23. April 2008 by Winn Schwartau.

My PsyStar didn’t arrive yet. It’s been a week. So, scam, eh? I went to their web site. There’s a map and phone numbers. I called.

Got a live human in a few seconds. Impressive. I asked where my Mac Clone is. He looked up my order number; fast. Confirmed everything.

“So, this isn’t a Mac Clone Scam?”

“No scam, sir.”

“When will I get my Mac Clone?”

“Ships on Monday.”

Then he tried to talk me into having them install Leopard (OS X 10.5.x) since I ordered a bare bones Mac Clone. Since I am sort of reviewing this emerging area, I want to know what the experience is… naked box + Leopard. He tried to talk me out of this approach… “Since it does require installation…” but I declined.

Does this mean that Mac Clones need a lot of tweaking to make them work? If so, then it isn’t much of a Mac Clone as far as I am concerned. If it’s a no brainer install, like it should be, these guys at PsyStar will have a huge hit and a huge lawsuit on their hands. And I will own one.

So far… so good… promises… protected by Amex… and really hoping PsyStar has their act together.

Posted in Mac Experiment | 2 Comments »

18. April 2008 by Winn Schwartau.

So www.psystar.com may be a hoax. Hmmm… I ordered my Mac Clone sans OS so I would use my legal 5 machine Leopard. There seems to be a lot of stink about the company and the owner and all sorts of hoopla. Whatever.

If and when it gets here, I will let you know. And see if it’s even worth it… or whatever happens to happen.

Posted in Mac Experiment | No Comments »

17. April 2008 by Winn Schwartau.

On April 29, 2008, I began an experiment because I through a hissy fit at my WinTel boxes. Spent gobs of money at the Apple store cause they gave me 30% off everything I bought before midnight. Filled two SUVs with Macstuff. See the experiment and the resulting total cost of ownership studies and tools on my vanity site.

Result: There is no earthly reason for the vast majority of computer users to ever have to use, touch or breathe the same air as a WinTel box.

Now, upstart www.Psystar.com (I had never heard of them) says they have a Mac Clone.

Cool. I ordered one. I have played the OS-X on x86  game: Goal is to get OSX to run a cheaper commodity box. Some people have succeeded. I failed - after a lame 3 hours. If it’s that hard for me, it ain’t ready for Ma & Pa.

So, knowing I am likely breaking every Apple EULA known to their attorney group, I am going to play with the new Open Computing Platform and see what happens.

Stay tuned. Will advise.

Posted in Mac Experiment | 3 Comments »