Mac OS X Copy Protection
From Scott:
Hi,
My belief is that Apple may be imposing a scheme in which OS X will
only run on authentic Apple hardware [see Is DRM in Mac OS X Anything to
Fear?, ed.]. All too often people violate the terms of the
OS X license by installing it on non-Apple hardware. (No, taking
an Apple logo off a dead iMac G3 and putting it over the HP logo
doesn't count as Apple-branded).
I don't think they will get as extreme as WGA, only because there
has been much criticism of WGA, which generates some "false alarms" at
times from what I have heard. However, I do think they will try to cut
down on the number of people who hack non-Apple hardware to run OS X,
and if there is more to this patent than I think, they will also look
for those who try to run the same copy (non-family pack) on all of
their machines.
If there is a system in which serials are checked, a good idea may
be to call Apple and tell them which computer's serial number is being
deactivated. For example, if your iMac's hard drive dies and you're
going to use the retail copy of Leopard you bought on your laptop, they
could clear the system and also make it so that the system would not
reinstall on that iMac by blocking its serial number in the database.
Of course, this could be undone "x" amount of days later by calling
them back, making it so the laptop would be the "crippled" one and the
iMac once again the machine for use with that particular copy of the
system.
Human interaction always makes transactions more secure, in my
opinion, and I think Apple would be wise to do this if they implemented
some sort of serial check system because they have, in my opinion,
always been user-friendly in every aspect from tech support to the
interface itself. It wouldn't surprise me if Apple has a system this
easy accessible via both Web and phone (the phone would be mandatory
for those whose hard drives have died altogether).
Scott
Hi Scott,
You are a lot more tolerant of DRM than I am.
I wouldn't do it myself for a variety of reasons, of
among which ethics would appear somewhere in the list, but I do have
one good friend running Leopard on a Pentium 4 Dell tower, and it works
surprisingly well - a lot faster than on this 17" PowerBook G4!
If the DRM was of limited scope to prevent that, it
wouldn't affect me one way or the other, although my friend - a
longtime Mac fan and evangelist - would likely jump ship rather than
carrying on to get a Macintel laptop.
However, philosophically I resent any form of DRM, and
as I indicated in the article, IMHO if one can't stomach the
proprietary restrictions, the honorable alternative is to go Open
Source and run Linux. I hope Apple doesn't push me to that.
Charles
Apple's DRM Patent for Mac OS X
From Neohaven:
I would like to point out, once again, that the said DRM is to
restrict to specific hardware platforms.
Hackintoshes are not a valid hardware platform for Apple.
Thus they want to block it out, which raises no concerns on my side. We
are not talking about a WGA-style authentication at all.
Parts [0012] to [0016] near the end of
the [patent application] talk about how one would differentiate an
Apple computer from a standard Intel PC.
Go check it out, you will see it's a very valid concern, and it has
nothing to do with unauthorized copies of software installed on genuine
Intel Macs.
Yours,
Neohaven
Hi Neohaven,
I hope you're right and that it's limited to that, but
I still don't want Apple checking up on me, even though I haven't the
slightest intention of trying to install the Mac OS on a Hackintosh or
PC box.
It's a matter of principle. I despise the whole
concept of DRM snooping.
Charles
DRM in OS X to Cut Apple's Losses
From Bill:
Hi,
I don't think you're riding the right horse on this one.
How much revenue does Apple lose each year because people "bootleg "
their software? OS X is Unix based. That means it can be hacked
and installed on non-Apple hardware. (My neighbor did it, and he had
never used a Mac before his little experiment.) So how about hacking
iTunes or Final Cut? Possible? How much money would Apple lose then? If
you were to invest in Apple computer and were told they give away their
best product, would you do it?
How can people be sure this software is any good? "I got it from my
buddy who got it from his cousin's next door neighbor's best friend."
And who the hell says I can't give it to you? "improvements" and
all.
Well, I wouldn't want it, because you have no certainty that it has
not been tampered with.
DRM software is legitimate. It allows Apple to protect their
legitimate work.
Bill
Hi Bill,
We're far apart on this issue. People can agree to
disagree in good faith.
Maybe your neighbor will like the Mac OS so much that
he'll eventually buy a real Mac. Even if he doesn't, as you say, he'd
never used the Mac OS before, so did Apple lose anything? Not as far as
I can see.
It's like the RIAA, the SIAA (formerly SPA), and others basing their
purported "losses" from piracy on the number of tunes downloaded or
estimated percentage of software apps installed without authorization.
In a pig's eye! I doubt that the real losses would be 10% of what they
contend in terms of people who would have purchased the application if
they hadn't been able to download (which incidentally is still legal in
Canada for casual private use) or pirate it.
My copy of Leopard is bought and paid for and
installed on a real Mac, but I wouldn't tolerate DRM snoopware checking
up on me periodically regardless as a matter of principle.
Charles
Ubuntu Works, but More Utilitarian than OS X
From Richard:
Hello Charles-
Greetings from the 45th Parallel on the left edge of the North
American continent, here in Sunny Salem, Oregon!
I've been reading, with some interest, all of the commotion about
the possible DRM-ization of OS X. I am one of those "mostly
compliant" with the various EULAs attendant with most software and
don't have any real problem with Apple, Inc. remaining a viable and
profitable corporate entity. I do object, though, to the compromises
that DRM software imposes on the smooth productivity that we pay for
and expect to receive when we invest in the "Macintosh System". When
one pays the "premium" price for a Mac (whatever), one is also
committing to a "premium" operating system and specialized software
that can't be bought at every big-box megalomart. The introduction of
an efficiency crippling "feature" is, frankly, insulting to the loyal
core following that stuck with Apple through the "beleaguered" days and
have been enjoying the fruits of the Apple tree the past few years.
My most modern Mac, a Power Mac Gigabit Ethernet
with a 1 GHz G4 processor upgrade, will likely be left behind with the
next iteration of OS X (and I have yet to give up on Tiger!), so I
am looking at a serious hardware upgrade should I want to move up to
10.6 and beyond. If those versions are anywhere as annoying as Vista
is, with it's constant need for affirmation and verification, I will
likely be looking elsewhere. That brings me to my other point:
I have an old Celeron 900 MHz Intel box that I finally got around to
purging of Windows 2000. I thought about installing an old copy of
SUSE Linux on it, but I read a
few articles on Ubuntu Linux and
figured why not - it's free! I burned a disc, installed it and
. . . it worked!!! I didn't have to do a darned thing
except wait a while for all of the stuff to load (well under an hour)
and type in the usual user info and password stuff. It recognized all
of the video and sound cards, scanner, DVD drive, Zip drive (!), and my
ancient LaserWriter printer -
impressive!!!
Granted, the user interface isn't as smooth and pretty as Tiger,
Leopard, or Vista, and many of the programs are "utilitarian" with few
frills, but they work well and require a minimal learning curve when
moving from Mac or Windows. In fact, those moving from Windows 98 or
OS 9 and earlier will feel absolutely liberated! I have little
doubt that the GUI will improve with time. My biggest frustration with
Ubuntu is that "Command-Q" doesn't do anything. I'm told that I can fix
that, however!
I hope that it doesn't come to the point of having to abandon the
Mac over something like DRM. Apple has done some really bone-headed
things in the past, though....
Rick
Hi Rick,
"Mostly compliant." Love it! ;-)
I could have written your second paragraph myself, as
it expresses my own philosophy on this issue.
Delighted to hear about your successful Ubuntu
install. I installed SUSE Linux for PPC and later Yellow Dog Linux
on my old WallStreet
back in the early '00s, and while the process was not too grim, it
certainly wasn't convenient, and the Linux Desktop GUIs at the time
were still pretty lame. I understand that the latest from KDE and GNOME
are quite decent.
Using Leopard for going on two months now, I keep
wondering if Vista could be any more annoying in a functional sense,
although I anticipate better things as the fractional updates roll out.
What a contrast to smooth, slick Tiger!
BTW, I still have both a SCSI Zip drive and a Zip
drive expansion bay module for my Pismos.
I rally don't want to bail from the Mac OS either
(understatement), but it's good to know that there is an Open Source
alternative one could learn to live with.
Charles
BSD Unix: Another non-DRM Alternative to Linux
From Jeffrey:
Charles,
...in my experience it requires more work than
most computer users would tolerate.
I'll make no claims to being a *BSD or Linux expert, or even a power
user, for that matter. I once did an iBook G3 "all free" experiment
just to see what I could do from a free and open source software
standpoint, and I was very surprised, both pleasantly and unpleasantly
at the same time. There is a lot there, but almost all of it is
different than what we Mac users are accustomed to, and in my
experience it requires more work than most computer users would
tolerate. When I was done, I had a basic business laptop that could do
most of my usual PC work tasks: Office compatibility for word
processing, spreadsheets, and presentations, web browsing, email, etc.
I couldn't make it do everything, but I was impressed with what I
could make it do. Even where it performed similar functions, the
applications that did them were different and required relearning or an
adjustment in my usage.
And there are a couple of things I can do with a *BSD or Linux
system that I can't do on any Mac. But open source is not as polished
and complete as a Mac, and it lacked many of the features
(automation/scripting, integration, networking, cross-platform
compatibility, drivers, etc.) that we've become accustomed to. In a
nutshell, the open source road leads to many places, but also has its
share of dead-ends, unpaved roads, and unfinished bridges.
Of course, I find the Mac to be far from a universal system. My
wife's business benefits greatly specialized software, more than half
of which is available only for the PC. If her office was
Linux-based or BSD-based, then all of that "vertical" software
would need to be run on a PC, but the outcome would be the same: two
platforms. Even a PC couldn't do everything that she does, it's just
that we'd have to supplement it less. My company chooses to use PCs
too, but our graphics arts folks use Macs, and our analysts run their
most demanding work on 64-bit Linux systems. Today, *BSD for me is a
supplement to Mac OS, not a replacement.
In the end, I am not unhappy to pay Apple a fair price for an
excellent product. But I want flexibility without headache. I have five
Macs at home, and my wife has two at work, and their roles are
constantly changing. I've purchased every significant version of the
Mac OS since 7.6, usually multiple copies, and when a new machine
arrives in the family, there is often a domino effect as to what I do
with the others. I've also had some of my old equipment die without
warning, making it difficult to "unregister" anything. I'd hate to have
it consume a software license number in the process.
I own an iPod, but there is not one DRM song or video on it.
Everything is an MP3 or self-encoded QuickTime Movie, so I can move my
library to the Mac that has that role without having to reregister the
thousands of songs and videos that I purchased. If Apple makes it more
difficult to do those things, it will not necessarily give me a reason
to leave, but it certain takes away a very strong reason to stay.
Regards,
Jeffrey Kafer
Hi Jeffrey,
Thanks for the further report on BSD.
It may be a lot of work, but then I've found Leopard a
lot of work. Sometimes I feel like I'm back in the late 90s with daily
restarts necessary after Spaces craps out or (most recently) it refuses
to recognize an external keyboard (the PowerBook's own keyboard
continued to work fine).
I think your points in paragraphs three and four are
bang-on. Like I said in the article, I refuse to buy anything protected
by DRM unless it's a necessity and there is absolutely no acceptable
alternative.
Charles
The Power of Eudora
From Chuck:
Hi Charles,
Read with interest your recent Low
End Mac article on Eudora - I wholeheartedly concur! I've been
using Eudora since . . . forever . . . like maybe
1993 or even earlier - and have a 3+ GB email archive. Madness you say?
Well, in total agreement with your comments on the fast searching
features, I've used Eudora over the years not only as an email client,
but also as database for filing lots of news, info, etc. I thought that
after I'd set up an extensive mailbox hierarchy, why replicate it in a
folder structure on the hard drive? Works for me.
Actually, the primary reason I've stuck with Eudora is very simple:
it doesn't use a flat database for storage like most other clients.
Simply stated, I travel a huge amount, always with multiple
portable FireWire drives, and the odds of recovering from catastrophe
with Eudora are much greater. (Don't get me started about the travesty
that is MS mail products).
Anyway, so here's a question: when you migrated from Eudora on
Classic to Eudora on OS X, what did you do? Install new Eudora,
then copy in which parts of the Eudora Folders?
Yep, I actually am still running Eudora Pro 4.2.1 in Classic under
10.4.11 and 10.3.9; works fine but maybe I should move on from being a
total Luddite (yes, I know about death of Classic with Leopard, but I
have no plans to go for that cat until it's proven in for a while)
Moving on from Classic . . . sigh, now just need a real
upgrade to WordPerfect . . .
a single program which in and of itself is a good reason to keep
Classic around....
thanks,
Chuck
Hi Chuck,
I agree. The flexibility, economy of space used, and
security of Eudora's message storage format is one of the program's
most valuable features. I mean I have surely tens of thousands of
emails archived in my Eudora Mail folder, dating back to when I first
got online in the mid-90s, and it's still just a 304 MB file - quick
and easy to back up or transfer. Amazing!
As for your question, when I was still alternating
back and forth between OS X and OS 9 (on the same hard
drive), I didn't bother to copy anything. I just installed the
respective Eudora versions and replaced the Eudora Folder for one
system with an alias to the Eudora Folder for the other system. That
way everything stayed automatically synched with no hassle or bother at
all. In fact, I still use a similar mode with the two OS X
installations (Tiger and Leopard) that I have on separate partitions of
my hard drive.
Just another example of Eudora's remarkable
flexibility and convenience.
You're missing a lot of headaches by giving Leopard a
pass until it's more thoroughly debugged. I'm using it, but it's an
adventure.
Charles
Eudora/Dialup Musings
From Reina:
Hi Charles
Just wanted to thank you for your article, Eudora Broken with Dial-up in Leopard, but Where
to Go Next?
I have an Intel iMac and upgraded to Leopard for various reasons. I
decided to switch to Mail due to Eudora's demise, but every day I
regret that decision. There were countless features I used constantly
in Eudora that are simply unavailable in Mail. Although you can buy a
few plugins that improve Mail, it still doesn't begin to bring it up to
the speed and functionality I had with Eudora. (Address Book and iCal
were even worse, and I had to revert to Now Contact and UpToDate.)
Mail is very, very slow on dialup, and forget about trying to
sync to .mac with a dialup connection.
Like you, I'm stuck with dialup for at least another year or two. I
live in rural Vermont, and there just aren't many options out here.
You were spot on when you wrote that "Apple seems to have more or
less thrown us dialup users to the wolves."
Let's hope that Odysseus
appears soon and saves the day. But I'm very, very disappointed in
Apple for failing to improve its suite of basic email, calendar, and
contact applications.
Reina
Hi Reina,
Sounds like we're in the same boat regarding
dialup.
I'm very, very disappointed with Apple for ruining
email performance in general with Leopard. I haven't found any
email application that works decently on my dialup connection with
Leopard.
This seems totally unnecessary, as email works very
well on my hookup with Tiger and earlier versions of the Mac OS. I'm no
programmer, but how hard can it be to optimize email throughput?
I'm hoping for improvement with OS X 10.5.2, but based
on Apple's recent neglect of the still-substantial proportion of
computer users who don't have access to broadband (about 20% of the
population here in Nova Scotia), it's not a very lively hope.
And yes, if you're like me, Eudora has ruined you for
any other email application. Whatever's in second place (I don't even
have a second-choice favorite - everything else I've tried is lame by
comparison) is not even marginally satisfactory.
I hope they come through with Odysseus.
Charles
Adding AirPort to a White iBook
From Dan:
Hi . . . interesting piece about older white iBooks [Is a Used iBook Still a Sensible Low-end
Option?]....
I have a white iBook that was given to me. It has no AirPort Card. I
want to install wireless capability but don't know how. What is easiest
to do? I researched on line to other forums but got a headache trying
to weave thru inane posts . . . Apple won't email back
. . . what else is new?
Can you quickly help me? good karma grateful :-)
Thanks
Dan
Hi Dan,
Apple actually does have an answer for this question,
and an illustrated tutorial on the installation even: iBook, iBook
(FireWire) and iBook SE (FireWire): Customer-Installable Parts
Procedures
If you want to go third-party to save some $$
(involves soldering), here's an indie tutorial on the process: iBook G3 Airport Card Mod
on MacMod.
Hope this helps.
Charles
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