Mac OS X for PC !?!

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andre1975

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guys I had an idea. why can't apple mac their mac os x work on a PC? a competitor to windows maybe?
 
Apple is a hardware company that writes software to make it work. If they open up their platform to competitors, they lose a big chunk of the revenue generated by sales of laptops, desktops, and mobile devices.

That being said, OS X is run by many many people on non-Apple systems. It's a pain to do, and against the EULA for OS X, but it is possible if you have the right hardware and time to tinker with it.
 
ryan_975 said:
Apple is a hardware company that writes software to make it work.
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Sort of, Apple hardware is PC hardware. Intel chips, Foxconn motherboards, nothing really proprietary about the hardware anymore.

It's against the EULA to run OSX on a non-Apple, but plenty of people do it and the Internet says it's pretty easy.
 
Because that OS is absolutely terrible. There are no worthwhile "exclusive" programs either, so no reason to pick it over Windows.

But you can VM it if you must.
 
andre1975 said:
guys I had an idea. why can't apple mac their mac os x work on a PC? a competitor to windows maybe?
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Because doing this nearly bankrupted Apple prior to Steve Jobs' return. And Apple's business model now centers around using software as an incentive to get people to buy hardware.
 
I'm not sure of the buy-case of Mac OSX over FreeBSD, OpenBSD, or Linux, except "usability" with the added downside of walled garden....
 
Thuleman said:
Sort of, Apple hardware is PC hardware. Intel chips, Foxconn motherboards, nothing really proprietary about the hardware anymore.

It's against the EULA to run OSX on a non-Apple, but plenty of people do it and the Internet says it's pretty easy.
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Apart from the UEFI and other measures to prevent install and usage of common PC parts like motherboards and gpus.
 
Robstar said:
I'm not sure of the buy-case of Mac OSX over FreeBSD, OpenBSD, or Linux, except "usability" with the added downside of walled garden....
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For the vast majority of people, "walled garden" is not a pejorative. Especially since Apple's walled garden has a great view of the Internet.
 
I was thinking, they could "sell" their OS (not give it away). maybe by selling it, people would buy mac's more, think about it.
 
andre1975 said:
I was thinking, they could "sell" their OS (not give it away). maybe by selling it, people would buy mac's more, think about it.
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The reason the OSX has such a rep for stability and things working...is because get this, Apple only has to write and troubleshoot drivers for a handfull of prebuilt hardware configurations that they sell....and have detailed specifications to.

They open the floodgates to generic IBM-compatible hardware...that rep goes out the window Apple writes their OS currently so you have to use a specific make/model/serial of graphics card. If you want to put a higher-clocked Radeon 5770 in your MacPro, you cannot. The drivers won't work with it.

It really is quite incredible nowadays when you think that you can just order any old RAM or GPU or motherboard/proc...and so long as it is physically compatible and you don;t have a lemon part...you can build a PC out of it sight unseen and it will 99% of the time boot without problems and run. Of course, it took Microsoft and hardware makers a few decades to get to that point.
 
Robstar said:
I'm not sure of the buy-case of Mac OSX over FreeBSD, OpenBSD, or Linux, except "usability" with the added downside of walled garden....
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As someone who uses and loves a variety of Linux distros and uses a WIndows PC at home, I can tell you that OSX appeal is a powerful combination having a "just works" GUI and command line environment (yay, bash) that is great.

I have a Windows 7 PC and an Arch Linux server at home, and at work an Arch Linux workstation, numerous Red Hat servers and a Macbook. The macbook is just great for writing software when I'm constantly switching between IDE and command line.

I realize that OSX isn't for everyone but it works great for me, and it doesn't hurt that macbooks have nice hardware in a good form factor (pricey though). Also the trackpad is really nice.
 
Since OS X is based on a BSD core with a new fancy GUI on top of it, they can not sell it because of the licensing issues.
 
Apple makes more by keeping OS X exclusive. Plus controlling the entire experience can make it work better than a generic OS made for too many pieces of hardware.
 
andre1975 said:
I was thinking, they could "sell" their OS (not give it away). maybe by selling it, people would buy mac's more, think about it.
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They already are, it comes with the hardware. The people who want the software already buy the hardware or jump through what ever hoops to run it on different hardware. No market for that software by itself.
 
Snufykat said:
They already are, it comes with the hardware. The people who want the software already buy the hardware or jump through what ever hoops to run it on different hardware. No market for that software by itself.
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No market, or no marketplace? Because Apples doesn't sell MacOS standalone.
 
The reason Apple is able to be extremely stable is that they only support a limited set of hardware. If they expand to include all the possible combinations of hardware out there, they'll be worse than Windows, since they have absolutely no experience making a one size fits all OS.
 
x509 said:
No market, or no marketplace? Because Apples doesn't sell MacOS standalone.
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I would assert no market. I don't think there would be many people who would pay what ever over inflated price apple would want for the software as a standalone product.
 
x509 said:
Because Apples doesn't sell MacOS standalone.
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They don't? Interesting... the Apple Store has 10.8.3 for 19.99, they claim it's only an upgrade, but the package contains the full OS. OSX is also sold as an "upgrade" (again, it's full source) CD, in retail stores. Also, Apple does not hold a legal license (FWIU) to resell BSD, they charge to access it online and charge for the materials with the physical copy.

OSX does run on a very limited number of 3rd party hardware, other than the exclusive intel boards; though, you could also purchase that "exclusive" intel board if you knew the hardware ID. You just need to know which hardware.
 
valis1 said:
They don't? Interesting... the Apple Store has 10.8.3 for 19.99, they claim it's only an upgrade, but the package contains the full OS. OSX is also sold as an "upgrade" (again, it's full source) CD, in retail stores.

But, can you do a full install of OS X from the upgrade media, the way you can with Win 7. (Or are there workarounds?)

Also, Apple does not hold a legal license (FWIU) to resell BSD, they charge to access it online and charge for the materials with the physical copy.

OSX does run on a very limited number of 3rd party hardware, other than the exclusive intel boards; though, you could also purchase that "exclusive" intel board if you knew the hardware ID. You just need to know which hardware.
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I've heard about "Hackintosh" websites, but I have no idea how good they are or just how hard it is to install MacOS on my new ASUS P9X79 Pro board, for example.
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Well, there are plenty of resources available to check out the information. You know one of them, read up on it. PS. there is only 1 website for what you stated... others are imitation.
 
valis1 said:
Apple does not hold a legal license (FWIU) to resell BSD, they charge to access it online and charge for the materials with the physical copy..
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The BSD license is a license to resell it, or do what ever you want with it. It's what's called in the open source world a "permissive licence". You could go download Darwin source right now and sell it as "Valis1 Super Awesome OS" and it would be totally compliant with he licensing terms.
 
valis1 said:
Well, there are plenty of resources available to check out the information. You know one of them, read up on it. PS. there is only 1 website for what you stated... others are imitation.
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Assuming you are replying to my question about "Hackintosh" sites, no I don't know any of them really. Which one do you recommend? Why?
 
Google hackintosh and you will get all the resources you need.

As for compatibility, today hackintosh runs on almost every piece of hardware , if you are willing to find the drivers. As far as Mac on vanilla hardware goes it is about at the stage of windows 95 at the moment, meaning if you are willing to put in the leg work for the drivers you can come up with a stable system.

I use windows , mac and linux both private and professorial , and even some hackintoshes at work, it is stable , more stable and performant then some of the linux distros we use at the office as a desktop OS.
 
if they made mac os x to work on x86 pcs right now, they would take away all those windows 8 users that hate metro with them. I would be the first one to go.
 
OSX already works on x86. Making it open however would not make any positive difference for Apple.
 
No hackintosh discussion here. Plenty of other places for you to find info on that.
 
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