Cupertino (ip-192.com): The upcoming Mac OS X Leopard 10.6.2 will not run on the Intel Atom processor, according to several news reports. The Atom processor is widely used in netbooks, a lately very popular stripped down version of a laptop. If the reports are true, Apple will break many netbooks which have been hacked to run as more than passable Macs, selling for a fraction of the price.
Apple is in a constant battle with unlockers. It recently succeeded in killing iPhone jail-breaking for the time being and cutting off the Palm Pre from iTunes. Typically, users purchase more affordable machines and then install a version of Snow Leopard, essentially getting a Mac or OS X multi-boot machine without Apple's luxury prices. Mac OS X 10.6.2, the forthcoming update for Snow Leopard, will update almost 150 components of the operating system. The latest beta addresses issues with the Dock, ColorSync, QuartzCore and graphic driver components, among others.
"You can't help but suspect this move is Apple's attempt at shutting down the growing and popular Hackintosh netbook community, since Apple has no product line that runs the Atom itself," according to a report on OS X Daily. "Mac OS X runs absolutely flawlessly on much of the PC netbook hardware, once it's configured you wouldn’t know you’re not on a Mac. Maybe it’s in effort to kill the Atom Hackintosh netbooks in anticipation of the rumored Tablet? Or maybe it’s something totally unrelated?"
Last year, an Intel executive publicly vouched for the Atom processor to be used on Apple's long-rumored tablet device.
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