The first computer I had ever purchased with my own money was a Macintosh Quadra 605. It took me less than 20 minutes to unpack and setup the machine, to the point where I was using my new Mac. It was fairly intuitive, but nonetheless, I had my trusty Mac Bible to increase my learning curve.
Since that very first PC, I have assembled and used only X86 platforms. It took me a bit of getting used to Windows, especially moving from the Mac OS to Windows 3.1. However, not to long after, Windows 95 was released, and Windows had a brand new GUI for me to play with.
However, those few short months of suffering under Win 3.1 and eventually Win 95, I wondered why or when the Mac OS would be ported for X86 PCs. I do not wish to start a Mac/PC war here, so I wont go into any details concerning why I wanted to run the Mac OS on my PC. Suffice it to say that I simply wanted to.
About 6 months ago, I started seeing information that pointed straight at my 15-year-old question. Certain development teams were porting the Mac OS for X86-baces PCs; Mac OS X86. I have to say it was a little exciting for me to hear and I dug deeper.
The more I dug and learned, the more I saw what I needed to do to. Leastly it involved downloading various patches, or a patched OS X86 installation disk. Hmmm. Now I know I'm doing something that may be either unlawful or immoral. Nonetheless, I did what I needed to in order to see my 15-year-old wish granted. Less than 30 days later, I had OS X86 running on a nFORCE2 400 Ultra motherboard, driven by a Mobile Athlon XP 2500+ running @ 2.4GHz.
Undoubtedly running OS X86 on your non-Apple PC is unlawful. One way or another, if you hacked the install, you have violated the EULA. If you downloaded an install image or used a bit-torrent to download the install disk, you break the law by sharing copy written material.
So, what I would like to hear from all of you is whether it’s acceptable or otherwise, in your humble opinions. Apple has fought issues in the past concerning the Mac OS running only on Apple hardware. Is this OK? How does the Mac OS run on Intel PCs? Are some Intel processors owned or licensed by Apple? Or is it technically that you can only run the Mac OS on Apple-owned PCs such as Apple developers do?
The other sticky point is the DMCA. I’m not really clear on all the facts of the DMCA, and I'm not completely convinced this agreement is in fact lawful. Can Apple prosecute us under the DMCA for downloading OS x86 of the internet?
Currently My OS X86 installation is sitting on a drive in my closet (for real). Would you stick the drive back into a PC, or not? What are your feelings concerning OS X86; Apples strict hardware requirements; The EULA; The DCMA? I would be interested in any comments or feedback you all may have.