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While it may be years (possibly never, although I think it'll happen) before you can purchase a legitimate copy of OS X for your regular x86 PC, pirates in Bangkok have sped up the process, selling what they call a "retail" version of OSx86. According to Hardmac:

 

"Pirates of course took advantage of the osx86project.com community discoveries, in order to sell versions they dare to call "Retail Edition", for 6 Euro."

 

Six Euro? Around 12 Dollars? We find it appalling that someone would try to make a quick buck from someone else's (Apple's) work. And, for the record, we neither support nor endorse any of their activities, nor any illegal use of OS X for that matter. These pirates have used hackers' "cracks" from elsewhere, not "discoveries" from this site.

 

They do everyone a disservice. Here, no one wins.

 

UPDATE: Sorry, I miscalculated - 6 Euros would actually be 7.23 in USD. I'm headed to England soon, so I was stuck in Pounds mode.

 

osx86front3zd.jpg

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https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/3126-buy-osx86-retail-in-bangkok/
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It had to happen; interesting choice of logo, though. I'd be interested to know whether they just burned one of the pirated versions, or whether any effort has been put into actually making it useable for the poor tourists who are likely to buy it.

Maybe it is the same for Linux developers... I wonder how many things from their open source work have gotten in the Linux distros that are shareware.

 

The only objective point of view I can envision here is the increase in the popularity of the OS. Of course it is bad for the project gurus, i.e. Maxxus, to have to deal with rip-offs.

 

The only hope we can have on this is that it gains its popularity among skillful developers in Bangkog who can contribute to the project.

 

And nevertheless, wait to see what Apple rips off from this project database-experience forum. The unnoficial beta testers like me :(

All the work done by people here, ripped off by pirates.

 

Well, to be honest, the only work that people have done here (as in, associated with our site) is research on the TPM mechanism. All the rest - ie Maxxuss patches - have been discussed here, but our site doesn't support what they do.

 

There is a difference between giving people a chance to talk about something and promoting it. Our site has done the former, although the pirates almost certainly used the information that users have discussed here to carry out what they've done.

Look on the bright side Stevie; I am sure millions of people will buy the real thing if you put out to run on plain jane systems (that meet the requirements of course).

 

Exactly, I think this is great. Stuff like this will push Apple to release OS X for generic hardware. Bring on the Dev-Kit Clones!!!

 

I am still laughing about that box. 100% stolen and it almost looks authentic, really nice work. That "retail edition" part is funny.

"Enterpeneurial pirates capitalize on hackers' work" i dont think 12 dollars a pop is exactly capitalizing.

 

you also have to consider the costs

 

the dvds: .29 cents

the box: .55 cents

the plastic wrap: .09 cents

the required mac tax: 10.05

 

that leaves about 1.02 profit.

If any of you are really distraught by this revelation, you are really being quite hypocritical as the overwhelming majority of those who have installed the leaked OS x86 onto their computers have pirated the software from Apple. Don't you see that the pirates of Bangkok have done to all of us essentially what we have done unto Apple? The only difference being that one is trying to profit it off of the work (in monetary terms) of a community while others are trying to profit off of the name recognition associated with their "hacking."

 

Personally, I think it's lame that it is being sold, but I don't find it that morally offensive. It was only a matter of time before it happened. If anything, it is a real measure of how fair the knowledge of this project has spread.

True; however, the TPM information was invaluable in getting the whole thing to work. I'm not saying thsi site was promoting anything, though. People discussed and provided information here.

 

Oh, BTW: One word. SSE2. That's gonna seriously restrict their customers.

"Enterpeneurial pirates capitalize on hackers' work" i dont think 12 dollars a pop is exactly capitalizing.
Mashugly didn't even get it right here. Currently the Euro is at about 1.20 USD, therefore 6 Euros equal 7.20 and not 12 dollars. So it's actually much less.

 

Steve Jobs is going to be pissed. Will he regret switching to the x86 platform.
Why should he? Software piracy in eastern countries is not a new problem. I'm sure you can also get Tiger for PPC in the same shop. The only new adverse side-effect I can see in this case is that some few naive people might take it for the real thing, will soon get very upset about Apple as things are not going to run as expected and lose their interest in OS X. I think it is fair to say that for now and for the foreseeable future, Mac OS X on non-Apple hardware is a nice demo, but very far from being usable in a real-world context.

 

Look on the bright side Stevie; I am sure millions of people will buy the real thing if you put out to run on plain jane systems (that meet the requirements of course).
As much as I like Mac OS X, I have to admit that I do not believe it has the potential to attract a mass audience for a long time. I think most of the fuss made about Mac OS X is a consequence of its exclusiveness. Once it is no longer exclusive, it will become one operating system among many and people will look at it with different eyes, judge with more realism in their mind. I do not believe that under the current circumstances, Mac OS X for generic PC would have any chance in the competition on the market. I also don't believe most people here would really become loyal Apple customers and buy each and every upgrade of the OS. From what I'm reading here, I simply can't believe it. Most people here don't have any Mac, be it a developer transition machine or classic one, but all of a sudden there's not only the OS X for Intel Preview in their hands, but also commercial PPC applications to run on that OS. Some already stated that they "switched" over to Mac OS X from Windows or whatever (how ridiculous to use unsupported software on unsupported hardware in a production environment). Who of you really believes that these folks paid for the their software? I do not. The same would happen when OS X for generic boxes hit the stores. A few would become long-term Apple customers, many would buy it only once, but most would surely just pirate it.

 

Exactly, I think this is great. Stuff like this will push Apple to release OS X for generic hardware."
Apple will decide whether it is economically feasible. They're not there to please the crowd, their obligation is to earn money and to continue to earn money. Apple certainly doesn't allow a few pirates to dictate their corporate governance.

BLOODY PIRATES!!!! -Says the 1 eyed pirate as the Black Pearl gets stolen in Pirates of the Carrbibean.

 

To be fair tho it is kinda lame that someone is actually making a profit off of this. But it is inevitable that it would happen out there. They sell copies of almost every major piece of software out there pirated. It is not uncommon so this should not be surprising to anyone.

Here is what I am seeing. Linux is cool, sure. But not all casual home users are going to use it With the Mac OS X running on a x86 PC. You have the ease people are looking for and you have unix for the diehard guru. Or Apple could do everything the same way and force you to buy their machines. Which would be the same old thing and when someone says Apple Computer, then they would say who?

Should these pirates continue selling the hacked version of OSx86?
Off course they shouldn't.

 

Larrybird, for the sake of legality we are upset "to see OS x86 pirated in such a profound way." But illegally, we are upset "to see our hard work at cracking this sucker being used to make other people a profit." Got to love political correctness. <_<

No, we are upset because it is stuff like what's happening in Bangkok right now eventually will bring the grudge of Apple on forums like ours at the risk of 'cease & desist', which off course we do not want

 

I find this humorous, but I doubt it will put a dent in Apple. I can see how some of the "devs" here might be upset that the fruit of their works is being exploited for money though.
or being prosecuted for enabling these pirates the possibility to get illigal copies on the market...

 

The only positive thing I can think of is that if this illigal version of osx86 for vanilla pc's get's to become a big hit, maybe finally get the wake-up call for Apple that there is a huge market for x86 osx for vanilla pc users to provide or pre-installed on Dell pc's...

Frankly I don't think Apple will ever release their OS for regular PCs they make too much on hardware. Even when the new Apple X86 pcs come out their prices will be much higher than a much better Dell system which has a better warranty etc. To release OSX for regular PCs would make Apple more money in the short term on sales but those $5000+ computers make them a hell of a lot more.

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