One of my very first blog entries here at DaniWeb was titled “Mac-Cloner Psystar: Hero or Hoax?” Well it was either no hoax at all or Apple was the latest to get sucked in. It was revealed today that Apple on July 3 filed a law suit in San Jose, Calif., against Psystar Corp. for copyright and software licensing violations.
Psystar has for several months been advertising the availability of the Psystar Open Computer and OpenServ, Intel-based machines with the option of preinstalled Mac OS X software; prices started at around US$600. Apple’s licensing agreement forbids inclusion of its software in any machine not carrying the Apple brand.
The 16-page suit calls not only for the awarding to Apple of “actual damages and/or any profits gained by [Psystar],” but also a permanent injunction against further sales and a recall of all products previously sold! Good luck with that one Apple.
Still, it’s perfectly within reason to force Psystar to cease and desist operations, even though their he seemed a great deal. Perhaps too good to be true. On April 21, I wrote that the whole Psystar nirvana was apparently a scam, one that countless news media and bloggers bought hook, line and sinker.
What piqued by skepticism was the low prices of everything. Psystar was offering an “OSx86 compatible hardware platform that is capable of running ‘vanilla’ OS X Leopard kernels,” for US$399.99, its Web site read. And for purchasers of OS X 10.5 for US$155 more, the company would even “preinstall Leopard for free.” To top it off, the base unit included 2 GB DDR2 RAM, an Intel Core2Duo 2.2 GHz processor, 250 GB SATA hard drive and an Intel GMA 950 video circuit. Apple’s cheapest model, the Mac Mini, costs $599 with far fewer whistles and bells. My advice at the time was the same as now: for low-cost hardware, stick with Apple.com and eBay.