We Interview EFiX Creators: OS X on PC

[chaohsiangchen]

[citation][nom]Keeper[/nom]uh...ain't his dongle just an EFI emulator in some kind of EFIX proprietary hardware ?Well if that's the case i think that there's a free solution out there called Boot-132...and free...lol[/citation]

Everybody gives him +1. Great post. I just ROFLMFAO.

 

[TheFace]

I for one, am really looking forward to this product. I just ordered a new mobo, an e8500 processor, and 8GB of RAM (its so cheap I couldn't pass up). I checked the EFiX website, and made sure the components that I chose are compatible. I love OSX. I've gone weeks without booting up my PC since my laptop is so much more enjoyable to use. I wanted to upgrade since I like to game, but this new product is an added benefit as well. I just hope they expand the video card support. You can check it out yourself at http://efi-x.com . Their site is lacking though, it seems incomplete which gives me some hesitation. Also interestingly, NO PATA devices are supported. Which means I'll need a new SATA optical drive.
@ chaohsiangchen, from what I seem to recall about the difference between Intel mobos used in Macs and Intel mobos in PCs is that the Mac ones don't "have" a BIOS. I could be wrong though.
@v12v12, I agree with your standpoint on linux. It's just not as friendly as OSX. Also I have no idea why this discussion table crumbled into Linux v. Windows when this product should be seen as an opportunity to allow people to see OSX on their Windows built system. I really don't care much for *nix, although I know that it is a big part of OSX.
BTW. I was a liquid cooled PC user, until my liquid cooling failed and I got a new excellent air cooling solution. I want to use this because this is a possibility of using the more secure OSX on my regular PC.

 

[TheFace]

Also just as an aside. From looking on their forums from their website, where people are attempting to get answers to questions like, 'Will X video card work with this?' or 'Is there support coming for this video card?', whoever they have answering the questions is extremely rude and curt. They don't answer questions that they feel have already been answered somewhere else in the forum or that should be available in the manual.
Still, I have to say this is promising, and I hope they invest in some PR, but if this is the way things are going to be, I don't know about it. I want to use OSX because it is a user friendly experience, but if I have to deal with grumpy programmers that are tired of responding to questions should anything not work as expected, then I may think twice about purchasing.

 

[chaohsiangchen]

[citation][nom]TheFace[/nom]@ chaohsiangchen, from what I seem to recall about the difference between Intel mobos used in Macs and Intel mobos in PCs is that the Mac ones don't "have" a BIOS. I could be wrong though.[/citation]

It has. They call it firmware from old PowerPC age when they got their "BIOS" from other companies which calls it firmware. Apple Corp even tried to make people believe their firmware is superior to BIOS on none macs. I don't want to beat the dead horse again, but BIOS is BIOS, no matter what marketing team of Apple Corp want to call it to fool consumers. I also don't want to beat another dead horse which named "OSX IS WORSE THAN VISTA AND UBUNTU ON SECURITY."

So, why don't you fix your liquid cooling system?

 

[TheFace]

The liquid cooling system never performed like I wanted it to. It came with my computer from IBUYPOWER.com, and my Pentium D 830 always idled around 65C and under load it would get up to 85-90 and eventually would overheat. Got a new Cooler Master Hyper TX-2 and dropped the temps down to 45-65C.

 

[chaohsiangchen]

Most likely due to pump failure or flow obstruction right out of box. That's why I buy from newegg brand for exotic computers. Actually, part of my water cooling kit came from aquarium supply.

 

[cruiseoveride]

[citation][nom]spaztic7[/nom][/citation]

They use a big fat firmware that gets broken into a tree of devices as seen by the kernel, its a very old method of booting, usually used with ppc boxes. But its more powerful, as the feature set is much easily changed, more and more manufacturers are making x86 EFI boards.

 

[Guest]

I myself was a mac user and was converted into a OSX86 geek... it goes in reverse for me for some reason

 

[neiroatopelcc]

Technical question (I don't give a damn about the eula concerns):
If the usb part intercepts this tremendous amount of data and manipulates it, I'm worried about bandwidth!
I mean - the usb 2 hub is limited to 480mbit right? so if you have that thing plugged in it'll be completely impossible to use a blueray or a high quality webcam on the same controller forcing you to buy a seperate usb2 controller for said purpose?
And what about general system speed? It has to get affected somehow if all those chipset calls are directed thru the usb controller. Especially considering the many pci express paths available to the north and southbridge in contrast to a single usb 2 'channel' ...

I'd love to see some benchmarks for an original and a similar specced clone - there are benchmarks for osx right?

 

[TheFace]

Open a paper bag, and breath into it. SLOWLY. It's only used for startup. It doesn't take over for the processor.

 

[wavebossa]

Very interesting Idea. I mean, i could care less about running OS X, but the idea is still pretty cool for those who like macs.

 

[Joe_The_Dragon]

[citation][nom]neiroatopelcc[/nom]Technical question (I don't give a damn about the eula concerns):If the usb part intercepts this tremendous amount of data and manipulates it, I'm worried about bandwidth!I mean - the usb 2 hub is limited to 480mbit right? so if you have that thing plugged in it'll be completely impossible to use a blueray or a high quality webcam on the same controller forcing you to buy a seperate usb2 controller for said purpose? And what about general system speed? It has to get affected somehow if all those chipset calls are directed thru the usb controller. Especially considering the many pci express paths available to the north and southbridge in contrast to a single usb 2 'channel' ...I'd love to see some benchmarks for an original and a similar specced clone - there are benchmarks for osx right?[/citation]

 

[Joe_The_Dragon]

They have plans for a pci or pci-e card.

There are more then 1 usb bus on to days systems.

blueray on usb in a desktop???? Firewire, sata and ide are much better and likely cost less.

 

[neiroatopelcc]

Are you sure there is more than one hub ? it would be great really, but appearently no matter where I plug my second webcam at home (ich9r), I get a message telling me there isn't enough bandwidth available...

 

[jawshoeaw]

I'd say as a Linux noob that Ubuntu was way easier to learn than say Windows 95 back in the day. Whenever I have a problem I google it and problem is (usually) solved. Can't say the same about my Vista box - don't get me wrong, Vista works most of the time, but when it has a problem, I can never get it solved.

But here's a dose of reality for the Tom's crowd. Mac OS allows lots of people to use a computer who can't/won't otherwise. My roommate has an older Mac laptop and she's clueless about PCs and all things technical. yet she seems to be quite productive on her Mac. Don't know if it's a chick thing or an OS thing or what, but for some people, Mac OS really makes a difference. Get over it.

 

[neiroatopelcc]

OSX probably is userfriendly, but vista isn't that bad either really.

My grandma has a laptop with vista and seems to manage okay. The last two problems she had:
1) some months ago her internet ceased to work. She had turned off the wireless via the button on the front of the laptop. Not a vista issue
2) last week she couldn't get on msn messenger. Turns out she forgot to write her email address, and only wrote her password (mind you she is not a teenager anymore). Again not a gui issue.

Her vista works just fine and always has. And she by no means can be regarded as a computer techie. I don't know if she'd be more comfortable with osx, but then I don't think she would, since nobody in my family can assist her with that if need be.

 

[werfu]

EULA are not enforcable in Canada. Therefore, it is perfectly legal to run MacOS X onto something else than a Mac.

 

[Guest]

OSX is for people who have better things to do than fiddle and futz around trying to get x to work with y and spend half there life searching the internet for updated drivers and posts for why their machine keeps BSODing. I've been a poweruser and support worker of Unix/Linux/Dos/Windows3.x/Windows95/NT/2000/XP/Vista/System7/8/9 and OSX for the last 30 years. If you want to use your computer to get things done, be creative, enjoy the process, and have time for other things - get a mac - period. If your slowly draining-away life is worth little to you, waste your time and/or money on the other hacks.

At the moment, OSX is the state of the art. Study the history of OS technology and this will become quickly evident to you. But it's your life - feel free to squander it in ignorance and jealousy as you see fit. Bash away...

 

[spaztic7]

OSX is for people who have better things to do than fiddle and futz around trying to get x to work with y and spend half there life searching the internet for updated drivers and posts for why their machine keeps BSODing. I've been a poweruser and support worker of Unix/Linux/Dos/Windows3.x/Windows95/NT/2000/XP/Vista/System7/8/9 and OSX for the last 30 years. If you want to use your computer to get things done, be creative, enjoy the process, and have time for other things - get a mac - period. If your slowly draining-away life is worth little to you, waste your time and/or money on the other hacks.

At the moment, OSX is the state of the art. Study the history of OS technology and this will become quickly evident to you. But it's your life - feel free to squander it in ignorance and jealousy as you see fit. Bash away...

Heh, that’s funny. I can't remember the last time I needed to upgrade my drives (I choose to, which is nice because at least I have a choice), had a BSOD (since I switched to Vista 64bit from XP, I may have seen one when I had an Nvidia card during the first month Vista was out), futzed around trying to get X to work with Y (mainly because you don’t have that issue with Windows, it just works. Although Mac, you do. Software compatibility is not Apples strong point.), and I have more compatibility with more hardware and more software for my Windows box than I do with my Mac box.

State of the art is only as far as the user will see it to be. Not only that, but OSX better be "state of the art"! Apple is on their 10.5 try and soon to be what... 10.6 try (snow leprosy)? Hell, they have more versions than AOL! Microsoft is coming out with W7 in a year or so. W stands for Windows and the 7 means its their seventh windows operating system version. OSX is Apple operating system (OS) and the X stand for 10, and is their 10.5th operating system. So Apple’s 10.5th OS may be marginally better than Microsoft’s 6 OS (Vista). Go Apple!

As a computer user, I am not ignorant. Ignorance would mean that I don't know what I am talking about or just having a lack of knowledge. As a computer use I prefer best bang for my buck and what will be more supported and easier to use. Apple looses in all those markets. The only thing I am jealous of is when a better component comes out. Then I upgrade to it. Maybe you should put a 4870x2 or GTX280 in your Mac... Wait, you can't. Nvidia and ATi do not have drivers for those cards, lack of support I thinks? I am glade you can squander your money on something overpriced and not as useful. Have fun with it. I am going to go play a game. Want to play Crysis with me, you can use your Mac.... wait.... Never mind.

 

[Guest]

I really wonder how efi-x can be legal under the DMCA - it contains Apple's AES keys in order to get the binary protection satisfied. I would not buy it...
Massimo

 

[Joe_The_Dragon]

Apple can use the DMCA to lock there os. lexmark tryed that with INK and they LOST THE CASE.

 

[Guest]

The funny thing is, the AES keys (OSK0 and OSK1) contain a string saying "...(C)APPLEINC".

That string need to be found inside of EFI-X aswell. Means you find a (c)Apple String in a device that is made by a third party. IMHO darkest greyzone - almost shortly before illegal. IMHO same thing like with the pirate smartcards...

 

[Guest]

So let me guess --they are using an embedded processor-on-a-stick that boots up and emulates a USB thumbdrive to serve the hacked firmware only to a booting PC... in the event you plug it into an already running PC, I'm guessing it serves a bunch of mumbo jumbo ....thus to get at the secret goodies, you would have to hack into it, in which case they would probably sue you (or rather Apple) under the DMCA... so the theory would be that unless apple violates the DMCA they can't prove the device is violating the DMCA. Sounds like something an Engineer would dream up, but easily defeated by obtaining a court order, lol.

 

[srdailey]

[citation][nom]spaztic7[/nom]What!?If you are referring to my post, those are the opening lyrics to the song Civil War by Guns-N-Roses.[/citation]

umm, before that was sampled for civil war, it was from the paul newman classic "cool hand luke." watch a movie once in a while.

 

[spaztic7]

Is it now? Thanks, I didn't know.

I would love to have time to watch a movie... sadly full time work and school prohibit me from doing so.

I will take your recommendation and watch it as soon as possible.

SPAZTIC OUT!