[Tfug] Alan Cox: "I've had enough"--what else is new?

[Jim March]

> The update process can't discern her Dell netbook from an actual Mac. The
> hardware is the same, even down to the PCI device and vendor hex IDs. Apple
> would have to deprecate huge swaths of their installed base to eliminate a
> small portion of users running OS X on non-Apple hardware.  Not only will
> they not, they legally cannot. Apple cannot make laws, and they can no
> sooner make their OS illegal to use with non-Apple hardware than Shell can
> make their gasoline illegal to use in Buicks.

You gotta be kidding me.

Bowie, it would be both easy for Apple to kill off Hackintoshes, and
would be well within their past practices to do so.

Example: right now Palm has figured out how to make one of their
critters act enough like an iPod to work with iTunes.  Apple did an
update to iTunes that could detect Palms and kill the compatibility.
A week later Palm did an update on their end to correct this.
Everybody's expecting Apple to tweak it again.  See also:

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/169167/webos_update_reenables_itunes_sync_on_palm_pre.html

Hackintoshes violate the license on the COMPLETE OSx (with GUI).  All
Apple has to do is push an updated OS component that detects Apple's
firmware.  The updater itself doesn't need to detect the Hackintosh
while running.

> (You do raise a valid point, btw. Recently, Apple dropped support for some
> older PPC-based Macs, and in doing so, did away with PS/2 device support.
> So, if your laptop didn't use a Synaptics touchpad, you were out of luck,
> until you found the hacked version of the PS/2 device driver that would
> continue to allow native PS/2 devices to work.)

You poor soul.  Read the article linked above.  That's the hammer held
over your head.

Sigh.