[Macworld]

Post your comments for Second Mac clone maker set to sell systems here

[Grapho]

If they have to hide, it must be because they are not sure that what they are doing is legal.
Apple ought to come to market with an headless Mac, that way it would take away the perceived advantage that these people are attempting to peddle. With Apple's bigger supply chain and manufacturing prowess, they should be able to squash this type of competition. Not only that, but what kind of support can these people offer?

[heisetax]

It's about time. We need some hardware competition for Apple. Then maybe they will update models more than once a year. Apple seems slower using Intel processors than when they used PPC processors by IBM or Motorola. Maybe the many Apple voids can be filled.
I cast my vote for the many potential Mac Clone Makers that are out there just waiting to produce a Mac Clone. It would be interesting to know how many sel-made Mac Clones there are.
Bill the TaxMan
20+ Macs since 1984 a& 4 Mac Clones

[zarmanto]

It sounds to me like this could well just be a scam, as suggested by the article... or it could be a shadow company for Psystar, so that they can attempt to offload the rest of their existing inventory to raise money for defending themselves against Apple's lawsuit. Or it could simply be a very savvy businessman, who looked over the legal complaints against Psystar and is specifically avoiding doing anything within the scope of their complaint. Who knows?

In any event, I said that I'd never even consider spending my hard earned money on a Psystar box, and I'll echo that sentiment here for Open Tech. I mean come on, people! Does anyone really think that you can get a "better deal" from these companies, after seeing all of the reviews of those noisy piece-of-junk machines that Psystar shipped out?!? What's more, do you honestly think that Apple is going to be willing to lower their standards to that level, just to be able to "compete" with such cheap crap?

Sheesh! I mean, I understand the frustration over the perceived gap in Apple's product line... but the bottom line is that another copy-cat fly-by-night company isn't genuinely going to solve that problem, no matter how you look at it.

[heisetax]

It took Apple 9 months to admit that I had a bad ATI X1900 video card in my Intel Mac Pro. The bad video card caused multiple system freezzes per day. It also kept me from being able to install OS 10.5 correctly. The system frooze at least 20 times before I had the new OS installed. Then after another 20-40+ system freezes I got something that I still could not use. The system opened all files that were not on the startup drive as read-ony & would not let you save them to a non-statup drive, this includes the then mandatory file name change. Also on note the only software installed was the Apple software that comes with OS 10.5.

After the video card change OS 10.5 installed just as it should, no crashes or freezes since that time. I was ableto install any of my software that I want & need to install.

If I hadn't purchased the should be normally unneeded extended warranty I would have had only 90 days of Apple help. After that you pay if the problem was caused by something different. Like trying to get the junk modems that were installed in a PowerBook replaced. A new modem would be just as junky, thus you would have to pay for the replaced junky modem.

If the above is considered to be Apple support, what would I be missing without it. The video card could have been replace by the current ATI 3870 card for much less money than the cost of the Apple warranty. Also I would have have my problem fixed last Nov rather than this late June. I also would not have had to spent all of my time believing than Mac OS 10.5 was a piece of junk. Actually Apple's support was bad allowing a bad card give all of my customers a large dose of a Mac that frooze more often than their Windows systems.

Apple lost, my customers lost & I lost. So the Clone Makers can do nothing & do as well as Apple did. Also the local Apple store replace the wrong card, replacing a Nvidia card that worked as Nividia designed it to run. Apple had to pay an outside contractor to come to my office to replace the ATI video card/

With Apple's large legal office most companies need to get off the ground before they tell Apple how find them to sue them. But as mentioned by others, most people will not want to do business with them if they do not know where their actual offices are.

Bill the modern Clone wanting TaxMan

[willyums]

If I were looking for a good Windows computer, I wouldn't go with one made by a company located at an undisclosed location. If I wouldn't buy a Windows computer from these folks, I'm certainly not buying one from them to install Mac OS X on. At least Psystar provided support for the OS, even though I wouldn't expect it to last very long. Customer experience with an Open Tech computer running Mac OS X would be lousy.

[MorrisTheCat]

I need some clarification here. How exactly can anyone classify what they're selling as a Mac clone, if, all it seems to be is a generic PC? How is it any different than what various techies are doing by following the OSX86 project? If these so called Mac clones don't come with the OS X pre-installed or even in the box, how can it possibly be considered a Mac clone? If that's the case, many of the boxes Dell sells are Mac clones by that kind of fuzzy logic.
And I'm sorry, but any company that needs to hide in the shadows would never in any way shape or form get my business, no matter what they claim to be selling. I know there are a lot of fools out there ready t throw their money away, but I would hope in this day and age, enough people are savvy and wouldn't go near these guys.

[Grapho]

heisetax said:

It took Apple 9 months to admit that I had a bad ATI X1900 video card in my Intel Mac Pro. The bad video card caused multiple system freezzes per day. It also kept me from being able to install OS 10.5 correctly. The system frooze at least 20 times before I had the new OS installed. Then after another 20-40+ system freezes I got something that I still could not use. The system opened all files that were not on the startup drive as read-ony & would not let you save them to a non-statup drive, this includes the then mandatory file name change. Also on note the only software installed was the Apple software that comes with OS 10.5.


After the video card change OS 10.5 installed just as it should, no crashes or freezes since that time. I was ableto install any of my software that I want & need to install.


If I hadn't purchased the should be normally unneeded extended warranty I would have had only 90 days of Apple help. After that you pay if the problem was caused by something different. Like trying to get the junk modems that were installed in a PowerBook replaced. A new modem would be just as junky, thus you would have to pay for the replaced junky modem.


If the above is considered to be Apple support, what would I be missing without it. The video card could have been replace by the current ATI 3870 card for much less money than the cost of the Apple warranty. Also I would have have my problem fixed last Nov rather than this late June. I also would not have had to spent all of my time believing than Mac OS 10.5 was a piece of junk. Actually Apple's support was bad allowing a bad card give all of my customers a large dose of a Mac that frooze more often than their Windows systems.


Apple lost, my customers lost & I lost. So the Clone Makers can do nothing & do as well as Apple did. Also the local Apple store replace the wrong card, replacing a Nvidia card that worked as Nividia designed it to run. Apple had to pay an outside contractor to come to my office to replace the ATI video card/


With Apple's large legal office most companies need to get off the ground before they tell Apple how find them to sue them. But as mentioned by others, most people will not want to do business with them if they do not know where their actual offices are.


Bill the modern Clone wanting TaxMan

And you think this company is going to be better then Apple? How? We don't even know where their at. The funny thing is, that in your case, it probably took a while to find out it was indeed the video card. If you had problems with your Mac the first 14 days of your purchase, you could have just walked in to any Apple store and returned the thing, no questions asked.

I have had my share of problems with Apple. I am not fooling my self that Apple can do no wrong. I was one of the suckers that installed a firmware updated on their B&W G3, only to find out that it's only purpose was to render my Mac un-upgradable processor wise. It took 3rd party processor upgrade venders more then 6 months to unravel that fiasco.

But if what you are completing about is about support, being this Apple, how can you expect any better from a underground PC box assembler with absolutely no record of support. Basically, with the way they intend this to work, you are really on your own. If they are attempting to hide from Apple, what makes you think you could find them if something when wrong.

[vivi]

their website should be enough to put anyone off - it looks like it was cobbled together off a $20 template

[Jason Snell]

MorrisTheCat said:

I need some clarification here. How exactly can anyone classify what they're selling as a Mac clone, if, all it seems to be is a generic PC?

It's because OS X has specific hardware requirements, as Rob Griffiths wrote about in his Frankenmac article. So these are systems designed to be compatible with OS X's hardware requirements.

[derekm]

Gregg,
Thanks for adding a link for "Al Gore" in your article. Whenever I need some info the the former VP I always love to look via the computerworld.com's awesome website for the search.
My kid has to do a school paper on the state of Florida. Could you provide this link next time instead of skipping right over it just like you skipped other important keywords like "New Zealand" and "California?" TIA.

[lwdesign]

Why would anyone want to purchase questionable "Mac" hardware with no OS for $620.00 or $1200.00 when they could get a Mac mini for $599.00 or $799.00? You'd have to add the cost of the OS onto their already higher prices, making them a bad deal all around. If price was the problem, buying pre-owned Macs from powermax.com or refurb machines on Apple's online store make them even cheaper.
Apple has a terrific record of making stable hardware that needs little maintenance. Yes, I know there is the occasional lemon. I had a Yikes G4 that was very buggy that I finally sold--but it was the only problematic Mac of the 14 desktops and laptops I've owned since 1989. I would far rather buy a Mac, which guarantees its products, than from a fly-by-night company that won't even give its address or phone number.

[Grapho]

I just visited their web site. It seems they already got scared. Their is no direct mention of them using OSX, or their hardware being OSX capable, even thou it's implied by feedback that has been supposedly copy pasted from e-mail on their index page.

Anybody that is adventures enough to give this company a try would probably be better served by taking the entire endeavor in to their own hands and building their own Hackintosh from scratch. This way, at least if you have a faulty part, you get somewhat a bit of support.

[Wondercow]

HA! When I went to their site a couple days ago they were proudly trumpeting their compatibility with OSX. Words like "Mac clone" "install OSX" , "runs OSX", and "we'll tell you how to install OSX" adorned their site. Now it's completely devoid of any mention of OSX except for the "We have been receiving mysterious emails?" section (huh?! what point does this serve?).
I guess all of their tough-talk was just anonymous internet bravado.