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One of the things I liked best the first time I tried Linux is its built-in package manager. If you’re new to the operating system, as I was (and really, still am), you might find it comforting (as I did) to discover an easy place to find new software to try out. Yesterday, for Macintosh users running Mac OS X 10.6, aka Snow Leopard, Apple rolled out the first version of its App Store.
As Apple’s iPad, iPhone and iPod events passed over the last year, it seemed like more people started asking, “Hey, wait a minute. When are they going to start talking about the Mac again?” Just a few days ago, the company announced an event called “Back to the Mac.” So today we found out what Apple’s been up to with regard to its original product line.
Greetings program! Between fiendishly checking to see what’s going on with the Tron viral marketing campaign and anticipating the Life miniseries on Discovery, Chris and I have recorded two more podcasts for your listening pleasure. Last week we rounded out our operating system overview and took a good hard look at fibbing.
U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup ruled on Friday that Psystar was guilty of copyright infringement against Apple, according to Natalie Weinstein of CNET. The whole case revolves around Apple’s Mac operating system. Unlike Windows or Linux, which you can install on whatever hardware you like, Apple only wants the Mac OS to belong to Apple computers.
That hasn’t stopped hundreds of enterprising hackers from building their own machines and installing Mac OS X. But because Apple designed the operating system with a particular hardware and BIOS configuration in mind, the OS doesn’t always work properly on an unauthorized machine. And the process of installing a non-native operating system is complicated and can require a lot of troubleshooting — it’s not something the computer novice should attempt.
That’s where Psystar stepped in. The fact that hackintoshes (the common name for a PC running the Mac OS) exist shows that people want computers running the Mac OS but they don’t want an actual Apple computer. Maybe they don’t like Apple’s product design, or perhaps they feel that the Mac line of computers is too expensive. In 2008, Psystar began to sell PCs running the Mac operating system. The company took care of the tricky process of installing the OS on non-Apple hardware (though Psystar also explained that the computer might not always behave as it should).
TechStuff Podcasts and the Hackintosh Conspiracy
by Jonathan Strickland | November 13, 2009
Welcome to the week They Don’t Want You To Know About. Chris and I risked almost certain doom (or at least an iPod failure) by bringing you this week’s episodes of TechStuff. We addressed two of the most-requested topics we receive from listener mail: hackintoshes and technology conspiracy theories.
I can hear some of you out there asking for the definition of hackintosh. A hackintosh is a non-Apple computer that runs the Macintosh operating system. Apple is very particular about the computers that can run Mac OS X. That’s because Apple works in a closed system — it produces the hardware and software for Mac computers.
Apple designed the Mac OS to work with a particular set of hardware and BIOS settings. To get the Mac OS to run smoothly on a PC, you’ll need a compatible set of components. You’ll also need to tweak your computer’s BIOS settings if you want the OS to operate as if it were on a Mac.
The main reason people try to get the Mac OS to run on other computers comes down to price. Mac computers are fairly expensive. If you want Mac functionality but don’t want to pay Apple’s asking price, your only other option is to try and force the OS onto a PC. Chris and I talk about how this is done in general and some of the challenges hackers face, particularly now that Apple has tweaked Snow Leopard so that it won’t work on PCs with Atom processors.
In response to a listener’s e-mail, Jonathan and Chris define and discuss hackintoshes, PCs that have been modified to run the Macintosh operating system.
Animals and operating system names must go hand-in-hand. Or maybe paw-on-mouse. Apple is on this whole big cat code name kick for the various builds of OS X. It’s caused them a bit of a headache — Apple fans appear to enjoy parsing every single word from the corporation. The latest version of OS X is Snow Leopard. The one just before it was Leopard. That prompted some people to say that the newest version is more of a service pack than an evolutionary step.
But the Linux distribution called Ubuntu doesn’t have that problem. Each build of Ubuntu bears the name of a different species of animal (coupled with an alliterative adjective). The first build was Warty Warthog. After that came Hoary Hedgehog and Breezy Badger. Next was Dapper Drake and from that point on the builds arrived in sequential alphabetical order.
The current distribution is Jaunty Jackalope. PC Pro reports that the successor to Jackalope, Karmic Koala, is in the final alpha build stage. Next will come a beta test and — assuming everything works the way it should — a release of the final build will come some time in October.
Apple’s officially releasing the latest version of its operating system, 10.6, on Friday. Nicknamed Snow Leopard (it’s not a code name if everyone knows it, right?), the newest OS promises more changes under the hood than flashy new OS apps. In fact, the company’s decided to charge only $29 for the update.
Hiding Under My Desk: A Wrap Up of Black Hat and Defcon
by Jonathan Strickland | August 4, 2009
This time of year can be pretty rough in Atlanta. Our humidity hangs right around “Amazonian jungle” levels and the temperature varies between “too hot” and “Bob just burst into flames, I call dibs on his iPod.” My psyche is already in a delicate condition. That might be why news from two conferences, Black Hat and Defcon, have inspired me to entertain the notion of going off the grid.
Black Hat is a technical security conference and Defcon is a convention for hackers. Both conferences hold panel discussions about computer security and system vulnerabilities. And every year journalists report on the dozens of ways computer hackers could send the modern world shrieking into the Dark Ages with a few deft keystrokes. That might be a slight exaggeration but these guys have me concerned.
Here’s a roundup of some of the stories that broke at the two conferences:
At a Black Hat demo, a couple of hackers unveiled a flaw in smartphone technology — including Apple’s iPhone — that would allow a hacker to hijack a phone simply by sending an SMS message. Apple has since released a patch that addresses this vulnerability. More stories behind the jump.
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