Following in the footsteps of Psystar, a company called "OpenCore Computer" this week introduced a commercial Hackintosh called "Velociraptor".
The company has nothing to do with the well-known OpenCore Bootloader and the product violates the Apple macOS End User License Agreement (EULA).
On its website, OpenCore Computer claims that they want to make Mac Pro-style workstations cheaper.
The company calls their computers "Zero-compromise Hackintoshes" that come with both macOS Catalina and Windows 10 pre-installed.
The first model to hit the market is the "Velociraptor," which can be configured with up to a 16-core CPU, 64GB of RAM, and a Vega VII GPU, and starts at $2,199.
OpenCore Computer intends to release more models at a later date, with options to configure up to a 64-core CPU and 256GB of RAM.
A Hackintosh is a computer that runs macOS on hardware that is not authorized by Apple.
Hackintosh machines must bypass the copy-protection technology Apple uses to protect macOS from being cloned, and are therefore illegal.
OpenSource Computer claims that their computers "work just like a regular Apple Mac”.
Commercial Hackintoshes have a notorious history.
The now-defunct company Psystar began selling so-called "Open Computers" in 2008 with the option to pre-install Mac OS X Leopard.
Apple's EULA prohibits third parties from installing its software, and any commercial Mac clone violates that agreement as well as the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
Apple sued Psystar in 2009 and won a permanent injunction against the company, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the case in 2012.
Considering this precedent, it's surprising that OpenCore Computer chose to sell the Hackintosh.
OpenCore Computer seems to be trying to bypass the EULA and only accept cryptocurrency payments.
The legitimacy of OpenCore Computer is unclear, no official address for the company has been provided, and there's little more information about it online.
It's worth noting that OpenCore is a free, open-source tool for booting up macOS systems.
The OpenCore Computer company that sells these Hackintoshes mentioned above appears to be using the OpenCore name for their own personal use and is in fact not affiliated with OpenCore in any way, as the developer of the OpenCore Bootloader has released a statement regarding the unauthorized use of the OpenCore name by OpenCore Computer.
The statement reads:
We at Acidanthera are a small group of enthusiasts who are passionate about Apple ecosystem and spend time developing software to improve macOS compatibility with different kinds of hardware including older Apple-made computers and virtual machines.
For us, who do this on entirely volunteer and uncommercial basis, for fun, it is shocking and disgusting that some dishonest people we do not even know dare to use the name and logo of our bootloader, OpenCore, as a matter of promotion in some illicit criminal scam.
Be warned, that we are nohow affiliated with these people and strongly ask everyone by all means to never approach them. Be safe.
