The hacking guru Maxxuss has announced preliminary patches for Apple’s latest release of OS X for Intel, version 10.4.4. According to his website,
This is a preliminary release of my Patch Solution for the official Mac OS X on the Intel platform. Ultimately, it would allow you to run this Mac OS X release on a generic x86 computer (SSE2 required). There’s still a lot of work and documentation to do, like support for SSE2-only CPUs, a proper installation procedure and a PPF patch. However, if you like to play around, this will get you started.
“The significance of this event is huge. While many users were able to run OSx86 on their PCs last summer, the general feeling was that Apple hadn’t implemented their final security solution. That much was true,” The OSx86 Project reports. “Onlookers have told us that 10.4.4 is a serious step forward in security, utilizing many of the same technologies as the 10.4.1 and 10.4.3, as well as the obfuscated code that Apple filed a patent for a few months ago.Few expected this final version – or at least the version that shipped with the first Macintels – to be easy to hack. What this means is that Apple’s best attempts to secure their OS have, ultimately, failed.”
Full article with links here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews reader “Since_IIci” for the heads up.]
(Cue ominous music) Is the Dvorak Theory coming true?
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Related articles:
Apple offers hidden poetic warning to would-be Mac OS X for x86 hackers – February 15, 2006
Apple puts ‘Don’t Steal Mac OS X’ message to would-be hackers in Intel version of Mac OS X 10.4.4 – January 13, 2006
Dvorak: Steve Jobs eventually intends for Apple’s Mac OS X to run on any x86 PC – August 08, 2005
Theft ticks me off.
Yeah. This is great. The Russian hacking guru Maxxuss has hacked OSX. We can now install it on every PC.
So that the Russian hacking guru Maxxuss can collect our credit card and bank details every time we use the machine.
You’re really going to trust this guy? Anyone who does this deserves to have their bank account drained.
All software should be free, all food should be free, all healthcare should be free, all housing should be free, all education should be free.
We should be all free to pursue are own natural talents without worry of money. Imagine the society we would have, the peace we would have.
All for one and one for all.
Mark
Didn’t you just describe Star Trek?
Is that Mark, or Marx?
Does this come as a surprise to anyone?
I wonder how good it will perform on more or less identical hardware (to avoid drivers causing problems).
It seems every time someone trumpets that they have hacked OS X to work on non Apple x86 machines, there is always the caveat of “some work still needs to be done. drivers to fix etc”? I thought ‘running’ meant booted up and usable for real work. Not just getting a half-assed desktop to limp onto the stage.
Typical PC user – Can’t see the bleedin’ obvious staring him in the face. Don’t waste time pissing around with hacks and patches that are more trouble than they’re worth – BUY A BLOODY MAC!
So where are the comments that nobody is asking to run OS X on their PC?
Once people find that there really is a much better alternative to the Hack that is Windows. Bill Gates will not sleep at night.
Mark,
Where would all the software developers, farmers, doctors, nurses, construction tradespersons, and teachers come from? Wouldn’t they all be persuing other natural talents? Maybe we would have unliimited poets, artists, musicians, sex therapists…..
the peace we would have. (Total and absolute chaos)
(And I’m not intending to insult those in the arts… they earn a living too
Welcome to the desert… of the real.
maybe its all just a test by apple to see if there is a demand to release OSX for generic PCs? ? it would impact their hardware sales a bit but come-on, think of the benefits, it worked for microsoft
What concerns me the most is the misconception that Average Joe will get from headlines saying Mac OS X was “hacked”, not understanding that this means people who have more time and knowledge than Joe AVg does, have been able to get OS X to run on hardware that isi identical to a Mac (at least the specs on the inside.)
The typical layperson will think that Mac OS X is just as easy to break into as a Windows PC, and that a flood of badware is right around the corner.
YES!!! free sex-therapists!
can i place my order for 10 please?
Apple won’t mind. It’s not like hardware revenue is that big a deal. Here is the end result of their masterful work:
Most of the guy’s at the x86osx site seem to end up buying a mac anyway, i don’t see it as a true threat to the platform. More likely a catalyst for more mac interest and sales. Hopefully some of these guys will work on the x86 Darwine. Sounds like thats goin well. I think someone got the windows version of photoshop going! Its all too exciting in the mac world at the moment.
Only computer geeks play around with hacks. No average computer user or business person is willing to deal with all of the incompatabilities that comes with it. I don’t use my computer as a testing ground and neither do most. Only a few on the underground will even know about it if it’s true. Get the real thing.
What is the COST of this piracy?
I assume that not only has this theif used a non-retail copy of OS X for Intel (which can only be purchased with a Mac) but has most certainly violated the End User Agreement by hacking it.
I like that it is a proof of concept. That I can get behind. Make it work, put some demo video of it working on a website, contact Apple as say – hey, If I can do it, so can you!
But making it public for the world to steal isn’t cool.
re: mark
All software should be free, all food should be free, all healthcare should be free, all housing should be free, all education should be free.
We should be all free to pursue are own natural talents without worry of money. Imagine the society we would have, the peace we would have.
All for one and one for all.
——
urm… yeeees.
Lets all go back to living in caves then.
Because if everything is free then say goodbye to progress of the human race and civilisation as we know it.
10.4.5 update available
Wonder if this is Apple’s response.
“All software should be free, all food should be free, all healthcare should be free, all housing should be free, all education should be free.
We should be all free to pursue are own natural talents without worry of money. Imagine the society we would have, the peace we would have.
All for one and one for all.”
ummm….USSR tried that, and it came crumbling down. You can’t expect people who are virtually taken care of by their government to actually try, can you?
We need the geeks of the world to try OS X on their old x86 hardware. Once they see and use it many will be convinced to give Mac hardware a try. The geeks are the ones that influence corporate IT departments so this is a good first step.
He’s not Russian… he just hosts his site on a Russian server so legal action cannot be taken upon him…
Some even speculate he’s an old member of Apple’s own AIX team.
Fact is, Apple asked for it when moving to X86. It’s geek stuff but things can get real messy if, within time, it becomes easier and easier to crack or maybe Steve has some secret plan we are not aware of.
X86…
Please remember to turn on your sarcasm meter for my earlier post on hardware and please return your tray to its upright position.
Quote for the day:
“Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning.”
– Rich Cook
Mark et al
First find peace inside yourself, then the human race will make progress plus on the way you will eradicate fear.