Psystar, already defending copyright infringement claims from Apple, Thursday announced it would sell software directly to consumers allowing PCs to run Mac OS X, including Apple’s Snow Leopard. The $50 software is in addition to selling to to OEMs.
The Psystar software supposedly supports systems using the Intel Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad, i7 or Xeon Nehalem.
The “Rebel EFI” 8MB downloadable software promises to “the easy installation of multiple operating systems” on a single PC. The software will also support hardware and drivers. A free version is available, although it has a two-hour time limit and doesn’t support some functions. The limitations can be removed when purchasing Rebel EFI.
A copyright trial is expected to start January 11, 2010.
The Psystar versus Apple saga began in July 2008, when Apple filed the copyright lawsuit. In February, Psystar had a countersuit dismissed but was able to claim Apple was abusing copyright laws to protect its hardware. In May, the Florida-based company filed for bankruptcy. The next month, two lawyers were hired who have said “Apple has engaged in legal engineering.”
[Via Psystar, 9to5Mac and CNet]
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
