Confirmed: Apple Puts Wrench Into Hackintoshes

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Netbooks with OS X now stranded in time.

It's been somewhat of a micro-saga going on in the PC netbook hobbyist camp who like to run Mac OS X, but now Apple has officially fired the first shot.

Developer builds of the latest Mac OS X build 10.6.2 were unable to run on netbooks built on the Intel Atom processor. This was significant as many of those who have hacked Apple's operating system to run on a PC were doing so on netbooks.

While the hackintosh community has been mostly ignored by Apple thus far (unless you're a commercial business selling hackintoshes), this marks a proactive step for the company in stomping out unauthorized usage of its software.

Those who have taken the plunge to 10.6.2 have discovered that their systems are now unable to boot, as it just puts itself in an infinite loop of restarts.

Oddly enough, those with hackintosh computers built using other Intel processors that aren't the Atom are not affected. This means that Psystar computers will accept the update without such an issue.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
61 Comments Comment from the forums
  • neodude007
    I guess Apple needs a "win" somewhere since they keep getting ROFL-stomped in the iPhone jailbreaking scene and that other mobile device that keeps getting patched to play songs or use iTunes... forget wth that was...
    Reply
  • the_krasno
    APPLE SAPPING MAH NETBOOK!

    Seriously, Apple. These guys are paying you to run your software and you deny it to them because they didn't want the overpriced hardware? I thought you guys liked money.
    Reply
  • roofus
    This plays right into their smarmy image if you ask me. If they cant get 1k out of you then they want nothing from you.
    Reply
  • the_krasno
    People commend Apple for charging $40 for their OS, but they forget that its because they charge you a lot more for the hardware that the OS is so cheap comparatively with Windows.
    Reply
  • Just run Linux or Darwin... Who needs Apple anyhow?
    Reply
  • HAHAHA Apple is just jealous hobbyists can build much better systems at much lower cost using the Apple OS. Bunch of wankers... after all, they wouldn't want the ignorant masses to know how much Apple keeps screwing them.
    Reply
  • hellwig
    I remember commenting (incorrectly) that an Atom probably couldn't even run OSx. Well, now, apparently Apple agreed with my assessment and is now preventing their customers from receiving a "less than ideal" experience. Good for Apple, listening to customer feedback, er.., if only I had ever bought an Apple product in my life.

    Really, for as limited as netbooks are, why would you need all that "it just works" functionality of OSx to being with? All that iBS software just takes up space on a limited harddrive.
    Reply
  • the_krasno
    I'd rather pay for a nice and custom version of Linux, the GNU folk are always happy to share their progress.
    Reply
  • Scotteq
    < Waiting Patiently for Apple to RickRoll everyone's Hackintosh >
    ...after all, if it's good enough for an iPhone!
    Reply
  • Ubuntu =D
    Reply