New Mac clone - with some limitations

US company Psystar is offering a Mac-compatible mini-tower system for $400 under the name OpenMac. The vendor promises that Mac OS X 10.5 will run on the machine without emulation and will even install the Apple operating system on the computer for a fee of $155. Psystar helps itself to the groundwork that the OSx86 Project laid and uses the Vanilla kernel with minimal .kext – kernel extension – patching.

There are some limitations compared with a genuine Mac. It is possible, with some difficulty, to run a parallel Windows installation, but not using the Boot Camp Assistant. Also, the software update service apparently cannot be used, since not all updates can be installed without causing problems. Psystar warns that if this occurs the operating system has to be reinstalled. From a technical perspective, the Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) presents a hurdle to Mac compatibility. But this Intel supported standard is showing up in more and more motherboards from other manufacturers. Legally, it looks as if Apple prohibits using Leopard on non-Apple computers. Here, individual buyers accept the responsibility.

The OpenMac is intended to close the gap between the Mac mini and the Mac Pro. The tower, including an Intel chipset GPU and 2.2 GHz Core 2 Duo processor, is available in white or black at a price of $400. The computer includes 2 GB of RAM, a 250 GB 3.5 inch hard drive, a 20x DVD burner and four USB ports. For another $110 an NVIDIA GeForce 8600GT graphic card with 256 MB of RAM can be had; three FireWire ports cost another $50.

(trk)