Jun 20, 2008 10:00 AM
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Psystar, the controversial company with the cojones to take on Apple (bravo), has two new fugly server computers aimed at the Xserve market, the OpenServ 1100 and 2400. They start at $2125, which buys you a 2.5GHz Xeon QuadCore processor, 4GB RAM, 750GB HDD, 4 HDD bays and a worthless 10-client copy of OS X 10.5 Server. Both are cheaper than the authentic $3000 Xserve, which only includes 2GB RAM and 80GB HDD. Still, these are not the Mac clones you were looking for. (Boo!)
In the past, PC and Mac clones had duplicated parts. In the case of the PC, the XT clones contained a copy of the IBM BIOS (not licensed by IBM.) In the case of the real Mac clones like Daystar and Motorola's, they contained a licensed Macintosh ROM inside.
So technically these are not Mac clones at all, just normal PC hardware that don't have any of the special components in current Macs, which is why they require a special hacked version of the Mac OS X operating system. As we've seen, that hacked version has automatic update issues and they don't even want you reinstalling it yourself (in fact, they don't have permission to distribute the patch that makes this possible.)
So what is Apple waiting for? They've been known to be swift and merciless in the past when it comes to axing companies trying to make a living off the Apple brand. These "clones" are anything but, and if people start to believe that Apple hardware is of the same quality as these guys, they could be in serious trouble.
Go get 'em Steve! [Product page via Gadget Lab]
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