Reader Louis sent in this longish missive about his own experiences installing a Psystar Hackintosh. We were stymied last night by the authentification procedure so we didn’t even get as far as Louis but it seems that the install, while fairly seamless, is fraught with problems. The speakers on our HP, for example, don’t work and while Apple’s Ink feature shows up in the control panel, the touchscreen is about useless.
Here’s Louis’ take:
I saw your article about the success you’ve had. I’d like to share my experience to date.
I’m running a G31M-ES2L and an 8800GT. It’s an original PsyStar machine with an upgraded video card.
I purchased the app yesterday. Followed install instructions posted .
The SL install reports a failure but I could boot to the desktop in SL with the Rebel EFI CD. (The instructions have since been revised to reflect this).
When the Psystar Rebel EFI software launched yesterday, the Internet collectively gasped at the wild claims but a few people in the Hackintosh community probably knew better. Sites were claiming that the Rebel EFI software would allow OS X to be installed on any computer, but that simply isn’t true as I’ve found out over the last 12 hours. In fact, it doesn’t seem to offer any more hardware support than the open source Chameleon bootloader.
You can almost hear Steve Jobs flipping out right now. Psystar, notable for its efforts to sell generic PCs with Mac OS X pre-loaded, has just released something called Rebel EFI. It’s software that allows you to instal Mac OS X on generic PCs without having to Hackintosh said PC. (Hackintoshing isn’t for the weak of heart!)
Update: Psystar’s site is down but here are the installation instructions if you managed to grab the trial version in time. Anyone manage to get it to work yet?
This Apple-Psystar business sure is hotting up! Both Apple and Psystar have asked for summary judgments based on what they believe to be What’s Going On. Such an action would avoid a pesky trial, which would necessarily costs both companies a whole lot of money.
Nobody expected that this Apple-Psystar affair would be rapid or easy, but at this point it’s positively interminable. Psystar has just switched out a lawyer, who probably just about keeled over from constantly parrying Apple’s well-founded injunctions against his client’s business. Here’s hoping Mr. Welker takes a well-deserved vacation.
Psystar, putter-togetherers of Hackintosh PCs, are suing Apple for monopolizing the market for premium computers, a move akin to a prairie dog popping its head up under a lawnmower. The lawsuit states:
“By tying its operating system to Apple-branded hardware, Apple restrains trade in personal computers that run Mac OS X, collects monopoly rents on its Macintoshes, and monopolizes the market for ‘premium computers,’” said Psystar’s lawsuit, filed last Wednesday. “Apple’s share of revenue in the market for premium computers — computers priced at over $1,000 — is currently 91%.”
I was actually pulling for Psystar before but now it’s clear that the company is fast on its way to being sued into oblivion. Their quixotic quests mixed with a consistent failure to deliver support – just try getting a “repair disk” from them: you have to send in what is essentially copy of your original invoice and esoteric proofs of purchase – shows that they’re not quite serious when it comes to the manufacture of quality hardware and are instead going the troll route.
And you thought that Apple finally drove the front running clone maker off of a cliff. Nope. Psystar successfully navigated the bankruptcy courts and is back at its old game of annoying Apple. The ongoing lawsuit is still in play, but bankruptcy no doubt allowed the company to shed some debt and reorganize under Chapter 11 guidelines. Now the company is back and just released a new Core i7 clone.
Picking apart the bankrupt Psystar corpse has revealed a debt of $75,000 to Apple for “Unsecured Nonpriority Claims,” whatever thoseare. Nobody knows what exactly that might be for, although some savvy mathemagicians have decided it might be for 581 (and a half) copies of Leopard. Not knowing Psystar’s actual sales volume, that number means practically nothing. Did they maybe order all those copies and never pay? Or was that just the unsold ones left over after Apple caught them up in the ongoing legal tiff?
Psystar put up good fight. The small company first released a $399 Mac clone little over a year ago followed by rackmount servers a little later. The company was eventually sued by Apple for using OS X on clone machines. But Psystar showed some backbone and sued Apple back . But even if Psystar had secret financial backing, the company just filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Maybe RussianMac is thinking that Apple’s legal team will not notice as they’re too busy with the suing Psystar. Oh, perhaps, the Mac clone maker thinks that they are legally immune being located in the wild west that is Mother Russia. Whatever the case, a full range of Mac clones, including a pro and notebook models, are now available from another maker. Interestingly enough, RussianMac may have beat Psystar to a Mac Netbook.
Psystar, the crazy folks that have stood up to Apple’s legal behemoth and continue to produce Mac clones, might be working on a netbook according to MacRumors. Apple has been very quite on the netbook front, and seems to not want anything to do with the niche market — although rumors state otherwise. But there is nothing stopping Psystar from producing its own OS X-running netbook. Chances are it would be very similar to the hackintosh netbook mods that have become somewhat popular.
It seems like just yesterday when we were unboxing our very own Psystar system, and apart from some build quality issues, were surprised at how well it worked.
The Open(3) system they announced last month was expected by some to be a no-show, what with the ongoing dispute with Apple, but it looks like at least one person with a camera has gotten his delivered.
In a move that’s sure to make Apple shake its fist and gnash its teeth, everybody’s favorite underdog, Psystar, has thrown legal caution to the wind and released the Open(3) Computer, starting at $599 without monitor, keyboard, or mouse.
The long-running Psystar dispute may be settling down as the controversial PC-maker runs out of steam, but don’t think that’s the end of… the Clone Wars. (sorry)
German PC company HyperMegaNet UG has started selling its own line of cloned Apples. But good heavens, you say, aren’t they scared of Apple? Won’t they see the smoking ruins of Psystar and fear the same fate may be in store for them? Ah yes, but you forget: they’re German.

The saga between Psystar and Apple is reaching a sad point. Apple has held firm against the claims of the Mac clone maker and Psystar keeps pilling on new Apple offensives. The latest simply claims that Apple cannot sue Psystar ’cause OS X isn’t covered by copyright protection.
Psystar is kind of turning into an annoying step-brother by “respectfully disagreeing” with the courts latest findings, but by adding other charges to take the place of the dismissed ones. This whole case seems like it’s going to continue on OJ style, – the first one - never-ending and just wasting taxpayers dollars.
Maybe there is a silent backer, secretly funding Psystar’s lawyers whore funds and praying for Apple’s demise. The latest filings allege that Apple is violating sections of the DMCA by preventing competition. Still, at this point, even the most die-hard Apple haters have to start getting annoyed with the whole process. Finish him!

You would think that these Argentineans would know about Psystar’s legal ‘issues’ with Apple before they decided to release an unofficial OS X machine, but whatever. The company is selling two Mac Clones for a reasonable amount of cake. The OpeniMac is only $990 and ships with 2GB of memory, 320GB HDD, and a 256MB ATI Radeon HD Pro. The OpeniMacPRO will run ya, $1,710 but is a 3.0GHz machine with 4GB of ram and a 20-inch widescreen LCD. Legal concerns aside, if you’re jones’n for a Mac but don’t want to pay the Steve Jobs’ Tax – and can speak Spanish – this might be an option.
OpeniMac via AOL

Oh dear, I think Apple’s legal department is getting paranoid. After suggesting that people taking their ad literally were irrational, they’re now suggesting that a shadowy unknown may be behind the whole Psystar drama. The suits and countersuits have been going on for months and months now (all I care about is that it works), and in an amendment to their suit today, Apple added the following language:
On information and belief, persons other than Psystar are involved in Psystar’s unlawful and improper activities described in this Amended Complaint. The true names or capacities, whether individual, corporate, or otherwise, of these persons are unknown to Apple. Consequently they are referred to herein as John Does 1 through 10 (collectively the “John Doe Defendants”).
Good lord, how mysterious! Can they really think that someone like Dell for example, jealous of Apple’s increasing market share, would set up a shell company to sell pieced-together Frankenmacs? I think Apple needs a drink.
[via MacRumors]

The court proceedings between Apple and Psystar are still dragging on with the latest charges being filed by Apple the day before Thanksgiving. Allegedly, Psystar is violating the Digital Mellennium Copyright Act (DMCA) by circumventing the OS X copy-protection.
Through this motion, Apple seeks leave to file its Amended Complaint pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 15(a) and this Court’s November 7, 2008 Case Management Order. Apple’s Amended Complaint, attached hereto as Exhibit A, adds a Digital Millennium Copyright Act claim, additional factual allegations relating to Apple’s previously asserted claims and Doe defendants. The DMCA claim is based on new information that Apple has learned since the filing of its original complaint.
It’s just a matter of time before Apple steamrolls the clone computer maker.
The never ending saga of David vs Goliath just got a little tougher for the little guy. Unless Psystar strengthens its counterclaims against Apple, it will be thrown out of court. The counterclaim indicates that OS X is not reasonably interchangeable with other operating systems, such as Windows, and therefore compromises its own niche market. So unless Psystar can come up with something better, Apple’s original lawsuit till continue against the Mac clone manufacturer and we all kind of know how that is going to turn out. Probably something like when Bill Gates visited Homer Simpson…