Date: Wed, 21 Aug 2002 21:28:51 -0500 From: David Kelly <dkelly@hiwaay.net> To: Josh Paetzel <friar_josh@webwarrior.net> Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: FreeBSD on a Mac Message-ID: <20020822022851.GA80767@grumpy.dyndns.org> In-Reply-To: <1029964014.226.3.camel@markx.vladsempire.net> References: <69122C86-B56D-11D6-8C70-003065715DA8@pursued-with.net> <1029964014.226.3.camel@markx.vladsempire.net>
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On Wed, Aug 21, 2002 at 09:06:53PM +0000, Josh Paetzel wrote: > > In my experience THAT is nonsense. Go open up a SunBlade 100 or recent > PPC. Hell, SGI has given in the point of just using intel cpus. The > reason people aren't cloning Macs is legal, not technological. Apple > didn't release the Power PC into the public domain ala IBM. Neither did IBM. For years IBM collected royalties on PC clones. The modern PC motherboard market was spawned by avoiding IBM's royalties. A MB was still "parts" but when a CPU was attached the royalty schedule started. Mom&PopShops could purchase MB and CPU separately for less, and assemble themselves. Those who agreed quickly to IBM's licensing got favorable rates. IBM fought the BIOS clones tooth and nail in court. Ultimately one could not simply copy the IBM BIOS but only had to replace about 2k of object code to make a MB which would boot and run DOS. Ultimately even IBM gave up putting BASIC in ROM but for a long time that was the only reliable way for software to detect Genuine IBM. -- David Kelly N4HHE, dkelly@hiwaay.net ===================================================================== The human mind ordinarily operates at only ten percent of its capacity -- the rest is overhead for the operating system. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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