Mac OS X on Eee: A Legal Primer

First, I’ll talk about the legalities of Mac OS X on the Eee PC. The OSx86 community walks a fine legal line, and, thus we have to walk it as well.

First, don’t pirate Mac OS X. At the very least, you need to have a licensed installation disc of Mac OS X for the version that you’re installing.

Okay, so what more do you need to be legit? Apple requires that your system be “Apple-labeled”. So, to do this, we technically need to do to things. One, take some hardware out of a Mac, and strap it to your system. And, two, take the Apple logo off of the Mac to legally insert the Mac into your Eee.

Crazy, right? Well, that’s what you have to do to be legal.

I would suggest grabbing components that are easy to insert, such as the RAM (like a DDR2 stick from a MacBook Pro), and perhaps a mini-PCI Card.

As to the logo, a little superglue will take the old rainbow-colored logo and attach it nicely, assuming you have an old Mac laying around.

And, of course, when you do this, you cannot then power on the “remains” of the old Mac, and then run Mac OS X on it.

Now, I’m sure a lot of you will post comments saying that “it’s a Mac OS X disc I paid for, and I can install it on whatever I want to.” To those that think that, I really encourage you to read the entire Apple Software License Agreement (for either Tiger or Leopard, respectively), and consult a legal professional in your state to go further.

Update: Since writing this, Apple has sued Psystar against their use of non-Mac hardware, selling custom-built PCs running Mac OS X. Psystar has defended their actions, promising a full court fight. It’s now up for the courts to decide if Apple can block this method of usage. We’ll hang in there until the courts do rule on the matter.