Apple products are what they are, EULAs and all.

Intellectual property may be composed of bits transported by electrons, but it has worth. That worth is protected by a license. Note that when you “buy” a retail software package, you are buying a license with specific, limited rights to the use of that software under certain terms and conditions. You are not buying the software, outright, and you are not buying unlimited rights to do with it what you please.

Some pretty ignorant people are engaging in some pretty unethical, immoral, and illegal behavior by deliberately breaking EULAs and loading OS X on PCs. So what? You can physically do it. But it’s breaking the law. Would you consider this more or less wrong than stealing from a bank, DWI/DUI, or cheating on your spouse?

Hackintoshing is breach of contract, pure and simple. Who cares if the ATOM is suddenly unable to run MAC OS X, except for a bunch of petty criminals?

Respect the creative community. Don’t steal software or creative content.

@Larry,

I’m not saying anything of the kind.

I’m just pointing out that the assertion “Apple doesn’t read rumor blogs, …” is false. Apple has a reputation for threatening websites with legal action if they don’t remove (e.g.) leaked screenshots, future product photos, etc., so clearly someone at Apple (i.e., their legal department) is looking at rumor sites, even if only in response to tips they might receive.

I’m also wondering aloud whether a technical change in the Mac OS X code would necessarily require management approval. It should, but that might not necessarily be the case, especially if involves re-enabling a feature that had been [mistakenly] disabled.

I am certainly not suggesting that Apple’s lawyers would routinely be handing out technical guidance.

@Dave52,

You’re saying that it would be illegal for Apple to remove Atom support from OS X? You’re saying Apple’s lawyers ordered Apple to re-enable Atom support? Is that what your are implying? Wow, just wow.

Everyone has their favorite “bug” that they just know will be fixed by the 10.6.2 update. They may be only one of six people in the entire world that has the “bug” but they are confident that Apple is fully aware of the problem even of it’s not really a bug but some stupidity on their part. Then, when 10.6.2 is released and doesn’t address their “bug”, they switch to full outrage mode. They shower the blogs and forums with the typical “doesn’t Apple test this stuff before releasing it?” screed. It’s a hilarious pattern that repeats over and over again. There’s no convincing them that their “bug” is really caused by some third party hack or system corruption. Nope, it’s Apple’s fault and they’re gonna tell the world by god. roflmao!

“Apple doesn’t read rumor blogs, nor care about what the reaction of rumor blog readers is. [...]“

Maybe Apple management doesn’t read rumor blogs, but their lawyers certainly must. And would a technical directive from management necessarily be required to re-enable Atom support?

You’re giving too much credence to the original rumor — absolutely not “news” — that Apple removed Atom support in one build.

Of course, that claim, though widely repeated, sourced from somebody who chose to remain anonymous. If I had discovered that I couldn’t install the beta on MY Hackintosh, I certainly would’ve reported it anonymously. But the report could be as simple as an accidental glitch in the somewhat complex installation process to get OSX to play with the Dells.

I’m no stranger to using, and hacking ultra-portables; I upgraded my WAAY ahead-of-its-time 2400c Powerbook (10″ screen; 4 lbs) with a new CPU. I know it’s not exactly smooth as glass. But while Apple may yet choose to lock down OSX to only run on its own hardware, this looks like a bunch of pre-emptive posturing by the hacker community.

What will be in 10.6.2, besides a fix to the Guest account bug? Probably not very much. There have been reports of sluggish behavior on the 27-in. iMac, but it would be more typical for Apple to address this with a separate firmware update. So will there any surprises? Probably not, but if somebody forced me to go out on a limb, I’d say just possibly the universal introduction of iPhone-like smooth scrolling, which has just been added on the special standalone Magic Mouse software release.

“Did Apple read the rumor blogs and realize they had made a dreadful mistake?”

I can’t tell if you’re being facetious or not, but the answer is NO. For two reasons:

1. The turnaound on the update restoring Atom functionality was too quick to allow for management notice, management decision, and implementation action;

2. Apple doesn’t read rumor blogs, nor care about what the reaction of rumor blog readers is. Apple doesn’t design to focus groups, they design to their internal standards.