Psystar's Rebel EFI Hackintosh Tool Reviewed, Found Wanting

CWmike writes "While the world focused on Microsoft's launch of Windows 7, Florida-based Psystar quietly launched Rebel EFI, a software product that should worry Apple a lot more than Microsoft's latest operating system. Rebel EFI allows users to run Apple's flagship operating system, Mac OS X Snow Leopard, on non-Apple hardware. Computerworld test drove the making of a Hackintosh out of a generic PC with the company's new software package and found a product that has a lot of homework still to do. Reviewer Frank Ohlhorst's final analysis: 'Psystar's Rebel EFI (a free trial is available) is an interesting tool, but it is very limited when it comes to the selection of hardware that you can use. The company really needs to create a compatible hardware list and post that on its Web site — and it also needs to create some usable documentation. As it stands right now, you can use Rebel EFI to build a Mac clone, but unless you stick to relatively generic hardware, you will be disappointed.'"

Comments

non-Apple hardware?

[arbiter1]

Since when is it "apple hardware" all a mac is, is just a pc parts in a flashy case with the apple logo stamped on it. they use intel processor and intel chipset.

Re:Or, if we are about the open source,

[philipgar]

Are they buying a full valid license of OSX? Does apple even sell full version of their OS that don't come bundled with their hardware? Buying snow leopard upgrades for $29.99 and installing that on a new machine doesn't sound like it makes it legal to me...

Phil

Re:Or, if we are about the open source,

[dr00g911]

I'll come out and suggest the same codebase and be shocked if it wasn't a straight up PC-EFI 9 or the latest Chameleon + EFI combo. All Pystar has done is slap their own branding on existing OSX86 tools since the beginning.

They're more than kinda shady and I feel really sorry for folks who bought one of their insta-hackintoshes and didn't have the technical know-how to compile drivers / hack efi strings etc to keep their "Mac" running properly.

Moral of the story: if you're gonna do it, build one yourself so you can learn how to support your own build.

Pystar's gonna get sued into oblivion soon, and good riddance.

Re:So in other words...

[Shadowmist]

Actually Apple can get them for just installing the Mac OS on non-Mac hardware. That alone breaks the End User License Agreement.

Re:Virtualization

[Lars T.]

Kool-Aid? What does that have to do with...

OH, I get it, it's a reference to the Jonestown massacre! How clever! You've pointed out how similar MacHeads are to a suicide cult!

http://scrapetv.com/News/News%20Pages/Business/images/jonestown-massacre.jpg ^ Look at them, enjoying those backlit keyboards. It's with the extra scratch.

How bout those turtlenecked, smug Apple Store shoppers? Bunch of suicide bombers if you ask me.

But seriously, fuck you.

While it probably is, the general ignorance of the Apple haters is highlighted by the fact that they served Flavor Aid in Jonestown.