Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!well!peterd
From: peterd@well.UUCP (Peter Joseph Desnoyers)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hardware
Subject: Re: Mac Clones question at the end & (was Re: Dead mice)
Keywords: Mac clone amiga roms
Message-ID: <14357@well.UUCP>
Date: 30 Oct 89 02:23:36 GMT
References: <879@mit-amt.MEDIA.MIT.EDU> <21104@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> <2529@ucsfcca.ucsf.edu> <20404@mimsy.umd.edu> <584@milton.acs.washington.edu> <16002@netnews.upenn.edu>
Reply-To: peterd@well.UUCP
Distribution: usa
Organization: Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link, Sausalito, CA
Lines: 24

In article <16002@netnews.upenn.edu> meuchen@grad1.cis.upenn.edu (Paul Eric Menchen) writes:
>In article _ seymour@milton.acs.washington.edu (Richard Seymour) writes:
>>there is a MAc Clone: the Amiga (no, i don't have one)
>>They do it by using old Mac 128kROMs to provide the system calls.
>>The three parts: Mac-compatible floppy drive, external circuit card
>>and the ROM set total about $500 in the magazines.
>>
>>how they get the ROMs in commercial quantities, i do not know...
>>
>
>If you don't have an Amiga, how do you know it's a Mac clone?

No, the Amiga is not a Mac clone. (nor does it cost $500) There is,
however, a product called something like MacSack or KnapSack (I think)
that can mimic a Mac on an Amiga. It runs the actual Mac ROMs and
Mac Finder, so it IS a Mac clone. (I could have my facts mixed up a
bit here, but I believe this to be true.)

By not providing either ROMs or system software the manufacturer
gets around any copyright problems.  Instead, the problems get
transfered to the user, who has to find a legal way to get both ROMs
(not hard) and Macintosh system software (perhaps impossible) to run
on the machine. (kind of like those radar jammer kits you used to
see in the backs of electronics magazines...:-)