Ever heard of PsyStar? Prior to Monday, April 14th, 2008 I never had. This Florida-based company (it just HAD to be Florida) announced a Mac-compatible computer for sale called the Open Computer (renamed from OpenMac in the last few hours) and caused a %&#$storm of EPIC proportions.
Of course making a Mac-compatible computer is in itself not that big a deal. Since Apple went to Intel processors, Macs ARE PCs, their commercials not withstanding. For those that feel like going through the hassle there are tips on installing OS X on vanilla PC hardware at various locations all over the web (hint) OSX86 and Google is your friend (/hint). There are hardware guides, using AMD processors instead of Intel guides, software guides, hacking OS X guides, and all other kinds of tricks to make it work on something that doesn’t have a big Apple corporate label on the side.
Naturally you’re pretty much on your own for upgrades to OS X or making it actually DO anything, and if you ever, EVER try calling Apple for help, the last sound you will hear will be gales of laughter from the Apple support person and the sound of a click as your call is disconnected. In this case however, installing OS X on plain PC hardware was not the issue. PsyStar did something that guaranteed that Apple would definitely not be laughing. They advertised that they (PsyStar) would install OS X on one of THEIR computers and ship it to you for $399. Well, sort of. The computer was $399, but if you wanted them to install OS X there was an additional $155 charge making the price now $554 (this does include a retail copy of OS X and a restore disk).
The information was pretty sparse other than a listing of what hardware the Open Computer came with. This is what the basic model had along with listed options:
- 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (2.4GHz optional)
2GB of DDR2 667 memory (nothing on additional memory or what the max RAM is)
250GB 7200RPM SATA Drive (various larger capacity drives available)
Four total internal SATA ports (one taken by the standard Hard Drive and one by the optical drive)
20x DVD+/-R Drive with LightScribe capability
Integrated Intel GMA 950 Graphics (GeForce 8600GT with either 256MB or 512MB optional)
4 USB Ports (FireWire card optional)
Considering that one of the advantages of owning an Apple-branded Mac is built-in wireless networking in every model, I found it odd that no wireless cards were listed or even available as an option. I would assume that 10/100 gigabit Ethernet is standard as it is on most PC motherboards these days. No software was listed beyond OS X so that free copy of iLife that Apple includes with a new sale most likely wouldn’t be there either.
So why would anyone buy something like this? Apple’s very own Mac mini fits their low-end range and includes iLife 08. Seems like you would just buy the mini. Except PsyStar’s computer has a few option that make it stand out and make the mini look like the dead-end, what you see is all you get (WYSIWYG?) computer that it is. No offense intended toward the thousands of Mac mini owners out there as it’s a perfectly fine little computer, as long as you accept its limitations. As advertised, the PsyStar Open Computer is a superior machine in just about any way you want to look at it. The low-end model has a faster processor than anything offered in a Mac mini, it comes standard with 2GB of RAM (the mini still only has 1GB) with an option for up to 4GB not even possible with the mini. It has the same Intel integrated graphics as the mini, but has options for a card that equals or surpasses even the iMac. It uses a standard SATA 7200 RPM hard drive, while the mini uses a laptop drive and can’t even offer as much storage through options.
The only thing the Mac mini has going for it above and beyond the Open Computer is built-in FireWire (though it is available as an option) and built-in wireless networking which isn’t mentioned at all with the Open Computer, athough there certainly are a lot of wireless PCI based cards for sale elsewhere. You also don’t get the iLife suite which is for sale for $79 from Apple. If getting this for free (kinda) is important to you, you’re most likely not the target that PsyStar was looking at when they (if they have) built the Open Computer.
If you fully deck out an Open Computer, you’re looking at about $1000 (actually $945 plus tax and shipping) or so. However, the hardware would be closer to the equivalent of a high end iMac than a Mac mini. Here are the specs fully loaded:
- Intel Processor: Core2Duo/2.66GHz (+ $90.00)
Hard Drive: 400GB 7200RPM SATA (+ $95.00)
Graphics Processor: GeForce 8600GT 512MB (+ $155.00)
Firewire: 3 x IEEE 1394 (+ $50.00)
OS X Leopard: Installed (+ $155.00)
Memory: 2GB DDR2
The Open Computer has something going for it that no consumer model Apple builds currently does, expandability. Oh, not for swapping out video cards (though possible if NVIDIA or ATI ever decide to), but storage. My one biggest complaint about the iMac is lack of internal storage. Sure, FireWire and USB enclosures are cheap, but they take up a lot of room. A tower might take up even more, but it isn’t sitting on top of my desk with a bunch of USB and FireWire hubs to accommodate drives, printers, scanners, a keyboard, and a mouse.
Tell you what. Let’s move on from talking about hardware. This machine is almost exactly what I’ve been waiting for Apple to build for years. So I’m already sold with some caveats. Let’s talk about OS X.
Apple’s EULA (End User’s License Agreement ) is fodder for the sleep deprived and I wouldn’t dream of trying to copy and paste the whole thing here. For the sake of this discussion, what it does say is that it expressly forbids you from installing OS X on anything other than an Apple branded computer. What exactly does that mean? If I installed it into a toaster (work with me here), would Apple and its enforcement branch come swooping into my house, destroy the best damn toaster I’ve ever owned, and take me away to an iPrison (surrounded by iWalls, iGuards and bad iFood presumably)? No, because they can’t. The worst thing they could do is not offer me ANY support for my iToaster and probably hope I get iIndegestion. They could tell me I no longer have a valid license, but would that be enforceable?
Instead what Apple has done is sic their very impressive legal team on this company and threaten to sue them out of existence. This prevents anyone from challenging them legally since very few companies have lawyers capable of going mano e mano with Apple. So PsyStar will probably as quietly as they can remove any mention of the Open Computer from their website and deny that they ever offered such a machine in the first place with a classic bit of ThinkSpeak. They will most likely end up a minor footnote hardly worth mentioning in Apple history as written by Steve Job’s clone (blessed be His name) one hundred years from now. Except what has happened instead is that PsyStar has thrown down the gauntlet and is themselves threatening to sue Apple over its own EULA AND is now also offering a higher end machine they call the Open Computer Pro. The “Pro†machine offers performance that at face value is better than anything Apple offers in their consumer line and starts at $999. I again went to the site and fully loaded one with the following specs:
- Memory: 8GB DDR2 RAM
Processor: Core2Quad/2.6GHz
Hard Drive: 1 TB 7200RPM SATA
Video Card: GeForce 8800GT 512MB
Case: Mirror Finish
Installed OS: OS X 10.5 Leopard - Total: $2169
I won’t do cost or performance comparisons with Apple’s own iMacs since I don’t have one of these Open Computers (or Pros) to play with. Who knows what the build factor is like or how well it will hold up, or even if it will still work the next time Apple either updates 10.5 or releases 10.6. On paper it sounds like a pretty good deal.
So what happens next?
PsyStar is sounding tough but time will tell if they can hold out and support these machines. Even if the absolute worst happens and PsyStar disappears in an Apple generated category 5 hurricane that is targeted toward their Miami, Florida facilities. With this announcement something has changed. Someone with deeper pockets than PsyStar might see this as an opportunity. Someone with the guts to stand up and offer a machine for sale that will run OS X (pre-installed) and force Apple to a courtroom to explain why exactly it is that if someone buys a copy of OS X that they can’t legally install it once (and only once to stay legal) on hardware not designed and built by Apple. Why this company couldn’t offer their own support for software and hardware as long as it did not violate Apple’s software patents. Would you support and purchase a machine that ran OS X legally that wasn’t built by Apple?
Look at it this way, Microsoft sells OEM Windows licenses for a lot less than what PsyStar was charging for a pre-installation of OS X. I bet if they gave Apple that entire $155 that it would equal or be pretty darn close to what Apple makes on a typical iMac sale without them having to actually build anything.
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