site being registered in 1996. They also seem quite legitimate in their desire to provide services and products, bothering to list themselves with superpages, register 1-800 numbers, etc. These are not signs of scam artists looking to make a quick get-away, so that possibility can be put to rest.

The following options still remain:

1. CerryOs is a ripoff of PearPC (though the company has reportedly denied these accusations by phone)

2. The product is real and unique, though the performance promises are exagerated.

3. This is legit and we should all stop wasting time with such nonsense : )

I hope it's the latter.

Now that the seemingly Pacific sized wave of traffic has rolled over Hawaii based cherryos.com, some more information can be gleamed from it's now visible pages. Their press release contact is stated as Jim Kartes.

Jim also happens to be the admin and tech contact for vx30.com. A quick Googling of his name brings up several links, including the website for MauiGiclee, a Maui based printing company which lists one Jim Kartes as it's president. How many Jim Kartes can their be in Hawaii? 411.com lists only 1. Finding info online is fun.

Further Googling and whois searches show that Jim has a hand in many things Maui.

Lets list a few of em:
http://www.mauionline.com/ (Paradise Television Network Inc)
http://www.vx30.com/ (Video Steaming Tech)
http://mauigiclee.com/ (Print Production)
http://cherryos.com/ (Emulation Software)
I'm sure the list goes on. Jim's a busy man, you see.

Predictably, all these websites sport the same type of Java Applet video found on cherryos.com. Seems like VX30 (aka MXS Inc.) has been busy supplying Java based video steaming tech to a lot of Jim's other businesses.

At any rate, these businesses (excluding, by nature of this thread, the cherry in question) seem to have been operating for some time, the oldest site being registered in 1996. They also seem quite legitimate in their desire to provide services and products, bothering to list themselves with superpages, register 1-800 numbers, etc. These are not signs of scam artists looking to make a quick get-away, so that possibility can be put to rest.

The following options still remain:

1. CerryOs is a ripoff of PearPC (though the company has reportedly denied these accusations by phone)

2. The product is real and unique, though the performance promises are exagerated.

3. This is legit and we should all stop wasting time with such nonsense : )

I hope it's the latter.