I have a feeling they're doing things entirely incorrectly.
1) this is for Hackintoshes (should be in the title here, but isn't), and it uses a 10.6.2 hackintosh distribution, not your standard install disks.
2) they're using CopyCatX, a drive duplicator, instead of the disk utility. Does this matter?
3) CopyCatX is a $60 piece of software, though it shows it in what appears to be the disk image containing the portable 10.6.2 image... I wonder if this could be construed as supporting piracy.
4) If you're running on Mac hardware, you can just install to an external drive of any type, or image your drive to another, and it all works happily. CopyCatX isn't necessary there, why would it be necessary for copying a disk image in another case? It's an image.
It was pretty nice, not having to lug a machine around. But there were enough minor annoyances that I gave up. I think eventually your computer will be an image you carry around on your phone.
It's not that easy to launch a hackintosh. And to launch a snow leo hackintosh from a USB stick means to take your experience to a whole new level of pain.
I'm fairly certain you should not try this if you value your time and aren't going to use this with a mac. And if latter applies, you don't need that guide at all, effectively rendering whole article pointless.
Tried to insist that I'd been there done that with Hackintoshes to a kid that saw me in the hostel lobby using my macbook and that it wasn't worth my time to fuck around. (Only reason I'm not using Arch or FreeBSD) He didn't seem to 'get it'.
Has anyone one found a solution for older Macs not running on Intel? I've been successfully with a firewire external HD but not a USB key. (The machine could still be useful with a USB.)
If you want to stay legal and use OS/X you'll have to forego that part.
That's not how I would like to see things but that is how Apple wants you to use their software, and if you abide by their terms of service that is how you should use it.
That you ought to be free from such restrictions is something that I agree with but if it were ok to run OS/X on 'foreign' (i.e. non apple) hardware then the apple clone factories would spring up like so many mushrooms.
And I'd expect that to not just be limited to the mac and OS/X but to be applied to Ios in a heartbeat.
Apple has chosen not to license their software separate from their hardware and that is their right. So it becomes our right to either buy apple hardware or to go elsewhere.
EULAs are not even legal in Germany [1], I see no moral or legal obstacles to trying to install OS X on a PC, at least if you are in Germany. (The procedure described in the linked article is obviously also in Germany illegal since it involves torrenting a copy of OS X. I see no problems if you can do without that, though.)
[1] That’s always the case if the EULA is not readable before buying the software. Disclaimers (“You have to agree to the enclosed EULA to install the software.”) or URLs (“Find the EULA at http:// …”) don’t count. The full document has to be easily accessible to you before buying, EULAs inside the box or displayed while installing are automatically void. Even if the EULA is legal, such asymmetric contractual agreements are severely limited in their scope by German law.
Apple licensed OSX to clone makers in the past, but that was one of the first things Jobs put a stop to if I recall correctly. There's a strong thread in Apple's strategy to prevent computing from becoming a low margin commodity. This helps Apple with its image of high-end or well-crafted devices, increases profit etc. Which is a smart move if you don't own the entire market (but can differentiate yourself from your competitors)
Apple was profitable before the iOS devices hit and much of that was due to this kind of smart thinking. It reminds me of Nintendo, who, despite not dominating the market, still manages to be quite profitable (especially compared to their competitors) with a very similar strategy.
Letting anybody build any ol' system willy nilly would cannibalize Apple's profits, plus give them quite a bit more work since ensuring drive compatibility with random hardware would become a major priority.
As a user I think it sucks, but I have to respect that as a business strategy.
> As a user I think it sucks, but I have to respect that as a business strategy.
No, I do not think respect is quite what it deserves. It does not flow from their capability, but from particular exploitation of given laws that allow market restriction. Respect them for making good products, not for avoiding competition. Respect them for persuading you to buy their products, not for preventing you from having more choice.
I've ran a hackintosh since 10.4 and I've never seen Apple do anything to actively prevent users from doing it or pursue anyone for a non-commercial EULA violation. They stop resellers like Psystar, and they've broken a few things which appeared to be ancillary to moving their own products forward (Atom CPUs), but they could be far more annoying about it every point release if they really felt like it. Early on, they also needlessly released a few fat binary hardware drivers for ethernet, sound, and wifi devices that have never been bundled in a real Intel Mac.
Apple certainly has the means to stop it, but I don't think they mind the fringe hackers running OSX. I've seen a few people converted by it, and I own a few real Macs plus the hackintosh as well, and I suspect most people who hackintosh are Apple customers of some degree. Getting stuffy about it could be pretty damaging to their perceived good will.
It seems strange to describe 'we'll give you something, if you agree not to use it for certain purposes' as depending on 'particular exploitation of given laws that allow market restriction.' To me that's more just about 'common courtesy' between consenting parties.
> Respect them for making good products, not for avoiding competition. Respect them for persuading you to buy their products, not for preventing you from having more choice.
Exactly.
It's interesting how there are also plenty of people that would respect them exactly for their smart use of what the law allows. That's a sad thing, really and it would be nice if apple would find less restrictive ways of dealing with the consequences of more user freedom. For instance, I can see that they seem to be sensitive to a possibly reduced user experience on non-certified hardware, but I can't believe that a tech savvy company like apple wouldn't be able to set up a certification program to mitigate such concerns.
Apple never licensed OS X to clone makers. The clone era was very short (at most 1993-1997), and ended while the Classic MacOS was current. OS X didn't ship until 2001.
Apple licensed variants of OS 7 to the clone makers. When Steve returned, someone decided that the clone license agreements did not cover OS 8 ... so boom. New OS, but no new license. IIRC, Apple did buy one of the clone makers (possibly Power Computing).
The Diskwarrior CD/DVD currently doesn't boot some 2010 Macbooks, even with the latest version. The only way to run it on these Macs is to boot from a SD card/USB key or in target disk mode.
This is for "hackintosh" setups, just to point out. Mach/OS X itself, on a real machine, actually treats all block devices identically - without hacking around, you can boot a Mac off of anything, be it a USB stick, a harddrive attached over USB or FireWire, even booting one Mac from another Mac's internal storage by directly linking the two via FireWire (so-called Target Mode).
I've successfully installed Snow Leopard from a USB drive. You can also install it to a USB/FireWire drive. If you're particularly adventurous, you can put the installer on a partition of an external USB/FireWire drive and, from there, install it to a partition of another USB/FireWire drive.
You will, of course, need a Mac to do all that. In some cases you might also need a working OS X install.
EDIT: I realize everything I mentioned above is possible with a Linux distro, but doing this is far easier on a Mac. You just go to System Preferences, select a boot volume and you're good to go.
1) this is for Hackintoshes (should be in the title here, but isn't), and it uses a 10.6.2 hackintosh distribution, not your standard install disks.
2) they're using CopyCatX, a drive duplicator, instead of the disk utility. Does this matter?
3) CopyCatX is a $60 piece of software, though it shows it in what appears to be the disk image containing the portable 10.6.2 image... I wonder if this could be construed as supporting piracy.
4) If you're running on Mac hardware, you can just install to an external drive of any type, or image your drive to another, and it all works happily. CopyCatX isn't necessary there, why would it be necessary for copying a disk image in another case? It's an image.