As noted by some of our tipsters last night and published today on Ars and MacRumors, a company called Psystar (site currently down, for legal or technical reasons, who can say?) is offering to sell you a $399 "OpenMac" Core 2 Duo minitower that is ready to run Leopard, and for $554 you can get it with a retail copy of Mac OS X preinstalled. With specs blowing well past the base Mini configuration and the expandability of a tower config, such a machine would be appealing to hobbyists and developers... exactly the sort of folks who would be likely to roll their own.The concept of the Hackintosh, while appealing from a technical standpoint and certainly a draw for the budget-minded, always seems to fall down for me when it comes to software updates (you can't), compatibility (it's not), and support (there ain't none). If a central value proposition of Mac OS X and the Macintosh ecosystem is that the OS and the hardware are designed in parallel to work as seamlessly as possible and provide an optimized user experience, then what does a homebrew clone get you but bragging rights and a degree of aggravation? Sure, getting an Asus eee booted into Leopard is pretty cool -- but having owned a legitimate Mac clone back in the Power Computing days, I can vouch for the fact that there's no substitute for the real thing.
Thanks Roberto
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
4-14-2008 @ 12:17PM
rhoppes said...
This is definitely interesting news.
However, your analysis in the second paragraph, if you can even call it that, comes across as nothing more than apple fanboy garbage.
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4-14-2008 @ 12:25PM
rayn said...
I have to admit, i remember the old clones. Awful heap of rubbish. Although, it wont stop me from trying one out!!
4-14-2008 @ 12:24PM
Michael Rose said...
"Apple fanboy garbage" -- check your browser address bar, sport, you're not on Digg or Slashdot.
If you can explain to me why a hackintosh is an appropriate or prudent choice for more than 1% of the Mac market, I'll amend the post with your (undoubtedly cogent and polite) comments. If you can show me how a build-your-own box (or, alternatively, buying from a company that can't keep its website up after announcing a product) is a better choice for Mac users than buying Apple, I'll be happy to listen.
If, on the other hand, you want to make my Monday even crankier than it already is -- well, congrats, you win.
4-14-2008 @ 12:26PM
info said...
I have to admit, i remember the old clones. Awful heap of rubbish. Although, it wont stop me from trying one out!!
4-14-2008 @ 12:46PM
blinkcowz182 said...
I ran 10.4 on my hackintosh dell as my primary OS. Yeah it looked cool and got me into Mac OS but it was unstable at best. Every time an update came out I spent hours on the InsanelyMac forums checking to see how much work it would be to install. Michael's 2nd paragraph is spot on. Mac OS works so damn well because of the solid software/hardware integration. Mr. Rose ignore said douche bag.
4-14-2008 @ 12:51PM
jus10 said...
Maybe I'm just "old" and not with it but I don't get why you would want a hackintosh as a main home/production computer. I understand the hacky, "coolness" of it but I'd never trust a machine where someone I don't know has hacked away at the kernel doing who knows what to it. Especially since I could put in a Linux cd and have a nice alternative operating system ready to go. Sure its not as nice as OSX but at least you can review under the hood. And the next upgrade isn't going to break the system (usually).
For all that effort, isn't it easier to spend the $700 on a Macbook (what the refurbs were going for this weekend)?
4-20-2008 @ 11:07AM
Philip Thrasher said...
He is an Apple "fanboy". What's wrong with that? And it doesn't really matter what he sounds like. What he is saying rings mostly true for pc and mac users alike.
4-14-2008 @ 12:24PM
Fernando said...
Hackintoshed Dell Latitude X1, X300, D820, and D600, successfully except for the damn Broadcom 57xx NIC drivers that never work.
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4-14-2008 @ 12:28PM
amazo said...
wow.
i have no idea how any of that was apple fanboy garbage.
IMO, having built a hackintosh, that if your doing any work on your "mac" that is, lets say, important to you, do not do it on a hackintosh. software updates do work (if you do it correctly), and for the most part is just as compatible as any mac with leopard.
however you just never know what you did wrong thats just lurking to be found. installing hackintosh is pretty much akin to installing windows 98. (albeit, faster, prettier)
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4-14-2008 @ 12:33PM
Aron Trimble said...
As a business model it's kind of an interesting idea... To really be successful though they're going to have to drop the pre-install of Leopard.
Their best bet is going to be offering OpenMacs that are "tested" to work with Leopard/x86. It would save a lot of time for people interested in getting into the OSx86 scene without the need for extensive hardware knowledge. Kind of like building a partially built model airplane.
Perhaps they could even offer 30-day coverage that offers a return of the OpenMac if the user is unable to get their own copy of Leopard installed.
Or, if they really wanted to be "safe", they could even brand them as Linux boxes and have a pre-installed distro. Then "certify" them as being "OpenMac" ready! This way the average person can have a usable computer that is known to support all (or most) of OSx86's features if they so desire to install.
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4-14-2008 @ 12:34PM
Jim of D said...
Ouch!
@Michael Rose
Douche bag before coffee isn't my way to start a Monday either.
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4-14-2008 @ 12:37PM
Tournevis said...
My very first laptop was an Outbound Mac clone and it was a great machine. It served me well for five long years, accepted updates just fine, and would have served me longer were it not for the unfortunate power strip accident that blew it up.
Will I get a Hackintosh? No. Will I get a eeePC if I can get a stable Leopard on it? I will seriously consider it.
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4-14-2008 @ 12:39PM
Ed Pummelon said...
Nice spot from Gruber on Daring Fireball - "not non-safe"!!
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4-14-2008 @ 12:48PM
mingistech said...
@Michael Rose
You state that system update on a Hackintosh doesn't work... but it does. You just have to set it up properly durring the install and you'll be fine.
It's all about EFI emulation. If you use the Darwin loader the system updates will fail. Most modern Leo installs have EFI emulation as an option now. Just make sure to check this under customize on the Leo installer.
I have 2 real Macs (iMac, Macbook) and 2 Hackintosh systems. The Hackintosh boxes run just as well as my Apple boxes.
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4-14-2008 @ 12:51PM
MacBookOwner said...
Ugh, thanks for reminding me of my ill-fated purchase of a bunch of Power Computing 100s for the office. Worst fans/powersupplies/disk drives ever.
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4-14-2008 @ 12:57PM
umijin said...
Umm, I bought this article until the negative comment about PowerComputing.
I don't know what freaking planet you were on or what you were smoking, but PowerComputing's Macs were much higher quality than anything Apple was making at the time - at least mine was. I wasn't alone either, given their popularity. Remember, this was in the days that Apple was really cutting corners. Their QC really sucked then, and it showed. PowerComputing embarrassed Apple because it made a better quality desktop for much less.
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4-14-2008 @ 2:02PM
Scott said...
Glad to hear someone had good results with PowerComputing -- I had mixed. We bought our father-in-law one back in 1997, and he got a lot of great mileage out of it (minus a logic board failure about 7 months in). But I also tried to equip my electronic prepress shop with PowerComputing towers... and ended up shipping them back within two weeks. Unstable, finicky, and not worth the extra hassle for the decreased price. Sent 'em back, and got 8100 and 9100 towers that were as smooth as silk.
4-15-2008 @ 4:42AM
bobics said...
I had a Power Computing PowerTower Pro and it rocked... killed anything that Apple had to offer for far cheaper. It was powerful and incredibly upgradeable with 6 PCI slots, 8 memory slots, and plenty of drive bays. Why do you think Apple bought them out?
4-14-2008 @ 12:58PM
Chris said...
This appeals to me for use as an OS X running home file server. The Mini and iMac don't have enough drive bays and the Mac Pro is too expensive and overkill for the task. Sure, I could get a mini and plug in an enclosure with a few drives in it but that's not the route I want to go. I want an all-in-one solution.
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4-14-2008 @ 1:07PM
Michael Olshansky said...
If they were shut down, it's because they are pre-installing hacked OS X (i.e., aiding in piracy), which violates the license agreement bundled with the OS.
The smart way around this is to sell the systems bare, while advertising them as hackintoshes. They'd need to point people in the right direction to get OS X on the boxes, but that isn't rocket science.
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