Apple's OS not quite as restrictive as Apple would like.
Apple released Snow Leopard to understandably loud fanfare not too long ago, but with the latest 10.6.2 update to the OS they removed one feature that hackers liked - the ability to run the operating system on Intel's teensy x86 chip, the Atom.
The Atom CPU is perhaps the most popular and widely available chip in many netbooks; but since they're not manufactured by Apple the company doesn't approve of their use with Snow Leopard.
Hackers, being and doing what hackers do, have ripped the kernel from an earlier version of the operating system, fusing it into the 10.6.2 update package to create a hybrid that both runs on an Atom, and has all the updates.
It's somewhat amusing to see that even if updates try to lock users out of the system that they can just rip out Apple's core and stick their own in, but if you're looking to do this yourself you'll need to be pretty comfortable with the Terminal and command-line interfaces to get it to work.
Head over to Macworld to check out some more info on the hack, via Tomshardware.
Issue: 109 | February, 2010