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Snow Leopard does not do netbooks
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What? Would I mess up your netbook?
Don’t plan on running Mac OS 10.6.2 on your netbook any time soon. Apple's newly released update for Snow Leopard has broken all support for Intel's Atom processor.
The Atom is the CPU typically used in netbooks. According to OS X Daily, “It has been confirmed that the final release of 10.6.2 kills Intel Atom support officially.”
Apparently, as has been rumored on several sites recently, Snow Leopard has slyly caused the so-called Hackintosh PCs, using the Atom processor, to go into a startup-loop. This occurs if the 10.6.2 update is installed on the netbook. OS X Daily goes on to report that netbook forums are "blowing up with problems of 10.6.2 instant rebooting their Atom-based notebooks."
Apple, ever the faithful guardian of their unique hardware and software relationship, has refused to unbundle their hardware and software. In fact, they have threatened and followed through with litigation of companies who have attempted to manufacture Mac clones. Furthermore, Apple in general, and Steve Jobs specifically, have eschewed offering anything not made of metal and weighing less than five pounds—in other words they refuse to offer an Apple netbook to business users. It’s kind of a “I don’t make it so you can’t have it” mindset.
It is no secret that Apple has been miffed at users who have successfully converted netbooks intended to run Windows XP Home into full-blown Mac OS X machines. Apparently, they decided that enough was enough. They added a “feature” to assure that users cannot install Snow Leopard’s most recent version on their business netbooks. This suggests that a fairly large number of users must have been able to pull this trick off with their netbooks.
Of course, who knows how long it will be until some enterprising hacker figures out a way to work around this limitation. It’s simply a punch and counter punch in the world of computer one-upmanship.
In the meanwhile, if your business owns “legitimate” Macintosh computers, you can feel free to download and install the nearly 500 MB Combo 10.6.2 update. However, if your business has one of those illicit Hacintosh netbooks, well you best stay at 10.5.x (Leopard) or at one of the earlier versions of Snow Leopard—at least for now.
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