Tag Archives: hackintosh

Sigh. I mean, Psystar – nice try. Apple wins.

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Well, a Federal judge ruled and Psystar lost their case. Apple has definitely shown the hand of God here. But the real question is: Will it be the end of it? Hopefully not.

On Friday, Judge William Alsup sided with Apple that Psystar has indeed violated the End User License Agreement (EULA). He ruled that installation of the Mac OS on non-Apple hardware is not allowable. Therefore, Psystar must discontinue their line of Mac clones. Finally, he ruled that Psystars’ counter claims are not arguable since Psystar altered the Mac software to run on other machines.

And now I will quote:

Today we celebrate a glorious anniversary of the information purification directives we have created, for the first time in all history, a garden of pure ideology. Where each worker may bloom secure from the pests of contradictory and confusing truths. Our Unification of Thoughts is more powerful a weapon than any fleet or army on earth. We are one people, with one will, one resolve, one cause. Our enemies shall talk themselves to death and we will bury them with their own confusion. We shall prevail!

Confused on where that is from? Well, it’s “Big Brother” from the 1984 Superbowl ad by Apple. It is followed by:

…You’ll see why 1984 won’t be like 1984…

That is true. 2009 will be like 1984. Little did George Orwell know, but he was writing about Apple 25 years later…

Just like everyone else, I agree with the ruling. Psystar had to alter the program to run on another machine, therefore they should have to pay. But just because that happened, doesn’t mean Hackintosh is going away. Just underground. Apple won the battle – not the War.

I still think that if Apple put out a OSXPC version, put a price on it and followed with “No support”, people would flock. The independent PC support person would then be asked upon to learn and understand so they can fix these problems. Apple wins by adding a new revenue stream and also because it’s creating new jobs. We get an unsupported system for $129, but it might lead to our next computer purchase being an Apple product.

As for Psystar, maybe they’ll appeal, but most likely Apple will take the company down. Welcome to the corporate world. R.I.P. Psystar.

No more Hackintosh Netbook?

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Well apparently according to some sources like PCWorld, the newest update of Snow Leopard will kill the Hackintosh. 10.6.2 will not run on the ATOM processor, therefore knocking out all the instruction sets for any netbook running that version. Therefore, you will have to stay in a lower level to keep the machine running.

I really don’t understand why Apple is so Anti-hack. iPhone bricks – Palm Pre doesn’t get iTunes – now the hobbiest is not allowed to play? What’s next: controlled net neutrality? (you think I’m kidding, but I would guess if Apple had it’s way, there would be an iNternet)

We get it, Apple: You had the contracts with UMax and Motorola. Macintosh clones of ten years ago where you pulled those licenses. You even go against Psystar so they don’t profit off your work. But going against the tinkerer? Going against the core Geek?

Remember Apple – you run on an Open Source architecture in FreeBSD. While I’m not saying you should Open the OS, you might find that giving people the option may turn them to Apple products faster. They will flock to something they are used to. What is to stop someone from writing code that could closely mimic the Apple OS? What about someone that just writes code to make an OS that could Rival MacOS? Android, perhaps?

And while I will not cry Antitrust on this, I do have to ask the question: Why would I go with something that is so closed? I am wondering if they should re-review their 1984 commercial where the woman ran down the aisle with a hammer to smash out conformity. Who would have thought the old guy on the screen was Apple itself?

BTW – there is no mention on if these instruction set changes will affect any desktop Hackintosh system. You might just be safe….

…for now…

Changing Out to a New Computer

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I told myself a long time ago that I would only upgrade my main computer if a new one could triple the performance. It would be so I don’t sit and waste money every year just to buy a machine that was a few MHz faster than the previous one. I know I can get by with an increase in RAM, an updated hard drive or new video card.

This machine was 6 times better.

The kicker was that I was trying to do video on the old machine and it would take forever. I was sitting there waiting for items to load…. and load…. and zzzzzzzzzz… huh? oh. It’s still loading.

WARNING – GEEKY STUFF AHEAD: The new machine is an AMD Phenom II 945 with DDR3 support. The processor is a Quad-core – 3.0 GHz processor. It has a 6 MB L3 Cache. With the AM3+ board (The M4A78T-E from ASUS), this machine  will power through what I need. With the 2 PCIx slots (yes, I said 2) for the connection of ATI’s CrossFireX technology, along with the build in dual video support and HDMI support, this could easily become a fully functional home theater.  I even have a USB. Firewire AND eSata port on the back, so it can connect to my favorite storage drive and back up data.

WARNING – ENVIRONMENTAL STUFF AHEAD: The best part about this proc / board combo is that it runs at 140W. Add a hard drive and DVD RW: You are looking at 190 Watts to run this computer. My other machine took almost twice as much to run. I have a 450 W power supply which will be perfect for this.

I am also not a high – end gamer, so those of you looking for better frame rates and overclocking will probably be laughing at this.  Still, if I want to change out the heatsinks, double the power supply and put in 2 high end dual graphics cards to build a computer video wall, then at least I have the computer to do it.

The best part is I might be able to knock 3 computers down to 1 (if I wanted). I will most likely have 2 in the end, though.

Being that I have had the previous machine for 3 years now, it has complied with the George Carlin comedy skit and accumulated a lot of “Stuff”. Even half-way through it’s use I reloaded XP because of a hardware crash – yet there still seems to be a lot of data I have to account for.

Therefore it’s a slow process of loading and configuring, then bringing over the large amount of data. The last machine was still running all EIDE drives; 2 of them were on a EIDE controller in which I striped the data amongst the two disks. The 320 GB was perfect for 2006, not so much for 2009. Therefore, 4 – 500 GB SATA drives are in order.

Yes, I said 500 GB drives. Why? Well simply put, even though I read that Terrabyte drives are reliable, tech friends say they see too many RMA’s on the drives. While I do not have to worry about petabytes of data just yet, I want to make sure my machine will survive for a while. When I see the repair requests go down, I’ll get a TB for an external drive.

Once I have all programs loaded, then I will set aside time to bring over the big programs. Changing data. My websites – for example. That way I don’t have mismatched data across 2 computers.

I still have a long ways to go before I am done swapping out the machine. I might even have a hard time trying to find the software and reg keys I used so long ago. By the end of the week, though, the switch should be complete. Then comes the fun chore of….

Backing Up:  I did it before I started moving data around and I will do it when it’s all complete. Acronis will get the task of imaging the drive. I will also use an external to back up all data on a regular basis. That way, if any major failure occurs, I can restore ASAP.

Operating Systems: Right now, it’s XP. Windows 7 will have it’s own partition, as well as Ubuntu. The system comes with ExpressGate – a quick loading OS for easy Skype, web browsing or media playing. But will I Hackintosh the system? Well, the board comes with ATI graphics. There is a version out there that does let you use ATI, so I’ll have to see about that.

So not only could this replace 3 of my computers, it could also replace my TV. It’s really interesting to see how far we’ve come with technology. Yet the real question is: “Where will computers be when they triple this new system?” One can only drool right now….