What you need to know
- A company called OpenCore Computer is selling a Hackintosh.
- Previous companies who tried to do so were sued by Apple for violating the macOS licensing agreement.
- The developers behind the OpenCore platform have already warned users to avoid the company.
A mysterious new company called OpenCore Computer has begun selling a Hackintosh computer that violates Apple's macOS end-user licensing agreement. The tower, called the Velociraptor, is the first of a line that the company calls "zero-compromise Hackintoshes". The computer has a number of configurations available and starts at $2199.
Reported by MacRumors, the legal ramifications of OpenCore Computer's offering could be similar to that of Psystar Corporation, a now-defunct company who tried to sell a similar product.
"Commercial Hackintoshes have a notorious legal history. The now-defunct Psystar Corporation sold so-called "Open Computers" from 2008, with the option to have Mac OS X Leopard pre-installed. Apple's EULA forbids third-party installations of its software, and any commercial Mac clone is a violation of that agreement, as well as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Apple sued Psystar in 2009 and won a permanent injunction against the company, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the case in 2012. Given this precedence, it is particularly surprising that OpenCore Computer has chosen to sell a Hackintosh."
The developers behind OpenCore, the free open-source tool which helps someone prepare a system to boot macOS, has put out a statement decrying OpenCore Computer's theft of its name and logo and warned customers to avoid purchasing a machine from the company.
"We at Acidanthera are a small group of enthusiasts who are passionate about Apple ecosystem and spend time developing software to improve macOS compatibility with different kinds of hardware including older Apple-made computers and virtual machines. For us, who do this on entirely volunteer and uncommercial basis, for fun, it is shocking and disgusting that some dishonest people we do not even know dare to use the name and logo of our bootloader, OpenCore, as a matter of promotion in some illicit criminal scam. Be warned, that we are nohow affiliated with these people and strongly ask everyone by all means to never approach them. Be safe."
We tested the purchasing process and the website does force you to pay in Bitcoin, another red flag for those who want to ensure they are buying a product from a legitimate company with all of the purchasing protections you would come to expect. There is also no information about the company on the website, such as a phone number or address. The only thing present on the website is a contact form.
While the Hackintosh community is fascinating, this latest venture seems to fly in the face of what that community stands for, seems like a lawsuit waiting to happen, and is too unknown to offer customers the confidence that they will actually receive what they pay for.
