Comments on: Snow Leopard blocks Intel Atom

By: Bill Burkholder

Bill Burkholder — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:28:00 +0000

I am shocked, SHOCKED (!) that Apple would consider denying criminals their rights to be criminals…

Okay, okay, some of you won’t get that sarcasm…

Actually, I love it when people who try to skirt the system get screwed by it. To them, I say, “Didn’t your mother tell you to keep your nose clean and wear clean underwear when you drive?”. If you never cheat, you can’t be caught cheating.

It will be interesting to see what happens in the Psystar case(s). If Apple prevails there, the world will be a better place for developers and creatives everywhere.

By: Peter

Peter — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:04:41 +0000

Apple retains the right to do whatever they want to the operating system and I’m sure Apple is far more concerned with making it work well on recent and present Macintoshes than on any breed of Hackintosh. Especially since Apple makes money on Macintoshes.

I have no idea why this doesn’t work. But I would rashly assume that Apple is using instructions that exist on the Core/Core 2/Xeon machines but doesn’t exist on the Intel Atom.

The question is, why did Apple do this? If Apple did it explicitly to nail the Hackintoshers, I think it’s kind of tacky but within Apple’s rights. My assumption is that Apple did it to improve speed on Core/Core 2/Xeon machines. Since Apple doesn’t make an Atom-based machine, I see no reason why Apple should worry about them.

Apple never made a Pentium IV-based computer. So why should they worry about whether Mac OS X runs on a Pentium IV?

By: Louis Wheeler

Louis Wheeler — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:51:23 +0000

I wonder about the temerity of these people. But, mostly, they seem like Linux Socialists. A Linux Socialist is someone who believes that, “Information is free” no matter how much it cost someone else to create it. And that, “Intellectual property” ought to be free as well. That if you buy the right to use something under specific limitations, then you can assume the right to disregard those conditions. They probably also think that, “Property is Theft.”

Oh! Not their property, other people’s property. If you stole their car, their wallet, their personal ID, their credit card numbers or passwords then you are a villain. The point is that they act like spoiled children.

They have been taught by our school system that, “sticking it to the man,” (who ever they consider the man to be) is okay. They don’t understand that turnabout is fair play. That is, if they abuse other person’s rights, then that person can respond to their usurpation’s and violations.

I was over at Wired.com and one poster said, “How dare Apple violate my right to make a Hackintosh.” Another poster could not believe it when he was called a thief. But, what else can you call him?

I have been saying for some time, that when the 64 bit kernel is enabled by default in Snow Leopard, then new security enhancements will kick in. One of these is to place the OS in a virtual space. Most people haven’t thought of the uses that Apple can make of that.

The Snow Leopard DVD has already made that change: it loads the installer and then starts asking you questions.

It is an easy step from there to having the installer verify that you are the owner, that you have permission to install software on company owned property or that the computer has official Apple hardware.

This latest move, if it pans out, will be one of many moves starting next year when we are all in the 64 bit kernel. Apple has reasons for not to talking about these security matters and their ramifications, though.