Psystar to license cloning technology

Jake Widman
Tuesday, 06 October 2009 06:30

IT Industry - Strategy

Mac clone manufacturer Psystar, which has been embroiled in a long-running legal wrangle over its Mac clone business, announced that it plans to license its "virtualization technology" to other PC manufacturers. The result would be Psystar-certified OS X "compatible" computers.

Psysar has been selling PCs configured to run Mac OS X since April 2008 -- and it has been defending itself against Apple lawsuits since July 2008.

Apple claims that the OS X license forbids third parties to install it on non-Apple computers, and Psystar argues that the license's terms permit its activities.

In and out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection since then, Psystar has now upped the ante with its proposal to help other PC manufacturers put OS X on their own machines.

"In an effort to spread the Snow Leopard experience to an ever-expanding number of people," the announcement reads, "the licensing initiative will allow manufacturers to have their hardware Psystar Certified and have their computers pre loaded with our unique technology including the Darwin Universal Boot Loader (DUBL)."

Psystar claims that DUBL supports "up to six different operating systems on a single machine and configures itself 'automagicly' [sic]."

"Once a product is certified, consumers can purchase it off the shelf or through standard channels and when labeled Psystar Certified would allow the installation of Snow Leopard simply by inserting the retail OS X DVD," the announcement continues.

Psystar even offers to tailor its technology to a manufacturer's specific "hardware profile(s)."

It's hard to imagine any household-name PC manufacturers taking Psystar up on its offer to become another Apple target. At the same time, it's notoriously difficult to stuff technological genies back in the bottle, so Apple can't be happy at the prospect of multiple clone vendors, even low-level ones, loose in the market.