The Open Computing experiment begins

Psystar's Open Computer, running Mac OS X Leopard, has arrived.

(Credit: Tom Krazit/CNET News.com)

I'm writing this post on Psystar's Open Computer running Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.2.

The Open Computer arrived Wednesday, and I spent some time this morning setting it up. The plan for now is to use it as my main work system (at least while I'm in the office) for about a week and see how it goes. For a full review, check out what my CNET Reviews colleague Rich Brown had to say, but I've noticed a few tidbits in the early going.

About This Mac says I'm running Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.2...

(Credit: Tom Krazit/CNET News.com)

For one, the fan is much, much quieter than I had expected based on the early reports. When I called Psystar head Rudy Pedraza last week for comment on the story I did about Psystar's potential legal problems, he mentioned that the latest batch of Open Computers were shipping with a new fan. I've had the system running on my desk right next to my keyboard all morning, and the noise coming from the fan hasn't been that bad at all.

The noise from the CD-ROM drive, however, is deafening. I imported a CD into iTunes, and instinctively ducked when a sound like an airplane taking off filled the air.

When I open up the "About This Mac" section under the Apple menu, it says I'm running Mac OS X 10.5.2. However, the Leopard disc that shipped with the Open Computer is labeled Mac OS X 10.5.1. The CD gave my colleague Daniel Terdiman the option of upgrading to Leopard on his MacBook Pro when we tried it out, but I didn't want to inadvertently hose his computer. We haven't tried to upgrade a Tiger-based Mac yet using that disc; if that works we'll let you know.

...but a shot of the boxed copy of Leopard that shipped with the Open Computer shows that copy contains 10.5.1.

(Credit: James Martin/CNET News.com)

The system recognized my Dell USB keyboard normally used with my ThinkPad after a few keystrokes, although I keep forgetting that copy and paste is done using the Windows key on a Mac OS system using a Windows-oriented keyboard. On my Mac, I never forget to use the Apple key instead of the Ctrl key, but I'm having trouble remembering that on the Open Computer.

The Open Computer comes with a Leopard disc and instruction manual, a manual for Intel's Core 2 Duo processor, and a manual for Gigabyte's GA-G31M-S2L motherboard. It doesn't, however, come with any documentation on how to get the Open Computer up and running. It's not like that's very hard, but still, a page or two saying something like "Welcome to Open Computing" might not be a terrible idea.

Anyway, a few hours into the Open Computer experiment, everything seems pretty normal. Software Update, as we already knew, was disabled by Psystar before the machine left the factory, so I'm stuck on 10.5.2 indefinitely. This isn't the prettiest machine I've ever used, but it works.

[sciontcya]

Zzzzzzz.

[msttsm]

Tom, go to System Preferences -> Keyboard & Mouse -> Keyboard and click on Keyboard Modifiers. There you can set the modifier keys so they work correctly with a Windows keyboard.

Also, who's CD drive is in the system?

Once last comment, you are a brave man to not only announce you are violating the EULA by purchasing one of these boxes, but to state that you are further violating it by using the DVD on a 2nd computer. ;-)

Good Luck and let us know how it all goes!

[Tom Krazit]

Thanks for the tip, I've never used a Mac with a Windows keyboard before. It's LG's CD-ROM drive.

[solitare_pax]

A better start than Mr. Eks Brownish offered - although I must wonder if a bit of piracy is involved along with violation of EULA, since you have an Mac OS 10.5.1 DVD and the machine is saying 10.5.2. Can you satisfy my morbid curiousity and inform us whether the PC ports shown on the back of the machine (PS/2 & Parrallel printer port) actually work, or are they there for show and confusion? And since it is a hobby machine, how hard is it to slap in more components (internal HDs, extra cards, etc...)

[custompcmax]

These OPEN macs are an interesting idea, and I give Kudos to the people that make them for this aspect of it. But, it doesn't seem to be quite what they say it is, and that is a replacement for a mac. The issues seem to great to make it an alternative to buying a mac. And aside from that, all the legality surrounding it is questionable. But, at the same time, one should be able to legally use the Mac OS on any hardware they can get it to work on, assuming there is no backward engineering going on.
[CNET editors' note: Inappropriate material deleted.]

[whpj4]

In all fairness, the 10.5.2 update is FREE.
No piracy needed to upgrade from the retail 10.5.1 install DVD to 10.5.2. Simply download the update from Apple.

The retail DVD's can be used to upgrade an existing system running ANY previous version of OS X.

As for building a hackintosh, they are fairly simple if you buy the right hardware.
Psystar's decision to disable updates is by choice, not by necessity. They simply don't want to deal with issues associated with the updates.
The reality is, if you're running the proper hardware, a majority of the updates are harmless to a hackintosh.

[AppleSuxLeo]

This just proves the "Mac" is a PC now. Welcome to the PC world. Oh yea...I forgot...Apple-punks will say a Mac is more "elegant" That is the term they use when you point out your PC offers the same or better performance at a much lower price. The term "elegant" gets thrown about. And why did Jobs go with intel x86 after all those years on PowerPC ? Didn`t he say all those years that intel was junk ? Well Steve , you have given us quite a compliment by having the "Mac" turn into a PC...with a TPM module thrown in.

[aoresteen]

Does the Open Computer use MBR for the hard drive? This I would love as I could easily run Winows, Linux and OSX on the same box . I asked PsyStar about MBR and they are working on an answer for me.

[kieranmullen]

The video didn't do a good job of explaining this, but really at the price point this is at for people wanting to get into Mac's wouldn't it be far better just to buy an Mac Mini for about the same price?

KieranMullen
360Oregon.com