On 9 Dec 2009, at 23:13, Bruce Johnson <[email protected]> wrote:
> > On Dec 9, 2009, at 3:48 PM, Stewie de Young wrote: > >> >> There is no doubt in my mind that as soon as someone starts up a >> project like this to sell Apple hardware with a Mac OS then Apples >> legal dept would be knocking at the door quick smart with a cease >> and desist order. >> At the very least I'd say they would take more than a passing >> interest in this. >> In saying that though , I'd love a Pismo or Wallstreet with the >> grunt of a MacBook Pro > > Actually...possibly not. > > You're talking about selling an "upgrade" for a Pismo; this is not > much different than the G4 upgrades OWC sells and such, however, from > all the folks chiming in I have a sneaking suspicion that exactly NONE > of the people so enthusiastic about the idea have ANY clue about how > much work this entails. > > You're talking about developing a custom motherboard utilizing modern > chipsets that interface with the myriad connectors both standard and > undocumented present in the rest of the Pismo, AND making and selling > it cheaply enough that people too cheap to buy a modern mac laptop > will buy one. > > Good luck. LOOK at a laptop logic board sometime. This ain't > 'hobbyist' level work. People who can design entire motherboards tend > to be paid quite well; they alo tend to have very large companies > supporting them, too, because it isn't a cheap process. > > Surface mount electronics are finally starting to be more mainstream > in the hardware hobby hacker world, but as a rule are still largely > confined to a handful of components per board. Designing and making > that thing will cost thousands or tens of thousands of dollars right > up front. Short production runs of complex circuitry like that costs a > staggering amount of money...the ONLY reason laptops are cheap is that > if you make thousands of them you can set up an automated factory line > to crank 'em out. > > This is one reason the Pentagon ends up with $13,000 hammers and the > like: if you need 20 pieces of a complex circuit you're going to pay > exponentially more per piece than if you want 20,000. > > A more sensible approach would be to scour modern Intel-based laptops > for a logic board you can cram into the Pismo case and replace the LCD > panel with the one from the donor laptop (or decipher the undocumented > LCD connector for the Pismo, and fabricate an appropriate adapter for > the video on the donor motherboard). > > Oh yeah, and the power subsystem. And the optical and hard drives. > Don't forget the sound, and the correct connector for the wifi. > > Then treat it as a standard Hackintosh, and go from there. > > But this would be the casemod to end all casemods. > > Post pictures when you're done! Hmmm. As one of the 'me too's, I freely admit I have knowledge of electronics past 1st year of uni. That doesn't stop me wishing for 2009 speeds in the ultra-swappable Pismo case. <There now follows a short speech.> However, a moment's thought reminds me I've never achieved a hot-swap of EBMs under OSX. Scratch off major advantage. Another bit of thought: my Pismo is heavier than my 17-inch 2008 MacBook pro! Scratch off another reason. Another remaining reason of this mod (Pismo is sexier than MBP) is outweighed by MBP's far superior screen size and resolution. Also Pismo is USB 1.1: the new mobo would need USB 2 to play nice with my jPhone. Then, have you seen the wee fan in a Pismo. No chance it will cool an intel core-cupine! `I have a sneaking feeling that Pismo's case is sturdier than MBP's. But if we go down that line, why not try retrofitting a handbag-style iBook instead? And then the final hurdle. As far as I know, wherever we may be, we own our hardware and can do anything we like to it, from painting it pink to adding in 3rd party or homebrew peripherals or even converting it to a jetpack and hence saving the planet from alien hordes. But we only licence the macOS from Apple. A major term of the licence, which we agree to when we first open the packet or run the OS, is that we will only run it on genuine Apple kit or approved clones. Such a condition may well be morally dubious but it's surely wrong to deliberately break an agreement you made as a responsible adult. (You can't argue that this denies you basic human rights because you can do all the computing you need on other platforms. Of course you may not do it so well or efficiently but that's your choice.) So once we have our super-Pismo hardware, we'll need to run Linux or similar on it. So we have both hardware and software challenges ahead of us. Oh, the mac ROM is patented too. We'll need to write our own BIOS or licence EFI firmware. In general, we'll need a whole lot of FOSS! You may ask 'what about 3rd party processor upgrades? Apple doesn't vet them'. Good point but Apple can afford not to care. You've already bought a complete system from them. (Not that I like this cold commercialism at all.) They could try forbidding you using 3rd party stuff but that would be their funeral. They could say 'don't use it until we've tested it' but that would increase R&D costs we pay for and lead to another unholy mess like the App Store vetting nonsense. So basically, there are too many practical and legal issues for this to really fly. Still my heart is with a FOSSed-up, super-fast, liquid-helium-cool, hot-EBM-swapping jetpack. Bring on the alien hordes! Sent from my jeSs -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Books, a group for those using G3 iBooks and PowerBooks (we run a separate list for G4 'Books). The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-books.html and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To leave this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g-books Support for older Macs: http://lowendmac.com/services/
