For some reason, a TON of attention has been tossed the way of a company called "Open Tech."

The firm, which refuses to disclose its location, and its "legal team," one of whom refuses to give his full name when speaking to the press, are claiming to sell computers that can run OS X.

Unlike lawsuit magnet Psystar, however, these guys won't actually sell you a computer with OS X preinstalled, or pre-bundled. You have to install it yourself.

The machines are made up of PC hardware, come pre-installed with a PC operating system, but you have the option of installing OS X if you yourself want to violate Apple's EULA. Anyone familiar with the Hackintosh project knows exactly where I'm going with this.

You can do this exact same thing with pretty much any new PC. Every PC vendor in the world is unknowingly peddling the same type of "Mac clones" as Open Tech, only they don't advertise it.

To recap, these guys want you to send hundreds or even thousands of dollars to a company in parts unknown that may or may not exist, for a computer that may or may not exist (their "product" pages simply show photos of empty cases) when you can spend less to get essentially the same thing from your local computer store or simply build it yourself.

If it's not a complete scam, it's a pretty shady operation, and a bad deal without a doubt.

26 Jul 2008