Not anymore, they sold those shares years ago. And they were non-voting, which means MS had no say at all.
List of AAPL Shareholders
Totally correct.
Besides, Apple has plenty of competitors, Sony, HP, Gateway, Dell, etc.
Not necessarily so, no one can (without breaking the apple EULA) offer OS X legally, apple own that on their own.
Being peeved about something and it being illegal are two different things.
Unfortunately, Real were peeved, they went to the EU Commission, and they found that bundling software was anti-competitive and very illegal.
True, but who are the consumers going to run to? Apple or their HW manufacturer. I've dealt with problems in the windows world, my HP machine would randomly restart, HP said it was software - call MS, MS said it was hardware - call HP.
Most machines come with warranties, and an option like the Apple Care plan, they usually help. Very few actually go to Microsoft with complaints in regards to drivers.
Same thing will happen, and OS X will be reduced to a steaming pile of crap in the eyes of a number of consumers that bought a cheap "mac."
If they opened up, it'd be just a cheap PC. But still, it could be a very expensive, quality built PC. A mac is essentially a PC, the only real difference being it's reliance on EFI rather than the legacy BIOS system used in the PC market. They're merging ground as hardware peaks.
It's still surprising, AMD have been hush about not being effectively locked out on any apple computer running OS X.
Do they? I though Dell was the only one with Linux as an option (preinstalled).
They can do, but not usually for the average Joe.
It's Apple's choice as to whether they want to license OS X or not, not the government's and not the peoples'.
Microsoft thought that and it made Bill Gates cry.
The problem with Psystar is that they supposedly modified OS X in order for it to work on their hardware. (<delete>Copyright</delete> EULA infringement)
They're just using open source software to run it properly.
Psystar said:
Psystar embraces the Open Source community. We're all about open computing and the idea that software should be customizable, portable, and available. We use Open Source software in the Open Computers like PC EFI by Netkas, the GRUB bootloader, Ubuntu Linux, and many other Open Source efforts out there. We use Open software in our PsyStor SAN by Sun and IBM. We use the Linux kernel in the Psystar Gateway Router. Psystar will promote Open Source projects in every way possible. To the Open Source community: thank you.
They don't modify Leopard as far as I've understood.
They are advertising the machines next to an OS X box, saying that it is OS X compatible, and comes preinstalled. (<delete>Trademark</delete> EULA infringement)
It is preinstalled, works fine, and even updates fine. All software does work, as you will be able to see on the Psystar forums.
Psystar modetor said:
I recently brought three systems up-to-date using Apple's "Software Update", and I didn't have any problem at all.
Everything is working just as one might expect from an Apple Intel-based product.
I'm sure Apple will eventually include a "silver bullet" in one of its updates, but so far that has not been the case.
Since they are a no name company who probably doesn't have enough sales to become an Apple reseller, they probably didn't bother to ask for Apple's permission to distribute OS X, let alone license it.
They didn't need to ask because apple's EULA violates a lot of laws.
That is where they are different than every other PC maker out there. They were stupid, and ignored laws.
A EULA is not a law, it's a usage restriction. If a EULA is held as illegal, you can choose to ignore it. That's what Psystar have done.
Anyhow, they can overcome that EULA by just sticking an apple sticker on their boxes saying "Not a product of apple" next to it. It'd technically be an apple labeled machine then. Technically.
