News - Hackintosh maker Psystar files for bankruptcy

[HEXUS]

Psystar seeks Chapter 11 protection while legal action from Apple is still underway.

Read more.

[Biscuit]

What did they think was going to happen when the started selling them?

[hermano pequeño]

What did they think was going to happen when the started selling them?

Chapter 11 sounds interesting - protection from the people who you are being prosecuted by, while you continue to do what they're prosecuting you for... could be a case of precedence, and I would expect Apple to throw armies of lawyers at it.

Top marks for being seriously cheeky though!

[shaithis]

He doesn't deserve the credit IMO.

While I do not agree with Apples stance on OSX (and even run it *unmodified* on my own PC occasionally), making a profit from it seems wrong, especially when Psystar were not selling retail boxes with their PCs (this may have changed now with the lawsuit)....

[loki]

I have sympathy for Psystar. Not in the way they have goen about it but I can't understand why Microsoft gets record fines for bundling IE with Windows yet Apple act in a more protentionist and monopolistic way yet it seems they are entirely allowed to do so. I'm 100% certain there will be legal stance on why they can but I just don't understand it.

If someone in the know wanted to explain it to me then I'd be deighted to understand why.

[Gordy]

I have sympathy for Psystar. Not in the way they have goen about it but I can't understand why Microsoft gets record fines for bundling IE with Windows yet Apple act in a more protentionist and monopolistic way yet it seems they are entirely allowed to do so. I'm 100% certain there will be legal stance on why they can but I just don't understand it.

If someone in the know wanted to explain it to me then I'd be deighted to understand why.

You cannot be a monopoly if you don't have nearly all the market share and when there are other equally good choices out there. Choosing to only sell your software with your hardware is not and never will illegal.

[McPhee]

You cannot be a monopoly if you don't have nearly all the market share and when there are other equally good choices out there. Choosing to only sell your software with your hardware is not and never will illegal.

That all depends on your definition of "the market" though. Within the Mac market Apple's bundled software definitely does qualify as anti-competitive. They're bundling so much with their OS that the average user would rarely need to look elsewhere.

[Biscuit]

That all depends on your definition of "the market" though. Within the Mac market Apple's bundled software definitely does qualify as anti-competitive. They're bundling so much with their OS that the average user would rarely need to look elsewhere.

Isnt that actually part of the market strategy lol

[Tomahawk]

It's a hard one to call, I'm in two minds on what I take from this story (as to whether I agree with Apple/Psystar) but ultimately it's Apple's prerogative.

Is it just down to sales ..or does it also come down to their support? Like them not wanting to start supporting their OS on hardware unbeknown to them?

[TheBloodyNine]

The thing is Psystar broke the terms of Apple's EULA and as such deserve to go out of business.

The way Apple makes its money is through hardware sales, the OS is just a way to entice people into buying the hardware. So bundling the OS on non Mac hardware is going to harm Apple's business as they make very little off of OS sales.

Psystar also aren’t selling OSX compatible PCs they are selling PCs with a hacked version of OSX installed, the hardware may be similar but the implementation is backwards. If they truly were selling an OSX compatible machines then I should be able to use my retail purchased copy of OSX and install it with out any problems, in this case I cant I would need a copy that has been hacked to boot from a standard PC. The other thing that should be available is the ability to use software updates without fear of it breaking my system another thing these can't do.

They also have the potential to harm Apple's reputation with the less computer literate people. If some one buys one of these with out understanding what they are buying when it goes wrong they will blame Apple, and assume that OSX is rubbish and buggy, and when they go to Apple to be told they can't help they will assume Apple's customer care is rubbish, driving potential customers away.