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Originally Posted by cfleck Is it possible for OS X for x86 to be out there and only run on Mac hardware?
What DRM/protection scheme can they possibly implement that won't be broken in relatively short order? |
Yes, this is a very simple extension of what Apple already does today with various OS installers.
The OS gives all applications access to hardware level identifications. This is some of the very detailed information you see in Apple System Profiler.
Like applications, the OS can simply look at this information and refuse to run unless is sees propritary Apple identifications on various component, not limited to the CPU.
It would not be difficult for Intel to make otherwise vanilla CPU's that identify themselves as "apple...". Even lacking this cooperation from Intel, Apple makes thier own motherboards, which also have unique id's.
Be clear, this is not a Digital Rights Management (DRM) sort of thing like in iTunes Music Store files. This is simply some logic built into the OS to do a very specific hardware check.
To break this, hackers would need to ge the hardware to "report" the Apple specific info. So this is quite a bit more difficult than hacking sofware. (Although I'm not sure if this can be done at the ROM/BIOS levels... [Hey... Will x86 Mac's have a ROM or BIOS?])
This is why Apple always has to do a x.x.1 point release each time they release new hardware. All they are doing with these releases is giving the OS the info it needs to check and okay the new hardware codes.