Daniel Lovell has won more than two dozen awards for his columns, editorials and investigative journalism. He is actively addicted to the Internet, soda and New York Yankees baseball.
I must say I'm much more than a little disappointed at the developments in the PsyStar story.
For those of you who don't know, PsyStar raised a bit of a ruckus in the tech world last week when it announced it was selling the Open Computer -- an other-than-Apple computer that comes with the Mac OS X Leopard operating system pre-installed -- and willfully violating Apple's end user license agreement.
This was pretty exciting news, because it showed that someone finally had the guts to challenge the legality of Apple's EULA, which PsyStar claimed was akin to Honda dictating that their cars be driven only on Honda-friendly roads. The Open Computer, PsyStar said, would allow users to see what makes Leopard tick, and to develop new apps that wouldn't be possible for Mac users.
At this writing, unfortunately, the tech community has more questions than praise for PsyStar. And none of the questions has anything to do with the Apple challenge.
Bloggers started digging around to find out who PsyStar really is. And from what they've discovered, PsyStar isn't much. Or, at least, it isn't much yet. The company has changed addresses three times, and telephone calls have gone unanswered. Its credit-card processor bailed on Psystar on Wednesday, after it found out what the company was selling.
I find the negative publicity here unfortunate because, frankly, the PsyStar's philosophy about Apple is entirely correct.
The Apple EULA is improperly restrictive, and at the very least constitutes monopolistic actions. Want OS X? Gotta have a Mac. Spend the $2,000 minimum. What if Microsoft operated that way?
Many argue that Apple makes the best operating system on the market. That may be entirely true. But in order to use that operating system, Apple forces you to purchase one of its entirely over-priced machines. And the truth is, once you've purchased that operating system, it's none of Apple's business what machine you're running it on.
Fanboys say Apple does all this to ensure the best possible experience. That's nonsense. It's about money. And it's about the Apple religion, which has way too many people fooled into buying products based on zealotry.
Jim Jones once talked thousands of people into giving him all their worldly possessions and moving with him to a remote island, all because they were convinced that his way was the right way. Steve Jobs now does the same thing, talking people into mindlessly turning over too much money for gadgets, just for the privelege of occupying AppleTown -- a place where the select few huddle, clinging desperately to their very pretty MacBook Airs and iPhones, believing they are somehow better and righter than the rest of the world.
