Do you want a Mac clone for $399? Apple’s lowest priced Mac, the Mac mini, sells for $599 and isn’t expandable. Psystar’s new Mac clone is an expandable mini tower that runs Mac OS X Leopard. Will Mac users buy a knockoff clone?

The buzz around the office Mac users the past few days has been about Psystar’s Mac clone and how quickly they’ll go out of business after getting sued by Apple’s lawyers. Or worse.

If you run Mac OS X Leopard on a $399 cheapo mini tower PC is it still a Mac? Psystar seems to think it is, but they’re careful not to use the term ‘Mac Clone’ anywhere on their web site.

They call it Open Computer: The Smart Alternative to an Apple.

Think about it. Isn’t a less expensive Mac an attractive idea? Especially if it’s expandable. Arguably, Apple has a hole in their current Mac product line. There’s the Mac mini at the bottom. Add a screen and keyboard and mouse and it’s about the same price as the low end iMac.

At the high end are the powerful, highly expandable, fully customizable MacPro’s. Did I mention expensive? In between are the iMacs and notebooks. There’s no mini tower, no mid-range Mac with expandability. It’s likely that Apple doesn’t want us to have one as it might cannibalize sales from the more profitable iMac and MacPro line.

So, what’s a Mac lover to do? We can’t really build our own Macs from scratch, can we? Well, maybe. But it’s a hassle to hack OS X and more of a hassle to get it up and running and keep it that way.

Rob Griffiths of Macworld decided to build his own Frankenclone. The result was a $980 PC that also ran OS X. The result was a mini tower with modest expandability for about $2,500 less than a MacPro (alright, it’s not really Apple’s to apples, but you see the difference, right?).

These build-it-yourself and clone efforts also come with problems. OS X has to be hacked to work. Updates to OS X often destroy the hacks, requiring more hacks, and interim down time. Plus, not everything in OS X works right when running on a generic PC box.

So, why bother with a clone? Price? Expandability? The urge to build from scratch? I suspect that buying or building a Frankenclone is more of an exercise than a trend. It grabs headlines, it sends lots of web traffic to Psystar’s web site, it’s good water cooler talk, but such efforts won’t result in much more of a teeny, tiny cult of geeks who are proud of themselves.

For the rest of us, there’s still that hole in Apple’s Mac product line. Apple still doesn’t offer anything resembling cheap to Mac buyers. So, the question can be asked, ‘Would you buy a Mac clone?’ And then, ‘Why do you want a Mac clone?’ And finally, ‘What does Apple need to do to keep Mac users from buying clones?’

Hi Kate,

Psystar seems to be much ado about nothing. The two who set it up are small time scammers and it appears that this is a scam or hoax.

Personally I wouldn’t buy or build a Mac clone. I’d rather have Apple’s support for their hardware/software combinations than mess around with compatibility/driver issues and problems. Welcome to Windows.

This just points out a gaping hole in the mac lineup. I would love an Intel Mac IIci (except with an optical drive instead of a floppy and updated sundry holes to plug stuff into). In my mind it is still the greatest form factor to come out of Cupertino. Specs similar to a mini or iMac and priced in between. Actually, they could price it same as the mini, make bigger margins (due to lower priced full size components instead of laptop components) and make everyone except car modders thrilled. Personally, I would buy one in a second to replace my liquid cooled dual G5 (which my Core 2 Duo mini runs rings around in most tasks).

Greg

PS - the IIci was my first Mac and like other first experiences, unforgettable, but in a good way.

EnergizerE2 - 18 April 2008 03:53 PM

This just points out a gaping hole in the mac lineup.

Totally agree.

Why doesn’t Apple create a quad-core MacPro mini-tower with a couple of hard drives and a few expansion slots? I’d go for that.

Hi Kate,

Personnaly I wouldn’t buy a $399 computer. Even the cheaper PCs is more expansive. I don’t just get why Apple would spend millions of USD in R&D;and those guys just sells Buggy clone and make big bucks. That dosen’t make sence to me

By the way I enjoy reading your wonderful webstite http://pixobebo.com/. Very nice, congratulations. I assume that “taking care” of two Websites once at a time should be a lot of work. I am wondering how you manage to do that ? M

Maybe your answer will be like the one given by Temperence Brennan (the serie “Bones”) “Well I do one and the other. (Ockam razor theorie)

anyway I will try to post much on Mac360.

zerocool - 19 April 2008 03:04 AM

Personnaly I wouldn’t buy a $399 computer. Even the cheaper PCs is more expansive. I don’t just get why Apple would spend millions of USD in R&D;and those guys just sells Buggy clone and make big bucks. That dosen’t make sence to me

I don’t want the choice of buying a Mac from Apple vs. buying a Dell that runs OS X.

Still, I want a MacPro mini tower. Apple needs to plug that hole in their line.

By the way I enjoy reading your wonderful webstite http://pixobebo.com/. Very nice, congratulations. I assume that “taking care” of two Websites once at a time should be a lot of work. I am wondering how you manage to do that ?

It was more of a struggle to get it up and running than I expected, even with Ron’s help on the back end code. I have more respect for those folks who build and run a web site. It’s work. Finding things of interest to write about is the fun part.

Maybe your answer will be like the one given by Temperence Brennan (the serie “Bones”) “Well I do one and the other. (Ockam razor theorie). Anyway I will try to post much on Mac360.

My theory is pretty close. Do one thing, then do another thing, then repeat. If you do it long enough, stuff happens.

A reader sent me a note asking if I was responsible for the ‘lavenderish’ color on Mac360. Guilty.

I first found this article on macworld a few days ago and I am still laughing my well you know what off. They will never last and from what macworld was stating this wanna be company changed their web url three times in a week and does not accept credit cards yet. At least this is the information macworld is putting out. Now my first thought was how in the hell are one of these clones going to be able to get Apples updates and drivers not to mention even more. From what I understand and I could be wrong is that when you click software update your Mac talks to Apple telling what kind of Mac you have and what configurations you have so you get the right software. Now if I am right that would be a world of hurt right from the start on these clones. Integrated video graphics on a Mac Pro clone! come on people. I would go back to p.c. before I bought one of these things.

And then their is the user agreement that you can not put OS X on anything but a genuine Macintosh. I hope Apple waits for this company to take off (if they can and I highly don’t think they can) so they can sue later and get even that much more out of them. Face it they are the new dorks on the block and don’t have a bucket to piss in, so what good would it be for Apple to sue now. I am willing to bet Apple is laughing harder than we are because they know this inbred computer company is never going to succeed.

I have a spoof card meaning I and trick out any one’s caller I.D. I think I am going to call them with Apples corporate phone number and have some fun. Always wanted to play Steve Jobs and this sounds like they perfect opportunity.

Oh yeah Kate very nice job on your new web page. I hope you get a chance to read the e mail I sent you from it. I love the base color and love being able to read in white letters. Your base color is PERFECT and I have always had light sensitive eyes. Just about every web page I go to I have to have the brightness turned down on my monitor. I wish every web page looked like that. You and Ron GO!!! I Hope you two start a new world wide trend in what a web page should really look like.

When I am buying a mac I am not so much concerned about what it costs, to a point.  What I want is a computer that will fit my needs.  As it stands a minitower would be perfect.  Something in between the imac and the macpro.  I guess it boils down to me wanting the expandability of the macpro without the 3K pricetag.

BunsenHoneydew - 20 April 2008 10:52 AM

When I am buying a mac I am not so much concerned about what it costs, to a point.  What I want is a computer that will fit my needs.  As it stands a minitower would be perfect.  Something in between the imac and the macpro.  I guess it boils down to me wanting the expandability of the macpro without the 3K pricetag.

I have the first generation Mac Pro with the 3 gigahertz under the hood. Man It’s fast and I mean fast but I just can’t see who would need an 8 core, I can’t get this thing out of idle at all. I opened up 25 windows, started playing ITUNES, opened IWEB, IPHOTO, ICAL, IMOVIE, ICHAT, MSN CHAT, MAIL and went into my widgets and the four processors where all hitting a max of maybe 40% but no higher and that was with the 2 gigs of stock ram it came with. I just upgraded to four gigs of ram and it seems like it put a little bit more spice into it. I also upgraded from the stock 250 gig hard drive changing my main drive over to a 500 gig.

The only reason I bought this was I won a lawsuit for over 120,000 so I had the money to blow on it. One regret , why did I buy the 23 inch monitor when I could have had the 30? GRRR! That lute is gone, bought a car and put a nice down payment on a house.

What I am getting at is I switched over from p.c. and the day I walked into the Apple store I said I want the best Mac you have. This is how I started and I could never down grade to a IMAC now. Yes I have been doing some serious brain storming on how to come up with eight grand because I want that 8 core. I priced it out with what I want and it came to 8 grand. These Mac Pro’s are addicting, don’t say I did not warn you.

I have a macpro at work.  Its nice and fast, but way more than I need at home.  I can certainly tax the thing at work, but I am not doing that kind of stuff at home.  So I don’t need that kind of power, but I do wantt the ability to put in multiple hard drives, choose my own monitor, etc.  A minitower would be perfect in that regard.  Its rather simple in my mind.  At home I don’t need a musclebound thoroughbred, a quarterhorse is just fine as long as I can use my own saddle.

BunsenHoneydew - 20 April 2008 11:14 AM

I have a macpro at work.  Its nice and fast, but way more than I need at home.  I can certainly tax the thing at work, but I am not doing that kind of stuff at home.  So I don’t need that kind of power, but I do wantt the ability to put in multiple hard drives, choose my own monitor, etc.  A minitower would be perfect in that regard.  Its rather simple in my mind.  At home I don’t need a musclebound thoroughbred, a quarterhorse is just fine as long as I can use my own saddle.

Yes I understand and agree, it is way to much power for a home computer. I honesty think I bought it for a fashion statement to make all my p.c. friends jealous and it worked. If Apple would come out with a mini tower I would jump on it. I am compulsive and have to have the next new thing right away and that impulse in me often gets me in trouble or makes me regret once I am done getting what ever I needed to get.

I need some one to come smack me in the head, I have a perfectly good Pro and I am thinking of selling my 2007 corolla sport just to get that new 8 core and taking the rest of the money for a down payment and then I will have the worlds most powerful p.c. again but stuck car payments.

Wow now that is what I call an addiction.  I definitely have lust for all things mac, but I also know what will be more than I need.  Good luck with that, the problem is Apple is always upping the ante so you would have the top of the line for about 6-8 months, then it would be knocked off the perch by the next big thing…

BunsenHoneydew - 21 April 2008 03:19 PM

Wow now that is what I call an addiction.  I definitely have lust for all things mac, but I also know what will be more than I need.  Good luck with that, the problem is Apple is always upping the ante so you would have the top of the line for about 6-8 months, then it would be knocked off the perch by the next big thing…

Trust me I know about the addiction thing. Let’s put it this way and I think I mentioned I won a monster lawsuit. I started on p.c. in 1998 right when windows 98 came out and stayed with p.c. the whole way up till I bought the Mac Pro. What interested me in Apple was because in 1999 I found a Apple color classic in perfect condition in a pawn shop for 15 bucks. I pressed the start button and it booted up but god I spent days trying to figure it out and finally gave up. I did figure out some things like how to change screen savers and a few others. This is a true story, I ended up giving it to a person I knew at the time who wrote books and had nothing to write on but a type writer or tablet of paper. Well that guy went on to use the word processor in the color classic, wrote and finished one of his many books and found a publisher to sign him. He moved to Minnesota with his first earnings and I never heard from or saw they guy again. Strange wind fall huh? But it’s true and ever since that Apple Color Classic I have always been interested in a real Apple. When I walked in the the Apple store that day and bought my stock Mac Pro (not stock anymore, added ram, bigger hard drive and more to come) I had no idea what I was getting into or even a hint on how the OS X worked, I just knew I was sick of Microsoft and there had to be a better computer out there. When I took it out of the box and set it all up with my 23 inch monitor, I could not figure out in all hell how to log on to the internet. Would you believe I called Apple Care for that and I think the lady was trying her hardest not to laugh as she told me to look for the compass in the dock. “DOCK!!!!??? I DON’T HAVE A BOAT, WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!” o.k. I over exaggerated the dock and boat part but I had the basic’s of Tiger down in a week and in about three months I was a novice Mac user. I payed for a years worth of classes at the apple store but never went to any. I like to self teach myself and if I can not figure something out then I start reading and it was hard in the beginning because I could not call any of my p.c. friends for advice. Any way I have out grown IMOVIE 08 already and want Final Cut Pro and I am making I d.v.d’s left and right for people, sometimes for me just for fun but all that has been put on hold because my cannon d.v. camcorder just stopped working the other day. I never dropped the stupid cam corder or anything and go figure I had just bought a name brand extended life battery for it off of http://www.ebattery.com.

As for selling my car to buy that Mac Pro, I don’t think I could do it. I think that would be the dumbest thing I could do but those evil temptations tell me to sell sell. The Pro I have now is just fine. One thing that really makes my blood boil till this day is the fact Apple released the 8 core a few months after I bought this one (quad 4 core).

Nice book huh? I am bored today.