Mac OS X for Intel Leaked, Cracked

[Nomad559]

Mac OS X for Intel Leaked, Cracked

Mac Daily News

Hackers bring OS X Intel to PCs

A new variant of Mac OS X for Intel began surfacing on Internet sites early Thursday, boasting the ability to run on any x86 based computer. The leak has apparently been cracked to bypass the protections that prevent Apple's development kits from running on any unofficial system.

Although many believed it was only a matter of time before such a leak occurred, Apple had taken stringent measures to ensure the Intel version of its operating system stayed locked down, including purportedly using hardware-based security with a TPM chip, otherwise known as Palladium. Videos of Mac OS X on an Intel laptop were posted by a French Mac enthusiast site Wednesday.

[emulatorloo]

1. The Dvorak "Apple on the Brink" column is worth reading. . .

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,1845259,00.asp

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As each day passes, we are confronted with more and more gossipy prognostications regarding Apple and its move to the x86 platform. A few weeks ago there was some site claiming that Apple was actually going to get a custom x86 chip designed specifically for the Mac OS, to make it impossible for the OS to gravitate toward white boxes. That may have been the progenitor of the notion that Apple is going to use Intel's "trusted computing" platform hardware to lock down the OS. This would be fun to watch, since it would constitute a disaster for the company, as nobody in their right mind wants to be locked down by trusted-computing anything. But what if the whole idea is a scam—a twisted scheme?

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So here is what I think may be going on. First of all, it would not be in Apple's best interest to do anything other than play its cards close to the vest so that the company's actual long-term goals are not exposed. Who needs to let freaky Microsoft get freaky on them?

Making it seem as if the OS will remain proprietary allows Apple a number of benefits. Here they are:

Keep Microsoft from getting weird early—as cited above.
Assure current Mac mavens that not much is going to change.
Allow for Apple to pretend to fight the OS getting out into the wild, so it can then say, "There was nothing we could do. This is the OS that people apparently want and need."
Give Steve Jobs the path to a formal announcement at one of the Apple confabs where there isn't much to announce.
Give Jobs the ability to tell Gates that Apple didn't really want its OS on all computers everywhere. "Bill, you've got to believe me!"

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