[Hodar]

This is an interesting one, in my opinion. If you can purchase Mac OS off the shelf, and if you can install it on hardware - I just don’t see how Apple can file suit. They didn’t invent the hardware, they just write really awesome software. Now, I’ve worked for Motorola and was involved in R&D on the PowerPC, and I’ve worked for both Intel and Dell; the x86 motherboards aren’t magical - they are just your standard run of the mill ‘design reference’ motherboards.

Psystar simply exploits the basic hardware, and allows you to boot and run the Apple OS on common off the shelf hardware. Which is pretty cool.

Way back when, Apple allowed clones to be made; and they discovered that the clones did not expand marketshare, but rather it cannibalized their over-priced hardware sales. Now that they use the same hardware as Dell, Gateway, HP and everyone else - I think Apple is making a huge mistake by not competing directly with Windows in the OS market.

[Star Traveler]

You said — Now that they use the same hardware as Dell, Gateway, HP and everyone else - I think Apple is making a huge mistake by not competing directly with Windows in the OS market.

—

That’s where all the analysts and pundits and so-called experts all make their mistake. Apple is not a software company, but a hardware company that uses software to support its hardware. That’s pretty much the way Steve Jobs has made it clear to everyone, too. But, still others “don’t get it”...

So, no..., Apple does not need to compete with Windows in the OS market. it needs to continue to exclusively make their excellent hardware, giving excellent support and providing their excellent software that backs up everything that they make.

If someone else wants to take their software and refuse to abide by Apple’s stated requirements for use of it — then they deserve to be sued “out of existence”... which doesn’t seem to be too far away for Psycho-star... (as they are already mentally unstable at this point in time, by what they’ve just said... LOL...).

[Terpfen]

If you can purchase Mac OS off the shelf, and if you can install it on hardware - I just don’t see how Apple can file suit.

When you buy either Windows or Mac OS, you aren't buying the operating systems themselves: you're buying a license to operate that OS. My understanding is that Psystar is violating the terms of that license by a) reselling OS X b) on unauthorized hardware. (This is why Apple doesn't go after people who put their Macs on eBay, for example.)

Way back when, Apple allowed clones to be made; and they discovered that the clones did not expand marketshare, but rather it cannibalized their over-priced hardware sales.

Macs are not overpriced: Apple simply does not compete in the low price/low margin tier of the PC OEM industry. Just as BMW does not overcharge relative to Toyota, neither does Apple overcharge relative to Dell. They're just competing in different markets.