Attack of the (Mac) Clones

During the 1990s, small manufacturers began selling ‘Apple’ computers at lower prices than their Apple Macintosh brothers. These generic, PC-like computers were Apple's attempt at increasing their market share, and just like the Emperor, they chose clones. But, after Steve Jobs returned to Apple, he closed down the cloning program, believing that it was too late to pursue.

Well, it's 2008 and Apple has switched to Intel chips, making it simpler for unauthorized dealers to create a cheaper, homemade Mac. Several tutorials on the Internet guide users through the process of building their own "Hackintosh", but its complexity has prevented mainstream acceptance.

Enter Psystar Corporation.



This wasn't entirely unexpected as Apple has stated that it is illegal to operate the OS on third party hardware. In an interesting turn of events, however, Psystar reacted: