Have Your Mac and Eat, Too

Windows-based PCs are a dime a dozen, as competition from multiple vendors has always put downward pressure on prices, but there also is a wide range of quality. Apple, on the other hand, is fiercely protective of its hardware/software configurations and the price points reflect that (but the quality is more consistent). But there are some exceptions, particularly Macintosh clone maker Psystar.

The company sells Mac OS-loaded computers using generic, Intel-powered machines for much less than you would pay for an Apple computer. So it should come as no surprise that Apple sued Psystar last year for alleged copyright and software licensing violations. Psystar apparently is not too intimidated, since the company earlier this month announced that it planned to license its Mac clone technology to other vendors.

But its latest move, reported by ComputerWorld, takes the cake for sheer audacity.

Psystar has just released a software utility that allows ordinary Joes with Intel dual-processor-equipped PCs (the same ones used by the Cupertino-based tech darling) to run Mac's latest operating system, also known as Snow Leopard. Geekier computer users started figuring out ways to run Mac OS alongside Windows ever since Apple switched to Intel chips, but this new offering ($49.99, with a limited free version) is aimed at the rest of us.

Dubbed "Rebel EFI," the software offers hope to those of who want to be cool like the personified Mac in those clever Apple commercials but don't have four figures to throw around. Check out this user-generated spoof of the Mac ad:

Photo courtesy of Roberta F., via Wikimedia Commons