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By now I'm sure you've read reports of Psystar, that mysterious Florida company that is apparently selling unauthorized Mac clones. These are basically standard Intel PCs with Mac OS X pre-installed on them. Since today's Macs use the same hardware as PCs, it is technically possible to do this (though not simple), but apparently not legal as it violates the Mac OS X license agreement (which pretty much says you're only allowed to install it on Apple hardware).

I really don't think the Psystar thing is much of a story at all. The company's tiny and unknown, the product unproven, and there are so many drawbacks I can't imagine many people would bite. But I keep reading journalists who seem amazed that Apple hasn't sued Psystar out of existence. They think this means that Psystar is on to something, that it has figured out some loophole, and maybe other companies will follow suit and give Apple some competition.

These writers have it wrong. There are several reasons why Apple isn't stopping Psystar, but they are not what most people think.