TechJunction

Move over Psystar – the EFiX development team claims to have created a USB device that allows the installation and use of Mac OS X on non-Apple PCs. What’s more, it is supposed to enable users to to install Mac OS X straight out of the box!

According to the EFiX website, “It allows its user to install Mac OS X straight from the original DVD without having to worry about patches, replacing files and anything like that.” Beyond that, the site is light on details at this stage, with far more than its fair share of broken links.

Speculation is that the product – scheduled for release on June 23 – is a flash drive containing an EFI emulator, a boot loader, and associated patches has been squashed by the EFiX crew, who say “EFiX is neither a memory stick or thumb drive. It is a completely unique device with very intricate protection above and beyond your wildest imagnation.”

Psystar, a previously little-known systems integrator in Florida, caused a minor sensation in April when it announced its Open Computer – a PC configured with parts chosen for maximum compatibility with Mac OS X, plus the option of having Apple’s operating system factory installed.

Reports are circulating that the EFiX product doesn’t work on any old PC - understandable due to the wide variations in components – and that it instead requires a Core 2 Duo CPU with an Intel chipset.

AMD support has been ruled out, at least in the short to medium term.

It also seems that the product may only be sold in a small number of countries, and the US isn’t one of them. That’s judging by the list of countries shown on the site when I began preparing this article – the ‘where to buy’ link now returns a 404 error.

One possible reason for the limited distribution is concern about the possibility of legal action under the DMCA or other legislation. Depending on how EFiX actually works, it is possible that it is neither be a workaround for any technological protection measures, or a device that has the primary purpose of infringing copies.

It’s harder to argue that users (as opposed to the vendor) be on safe legal ground, as Apple’s Mac OS X licence only extends to its use on Apple-labelled computers.

Still, the EFiX developers claim the device has been tested for six months, and “Industry leading professionals (who work for TV stations, recording studios and many others) rely on EFiX and Mac OS X running on standard PC hardware to get their tasks done.”

No indication is given about the business structure that will be marketing the device, or the project members. The efi-x.com domain name used by the EFiX site is registered in the name Wilhelm Vnukov, with an address in Germany.

Perhaps more will be revealed next Monday when EFiX is due to go on sale. via itwire