Open Tech announces Mac clones, sidesteps Psystar's mistakes

Psystar's corpse hasn't even stopped twitching and draining fluids yet, but that's not going to stop Open Tech Computing from releasing their own bare bones Mac clones. But unlike Psystar, it looks like Open Tech won't going to slap a "Kick Me" sign on their groins before thumbing their noses at Apple's legal department. They are playing it a bit smarter.

Open Tech's new hardware includes a tower of eye-glazing specificatio — a 3.40Ghz Dual-Core Intel Pentium D, 500GB of hard drive space, 3GB of DDR2 at 667 Mhz, a CD burner and wifi — all slapped in a forty dollar case. But they are marketing it as a system capable of running any OS, including OS X. The only difference? They won't actually pre-install the OS for you or hack the Leopard updates and re-distribute them, both of which were the truly bone-headed Psystar moves. Instead, they'll simply bundle a copy of OS X with the machine and provide you with instructions on how to install it yourself.

It's a rather ingenious move: a bargain basement PC manufacturer rides the Psystar vs. Apple publicity by announcing their own successor product, which is, in reality, just a bog-standard PC distributed with some printed-out forum posts. It may not save them from a resounding legal haymaker, and they'll certainly be in violation of the DMCA, but at least they aren't total swollen-tongued, sternum-smacking doofuses.

Open Tech Mac Clones [MacNN]