I worked in several design shops and architected numerous hardware solutions in my 20 years in IT, but none of them involved Apple products if for no other reason than the fact that we couldn’t get support for the OS once the system was running.
I wouldn’t use compatible or compliant interchangeably, as in my world, they mean two very different things.
That aside, I want to reiterate that I’m not bashing Apple. I’m simply stating that from a proprietary hardware/software matching standard, they’ve got the market cornered. Yes, while you can install OSX on “third-party” hardware, you make my point for me by showing that Gigabyte “mysteriously” works with their hardware. The point is that Apple only SUPPORTS hardware/software combinations that they design and develop. Like I said initially, you could install Windows 98 on a toaster if you had the motivation and drive to do so.
If you crack open an Apple product, most of the chips and mainboard components are either nebulously numbered or devoid of any manufacturer’s markings unless you know where to look. However, the same dozen or so PCB manufacturers in China make the overwhelming majority of hardware for today’s computing devices, so it stands to reason that there’s always going to be some particular brand that works better than others with Apple or even HP/Dell.
I think the crux of the matter is that Apple uses Intel design reference standards, like everyone else. However, whereas most Intel boards are still using some version of BIOS, Apple is using EFI. Many of the motherboards out now support EFI - however it doesn’t appear to have gathered much traction. Add to this the non NTFS format that Apple uses, and you have difficulties.
However, while Gigabyte appears to work seamlessly in booting OSX of various flavors; you can find guides to support practically any Intel/AMD motherboard out there.
Once you get it booted - they are pretty robust builds. The trouble, of course, is working around the various Unix subtlies that 95% of the techie population isn’t familiar with. I’ve done it, it wasn’t easy- in fact it was painful - but I’ve done it with a Core 2 Quad on an nVidia chipset board made by Asus.
All in all, we are pretty much in agreement. Apple has opted NOT to compete directly with MSFT, and thus make the “intentional” hiccup when it comes to booting the random Intel/AMD board. But, this approach seems to be working for them pretty well. Not too bad for a company that was started in a garage with just a few geeks and a lot of hope, sweat and dreams.