Psystar Taunts Apple A Second Time

psystar

As if bankruptcy shenanigans and an unresolved exchange of lawsuits with Apple weren’t enough, Mac clone maker Psystar is really swatting the beehive now with the release of Rebel EFI, a $50 software package that promises a straightforward installation of Mac OS X on a variety of commodity x86 systems.

Setting up one’s own “Hackintosh” system has traditionally been a painstaking process of duplicating the OS install disc and fiddling around with various kernel extensions. Rebel EFI claims to do away with all this, bringing click-and-drool simplicity to the Hackintosh experience. The package can be downloaded free of charge in order to test compatibility with one’s hardware before committing to buy; in this trial mode, the system is limited to two hours run time. Minimum requirements include an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad, Core i7, or Xeon Nehalem CPU.

Normally we’re all for voiding warranties, challenging EULAs, and sticking it to The Man, but some have been calling Psystar’s underdog image a charade, claiming the commercial Rebel EFI software is simply an uncredited derivative of open source efforts such as the Chameleon bootloader. Whether or not this proves true, it will be interesting to see how this whole surreal skit plays out between Apple, Psystar and the open source Hackintosh community.

35 thoughts on “Psystar Taunts Apple A Second Time

  1. Seriously Psystar should just give up. The “Hackintosh” install is super easy these days. You can even just use the Retail DVD, no duplication required, and most hardware can use Vanilla kexts via DSDT.aml.

    I don’t understand why Psystar is continuing this charade, they need to just give up.

  2. I have a completely working setup with boot132 and chameleon, but I want to give this a shot. If it’s cleaner than my boot132 cd (not that it can get much easier) it’ll have a place in my install. I’m just curious how to get around this two hour time limit or if I can use the cd to boot my vanilla install then install chameleon and be done with it.

    Who knows.. I’ll find out tonight.

  3. @ReKlipz

    reason number 1: so people who already use mac OS and have been all their lives don’t need to drop yet ANOTHER $2k to stay up to date this time around.

    reason number 2: so private system builders like myself can sell hackintosh computers to put themselves through college.

  4. I tried to install on my new portable is a Gateway NV58 (Intel Core 2, T6500 clocked at 2.1 GHz, 4 Gig of RAM and 320 Gig hard disk).

    After inserting the Snow Leopard DVD into the drive the Apple logo appeared and that was the end of it. No more disc activities, total sudden death. I tried a second time to install following their procedure and same result.

    Apple does not have to worry because Rebel EFI simply does not work. I would not buy a computer from these clowns.

  5. When I try to install Snow Leopard appear “no smoking” sign.
    I have got motherboard Asus P6T deluxe v2 but in the bios I can’t find the settings of psystar guide.
    Can you tell me the exact position of that settings in BIOS setting of this motherboard.

  6. Even if Psystar is a corporate-funded GPL violation to its very core, they belong on Hackaday for their efforts to allow people to install an OS they own on any hardware remotely capable of running it. Whatever their reasons and methods, they’re putting good money into the legal and PR battles for software rights and we should know about them even if we don’t commend them.

  7. Since 2006 when I bought my first Mac I never got back to the PC world, I have a boot camp partition on my Mac Pro to basically play games.
    In my opinion OS X is a sweet system and I find myself very much comfortable by working under it… But I ain’t no mac fanboy, I recognize the good side and the bad side of both systems without getting into this childish OS wars that makes both MS and Apple Marketing Managers laugh their asses off.
    But one thing is for sure… Apple has being doing some really annoying and questionable market choices lately, and all I can I say is… GO HACKINTOSH, GO!!! Maybe if people stop buying Macs just because of the OS promises Apple can start doing wise stuff once again.

  8. Honestly I wish that apple would take the hint already and get out of pc hardware, they fail at it plain and simple. They don’t have the resources to be unique hardware wise. Apple’s fetish for being proprietary is not equal to being user friendly.

  9. So an update.

    I installed my retail 10.6 (Snow Leopard) using the RebelEFI disk boot it. I then installed PCEFI and did everything manually. You don’t have to use their “app” to get everything worked out. I prefer this to Boot132 because it’s graphical and easier (not that Boot132 was difficult) to use.

    Quite a nice disk. I’ll keep it in my arsenal. And nice to know that if you know what you’re doing, you don’t have to pay the $50.

    My system specs are as follows:

    Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P
    C2D E6600 (@3.2GHz)
    8GB DDR2 RAM
    GeForce 8800GTS 640MB
    Several HDDs.

    Everything works flawlessly.

  10. I really wish they would stop messing with apple. It is rather easy to setup a hackintosh without their little utility as is; and i’d rather that they not irritate apple to the point where measures are taken to make the OS difficult to install on 3rd party hardware.

    I still see all this attention they are bringing to the hackintosh community as negative attention. . . . . . . .

  11. “Since 2006 when I bought my first Mac I never got back to the PC world, I have a boot camp partition on my Mac Pro to basically play games.
    Posted at 2:51 pm on Oct 23rd, 2009 by Captain Howdy”

    Protip: Since the Intel switchover, there is no difference between a “Mac” and a “PC” except for the OS that was installed on it. Consequentially, this also means there is no difference between HP and Apple branded products as they all have come from the same OEM/Builder at one time or another.

    I really wish people would stop saying PC as if it referred to anything distinct from Macs. Macs ARE PCs, to the traces that connect each and every component. The only thing that makes a Mac a Mac is the order in which the bits are stored on the hard drive.

  12. Ah yes, go ahead and give the thieves and liars at Psystar your name address and credit card #. When Apple wins completely, all of those business records will be theirs and you will all be hunted like animals.

  13. This action of Psystar’s is a direct provocation — that they acting out of spite; Psystar wants to inflict a pyrrhic victory on Apple. That is, Psystar knows they will lose in court, so they intent to inflict devastating losses on Apple so that it won’t feel like a victory. But, will Psystar succeed? Only if many people create hackintoshes using their CD and Apple does nothing about that.

    I suspect that Apple is restrained from doing much until it can boot all Macs into the 64 bit kernel, by default. That will not until the majority of applications are converted through out the next year. When Mac’s are on the 64 bit kernel, then a new security paradigm takes over which is much more secure. Will it lock out any computer which is running Snow Leopard on PC hardware?

    No doubt, the hackers will say that they will always be able to spoof Apple’s security, but we’ll see.

  14. “@Rat:
    Provenance, and design.
    Posted at 6:39 am on Oct 24th, 2009 by Snide”

    Doesn’t change the contents of the pretty case it was stuck into. It’s still the same thing as a PC.

  15. The only issues I have suffered were re: right-clicking, and the separation of the menus from the applications. Last time I tried to install OSX was with PearPC, before apple switched to x86, ran pretty well, even on my anemic machine [with the aid of my low standards. driver support was poor though].

    I am more interested to hear about OSX’s booting procedure, as I am quite unfamiliar.

    @nick : I agree, negative repercussions are quite possible in a more restrictive release.

    @rat : “I’m a MAC and I am a PC”. This does have a nice sound to it, should help to diffuse trolling attempts. Although, like game systems, it can be beneficial to have the vertical integration between the soft+hard wares.

    @Louis Wheeler : I had honestly never thought of OSX as either 32b or 64b, that was a bit of culture shock. Is the 32b kernel less restrictively secured?

    @Caleb Kraft / HAD : I know in some articles you link to previous related posts [sometimes overdoing it…]. How feasible would a related posts sections be? Similar to the ‘Recent Posts’ available between the content and comments, mostly just parsing some random content from matching tags.

    –PidGin128

  16. Yes, Pidgin128. Just take a look at the security page for Snow leopard. Most of the advanced protections are from the 64 bit Kernel. 64 bit provides a much wider address space to hide essential files in. This makes is more difficult for hacker to guess where they are.

    Also from Apple:

    ‘Mac OS X offers a multilayered system of defenses against viruses and other malicious applications, or malware. For example, it prevents hackers from harming your programs through a technique called “sandboxing” — restricting what actions programs can perform on your Mac, what files they can access, and what other programs they can launch. Other automatic security features include Library Randomization, which prevents malicious commands from finding their targets, and Execute Disable, which protects the memory in your Mac from attacks.”

    The Mac’s 32 bit kernel is relatively secure, but the Mac will become more so in the future when it boots into 64 bit.

    Lets say that Mr Miller of Intego finds a un-patched file in Apple’s BSD foundations and tries to exploit it, as he has done so often before at ConSecWest. In the 64 bit kernel, that vulnerability will be placed in its own sand box. It will have very limited permissions. It won’t be able to over-write your files or open up a port to infect some other machine. If it demands too many cycles, you will be notified, so you can delete that process and get rid of it.

    No computer is invulnerable, but you can moderate the harmful effects.

  17. LOL I guess Rat hasn’t yet hasn’t seen those Apple computer commercials. Where the apple dude calls the other dude PC. Even apple understands most everyone understand that PC generally is use to refer to IBM PC computers and clones.

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