Psystar Activation Servers Down? 245
An anonymous reader writes "I purchased Rebel EFI in support of Psystar's crusade back in October. Just 3 short months later, I have no support. I found this out when I upgraded my hard drive and installed Snow Leopard using Rebel EFI. The program can no longer 'phone home' to activate or download/install drivers. This is a direct contradiction to Psystar's promise posted on their website: 'Psystar will continue to support all of its existing customers of hardware and software through this transitional period. Warranties on hardware will continue to be honored as long the customer has a valid warranty. Rebel EFI support for existing customers, as always, will remain exclusively available through email and the built-in ticket interface.' Has anyone else run into this issue? It has been 9 days with no response from Psystar by e-mail or phone."
Why is this News??? #editorfail (Score:5, Informative)
I know it's a slow news day but why is this news? The fact that the company that created the software lost a major court case and the company filed for bankruptcy wasn't enough indication that things are not as peachy as the company claimed?
#editorfail
Re:Hard to tell (Score:3, Informative)
http://slashdot.org/index2.pl?fhfilter=Psystar [slashdot.org]
Who needs google?
Re:No surprise here .. from Psystar's front page: (Score:3, Informative)
And when the court reiterates that Psystar is wrong, and that Rebel EFI can never again be distributed under any circumstances, what is Psystar going to give all those folks who donated money under the promise of a free copy of Rebel EFI? The judge was brutally clear in his decision, see Groklaw for all the gory details, that Psystar must stop ALL activities that infringe on Apple's products. If they don't, they can be charged with contempt. That kind of judgement doesn't lend itself to successful appeals.
You don't need Rebel EFI (Score:4, Informative)
Step 1. Go to InsanelyMac and find the links for the Chamelion (sp?) boot loader. This will do practically the same thing, from what I've been told, and it worked extremely well for me when I used OS X on my Dell (took it off b/c I wanted real Office and some other Windows-preferred applications, but didn't want it in a VM).
Step 2 While you're at InsanelyMac, look for a tutorial on how to install OS X on your hardware. If there are none (which shouldn't be the case if the computer's popular somewhat), there are default methods to follow, which can help you give back by making one!
Step 3. Install OS X, hope that nothing breaks and enjoy!
Re:Good for you (Score:4, Informative)
Your background example is laughable. Microsoft authorises such modifications to OEMs. If an OEM were to remove activation from their product though without it being a VLC, you'd see their lawyers all over it and the OEM would get what is coming. Apple does not authorise people to remove their copy protection kext.
And if Psystar had to install every copy from a fresh DVD they bought, they wouldn't be in the business in the first place. The costs associated would be prohibitive.
And seriously, if Psystar wanted to compete with Apple, why didn't they invest in a a few programmers and wrote their own OS from open source components ? The burger stand down the road doesn't compete with McDonald's by selling Big Macs.
Re:How could the outcome be good? (Score:5, Informative)
PC-EFI (an EFI emulation layer), FakeSMC, and other stuff based around boot-132; a lot of work from a guy named netkas but many people contributed to other drivers, etc. Rebel EFI included *at least* PC-EFI and boot-132-derived works; that also put them in direct violation of APSL, so they were screwed one way or another.