CherryOS Mac Emulator Resurfaces

Clash writes "Following its initial announcement and subsequent controversy last October, Mac emulator CherryOS has finally been released. Its creator, Arben Kryeziu, found himself in hot water last year amid claims the software was simply stolen from the open source PearPC project. With the code now under public scrutiny, it appears that such allegations are true. According to BetaNews, CherryOS boots up in the exact same manner as PearPC, and its error messages and source files are nearly identical. The emulator also includes MacOnLinuxVideo, which is the same driver used by PearPC to speed up graphics. The CherryOS configuration file also closely mirrors that used by PearPC. Trial download without registration found here."

Comments

Um.

[Capt'n Hector]

Why would this be released? Isn't that sort of... illegal?

GPL

[b0lt]

If CherryOS is sued for this, won't this test the GPL furthermore? It might finally get a court to acknowledge that the GPL is not "unconstitutional" (*cough* SCO *cough)

-b0lt

Wondering how developers feel about this

[aendeuryu]

This is kind of off-topic, but...

I was always wondering how developers behind BSD-licensed products felt about this whole thing. Before you pounce on me, I know PearPC is a GPLed product, but the way I see it, the risks are pretty similar.

So, how would BSD developers feel about creating something, having it ripped off, and bandied about by someone else as if it was their own creation, with the original developers getting no credit? Has it happened? Did it cause you to think about switching to GPL, or maybe some other license?

A bit more on the rip...

[Jugalator]

It's said that if you change the line containing prom_bootmethod in the CherryOS configuration file from "auto" to "select", you're supposed to clearly see that it's PearPC. I haven't tried this out myself though, as I already believe in that it's the same thing. There's also word in a Neowin thread that CherryOS has simply upped the screen refresh rate to make it look faster.

Re:Intellectual Property?

[QMO]

Copyright is NOT bad always. I like to read Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, Orson Scott Card, Charles Dickens, Anne Perry, Cynthia Voigt, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Weis & Hickman, Louis L'amour, C. S. Forester, P. G. Wodehouse, Roald Dahl, Agatha Christie, , etc.

All of these authors are(were) prolific (at least in some sense), and wouldn't have been nearly so if no one had been obligated to pay them for use of their writings. Anything that creates this kind of obligation is a copyright of some kind.

Asimov is a great example. He loved to write. Money wasn't even his main motivation for writing (according to him). He (again, according to him) worked 80 hours/week on writing sometimes. If he had had to keep teaching college chemistry and doing chemistry research (though he never really did that) to support himself and his family he wouldn't have had nearly as much time to write.

Burroughs is an example of someone that wrote almost solely (probably) for the money. If the money hadn't been there he would have kept looking for (other) work.

In these cases copyright is a GOOD thing for me, because otherwise I would have been deprived of many of their writings, and that would be a BAD thing.

Review

[Mr_Silver]

This guy ran it and seems to think it's just a vb wrapper to the PearPC application. To quote:

I immediately was suspicious of the software when I noticed it was installing various OCX files and other Visual Basic dependencies, and upon inspection of the software's installation directory, it functions as follows: There's an EXE file called MainCherryOS.exe, which is the VB App they're using as a 'wrapper' to give their PearPC 'booty', if you will (joke), a Virtual PC-like feel. Normally, PearPC needs to be compiled and run from the command-line. Their wrapper then takes the output from PearPC and displays it as if it were actually being generated by MainCherryOS.exe! A creative solution, but I'm not impressed.

Very interesting.

Re:Enforce the GPL or it loses relevance

[0racle]

I believe that the OS X eula you agree to when you install it states that OS X is to only be installed on Apple hardware. So yes, instlling OS X under PearPC or any other emulator is probably a violation of "Apple's software license."