Mac OS X on x86 Videos Get Apple's Attention

RetrogradeMotion writes "The OSx86 Project is reporting that Apple has served a legal notice to MacBidouille, a French news site that posted videos and instructions on running Mac OS X on x86 hardware . You can find an English translation of the MacBidouille notice on the OSx86Project's forums. This is the first known legal action by Apple regarding the hacked version of OS X and calls into doubt the future of other news sites, similar to the OSx86 Project." Slashdot previously covered the story of hacking Mac OS X onto non-Apple hardware and followed up again a few days later.

Comments

Apple is not just ...

[Anonymous Coward]

Apple is not minor league engineering department attached to a powerhouse marketing deparment.

It's also attached to a powerhouse legal department.

Think Different !!!

Did this surprise anyone?

[blibbler]

When has Apple been frivolous with their IP? They have already sued people for distributing Tiger over BitTorrent, and that was for an OS that would only run on hardware that they had sold.

Re:Let's be honest...

[joetheappleguy]

I don't see how Apple can hold people legally accountable for something that they should have predicted.

So let me get this straight...According to your line of thinking, If I park my car in a shitty neighborhood and it gets stolen, even though I knew there was a chance and put an alarm in my car, I shouldn't have any legal recourse and the thief is not legally liable??

It's obvious YANAL...

Re:Seriously, here's the solution to Apple's probl

[panaceaa]

And after PC owners install it, they will conclude that OS X is stripped-down, unoptimized and poorly supported. That's exactly the opposite of the image Apple would like for OSX.

Re:Seriously, here's the solution to Apple's probl

[khazad]

To satisfy the curiosity of the millions of PC owners who might like to try OS X, Apple should sell an unsupported version of OS X for $19.95.

There are several problems with this.

• Apple doesn't want a user's first experience with OS X to be full of frustration, incompatibility, and clunky graphics. They want a curious PC user's first experience to be like an Apple store - slick, white, and accessible
• What happens when an OEM, in order to save money, ships the stripped down OS X with their boxes? Customers will experience problems and call Apple, only to be told that their OS is unsupported. Apple's great consumer relations score will go down the tubes.
• Even stuck with a dumbed-down version of OS X, it would be hard for a user to part with $130 just to get a smoother ride.

Re:Yes but...

[GlassHeart]

it should be much easier to convince people to put up $100 to try an alternate, superior OS

Linux doesn't beat Windows in every respect (and neither does MacOS X), but it's quite a bit cheaper than either. Why has it been so hard to convince people to even try Linux, and why doesn't MacOS X suffer the same problems?

Most people would probably more readily dive for Linux than want to go out and buy all new hardware

Nonsense. If this was the case, everybody would be running Linux now. The fact is that people are far more willing to continue using their old computer (which is why Windows 98 is still not quite dead), or buy a new computer. Linux is a distant third choice (and so is a Mac), in terms of popularity.

for people with small budgets -- getting an off-the-shelf x86 system and slapping Apple's "starter" OS on it would be good for basic needs.

Wouldn't people with these really small budgets rather run a free beer OS? Besides, even $300 Dell boxes come with Windows.

Re:embrace it!

[UniverseIsADoughnut]

Wow, you are so out of it.

Apple is a hardware company first and foremost. But they also have a part of them that makes straight up software like the apps you mentioned. OSX does not fall in the later.

OSX is made to sell the hardware. They make the other apps to make money and maintain viability.

If they were to ditch the hardware and sell OSX as a stand alone, it would carry prices higher then their pro-apps. OSX is priced simply to keep things moving and selling hardware.

And no, the benefit of going intel is not to repackage other peoples mainboards in a pretty case. They did it so they can have a real supplier who delivers product. Apple will still make very custom boards just like they always have. They do that for a reason, to make a good box. They have no interest in making ATX hack jobs like the developer boxes. Besides, creating their own boards is a non-issue to them. It's not hard for them, they have done it for ages, and they still use companies like ASUS as manufactures for them anyways.

Its doubtful you will even see intel sockets in the intel macs. Expect cpus to be on daughter cards and such the same as they are today.

Re:Not running their OS

[justins]

Buy an Intel Dell PC ($999.00 from Dell)

For $999 you can get two Dell PCs, a keg of beer, and a night with three Welsh hookers. Don't ask me how I know. The point is, you must be used to paying Apple prices, that figure is way off.

Re:So Apple ARE evil!!

[dr.badass]

I've always seen Apple as company selling pretty things to women who want to send email.

And you've always been shallow and ignorant in making that assessment. They make some other stuff that you seem to have overlooked.

They're picking on geeks with the desire to hack and make stuff work!

No, they're picking on geeks with a willingness to break NDAs, pirate pre-release operating systems, and not pay for anything.