What About Darwin?

Story: What's the Latest in the Psystar Appeal?Total Replies: 5
Author Content
olefowdie

Jul 29, 2010
9:33 AM EDT
A massive part of OSX is open source software, and as such can be used for anything the buyer wishes. It is also this open source chunk that is modified when creating a hackintosh. That modification is perfectly legal. I guess the real question is the line in the EULA stating that OSX can be used only on "... Apple branded computers..." I think Apple should just clear up what differentiates OSX from Darwin. They should state that Quartz, Cocoa, and such are OSX and can be used only in conjunction with Apple components. I think they should also state whether or not I can service my own Macintosh and still use OSX. For example, if I were to pull my Macintosh apart and replace the HDD, RAM, CPU, graphics card, NIC, and PSU am I breaking the EULA? If I keep all of the components except for the mobo am I breaking the EULA?
tmx

Jul 29, 2010
9:57 AM EDT
Well for one thing, Apple doesn't intellectually own intel cpu, nvidia card or seagate hdd.
JaseP

Jul 29, 2010
10:21 AM EDT
All in all I am seeing the trend in thinking moving in a good direction,... That when you buy a thing,... it's YOURS... It's not a one-time payment lease (with corporate-centric revocation terms, I might add),...

That trend is good for Open Source, and bad for the big consumer OS vendors who wanted to perpetually lease your OS to you... I remember the talk 15 years ago, that you would buy your machine and lease software that was pushed to you on the "new-fangled" World Wide Web.

I will pay for Net access. I will pay for co-located storage, if I need it (I don't need it, though). I will pay for phone network and cable TV network access. Those are services. They need to be constantly maintained to operate well. But I will not be forced to buy and re-buy software that I had already paid for... especially when if comes bundled with a device. I got off that treadmill after being burned a bunch of times. If you are going to sell me a device, SELL me that device. Give me the software to operate it for free, and let me change it to tap all the potential the device has. That is the model IBM was originally after with the PC, until M$ turned the model on its head,... With Open Source, IBM's original idea is where we are headed again today. And look who is one of Open Source's biggest corporate sponsors?!?!

Vendors who want to lock down a device?!?!? No thanks. It's why I won't buy an Archos device again (even their newer, more open ones). I have two Archos 604 Wifis that I bought thinking I could turn them into media capable PDAs with browser capability (which I COULD have done, had they not locked the OS updates with hardware encryption). Instead, I now have two portable media player devices that my kids can use on long trips when they are old enough to be trusted with them. Every year that goes by makes me think that they will just gather dust, until someone finds a way to jailbreak them permanently. That's about $600 down the drain.
tmx

Jul 29, 2010
4:35 PM EDT
I think for Apple, you should be allowed to upgrade their computer, just don't install their OS to non-Mac computer, that goes against their policy of monopoly and Steve Jobs [quote] does not let it slides. But most mildly techie users already figured out how to install it to both Intel and AMD computer by now.

Archos: Yeah I would avoid Archos stuff. I couldn't replace my Archos 404 hdd because the firmware will not accept an hdd with different serial number. Of course, they have to use Hitachi 1.8" hdd which were very, very bad.

Then I had to buy MP4 plugin for $20 to play mp4 files, except it sucked and didn't add the mp4 to music library (this was before I decide to encode to ogg only). I had the 604 too, so I had to buy the plugin twice.

I know Archos probably improved in some aspect now, but this experience left me with a lasting bad taste. Rockbox for life.
gus3

Jul 29, 2010
4:38 PM EDT
Quoting:I think for Apple, you should be allow to upgrade their computer
Ahem. "Their" computer?
DarrenR114

Jul 29, 2010
10:33 PM EDT
Both IBM and Apple are using the same FUD tactics against their opponents that IBM used against Amdahl back in the 1980s ... it landed them in hot water with DoJ back then, and it looks as though such unsavory tactics will land them in hot water again.

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