Psystar looking for trouble in all the right places

Darius Chang | Oct 26, 2009

Perhaps Psystar's sensing that the end is near for its Mac clones, but the Miami rebel is not going to go silently into the night. It created a stir back in April 2008 when it became the first company to sell non-Apple PCs with Mac OS X preinstalled via its online store. Though these "Hackintosh" desktops are not without some bugs, Psystar addresses a niche market which wants an Apple operating system without being restricted to the Cupertino's hardware selection.

Despite filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May this year and the possibility that the courts will stop the sales of its Mac PCs, at least Psystar's legacy will be with the Rebel EFI suite. This software, released on October 23, allows almost any PC to install Mac OS X Snow Leopard by tricking Apple's operating system into thinking it is running on an official Apple system.

There are caveats. For one, you will need a copy of Snow Leopard, which costs S$48 (US$34.56). The demo version of Rebel EFI has limited hardware support and runs for only 2 hours. To get all the system drivers and a complete Mac clone, you need to cough out another US$49.99 for the full version. At the same time, do note that by installing Mac OS X on a non-Apple machine, you are running afoul of the Cupertino's user agreement. So do not expect any official support.

Filed under: Notebooks, PC & Peripherals, Software
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