By now, you have probably heard something about the OpenMac story (now termed Open Computer). This is a Mac clone being marketed by a company called Psystar, based down in Miami, FL.

So, the story starts Monday with a story that Psystar is selling a Mac clone for $399. When selling the thing, they go for the jugular: “Why spend $1999 to get the least expensive Apple computer with a decent video card when you can pay less than a fourth of that for an equivalent sleek and small form-factor desktop with the same hardware.”

This story immediately drew the attention of the Mac community. Most notable about it was that such a move very clearly breaks the EULA that Apple has attached to usage of OS X. The license agreement clearly states: “You agree not to install, use or run the Apple Software on any non-Apple-labeled computer, or to enable others to do so.” Psystar response: “We’re not breaking any laws“.

After this story hit on Monday, Psystar servers went down. A story on Ars Technica on Tuesday says that they got confirmation from Rudy Pedraza (owner of Psystar) that it was indeed server load and not Apple shutting them down (as some were speculating). When the servers came back, the OpenMac had been renamed to “Open Computer”.

Information Week publishes a story, then, which quotes an anonymous employee of Psystar saying some pretty provocative things. Things like:

“What if Microsoft said you could only install Windows on Dell computers?”

“They’re charging an 80% markup on hardware.”

“What if Honda said that, after you buy their car, you could only drive it on the roads they said you could?”

By this point, I am, of course, questioning the legitimacy of this entire thing, and I post a story on my personal blog saying the whole thing reeks of a publicity stunt. On Wednesday, a story hits Gizmodo that the whole thing looks like a hoax. I was, of course, not too surprised. Gizmodo published a photo of the building at Psystar’s address. It wasn’t them. In fact, their first listed address was a house. Then the address mysteriously changed and that address was a building with another company’s name on it. Tom’s Hardware then quotes the Psystar guy responding:

“Gizmodo got it completely wrong. Sorry Gizmodo – stick to News!”

Later, the address changes AGAIN! This time, they are listing a $6 million warehouse.

On the same day, Engadget publishes a story saying that Psystar didn’t get permissions from the guys at OSx86 Project to sell their work. One of the OSx86 guys openly calls Psystar liars. At this point, it sounds like Psystar is just throwing up the middle finger to practically everybody involved here.

The guys at Guardian try to make some phone calls to Psystar and what they go was anything but professional.

During all that, a Gizmodo reader did some digging with the Florida Department of State and find that the two guys behind Psystar has a whole slew of companies under their names, most which are not active. At this point, the owners look like shysters. At the very least, crappy businessmen who keep throwing crap on the wall to see what sticks.

Friday, the Psystar store remained down. PowerPay, the company’s credit card processor, pulled their services from Psystar. News.com quotes the CEO of PowerPay as saying:

“PowerPay initially suspended and subsequently terminated the merchant-processing account of Psystar for three primary reasons: product/services not as represented in application, sales volumes grossly exceeded, (and) no address verification utilized.”

Just when everybody is thinking this is a total scam, there is a story in Forbes which quotes Rudy Pedraza as saying that it is real. He insists that they have been overwhelmed with demand, so much in fact that it shut down their credit card processor. He says he then moved it to Paypal and the same thing happened. But, the News.com story, again, says that Paypal shut them down for rights infringement, saying:

At PayPal, we take rights infringement very seriously. PayPal’s Acceptable Use Policy prohibits the use of our services for ‘items that infringe or violate any copyright, trademark, right of publicity or privacy, or any other proprietary right under the laws of any jurisdiction.’ We use internal guidelines, as well as reports from rights owners, to determine violations of this policy. We would apply these standards to any products being sold from the Psystar.com site – currently, there are none.”

Pedraza explains the multiple addresses by saying he had to get more space to deal with the demand. Oh yeah, and he says he isn’t scared of Apple at all.

This morning, I checked out the Psystar website to see the following:

It is our pleasure to inform you that our store is up and running thanks to our new high volume payment processor.  To all, we challenge you, let’s see if we can max this one out.  Regarding shipping, orders placed the week of April 7th are currently being shipped. We will be shipping units out of our new facility starting Monday, April 21st, including those orders placed the week of April 14th. Orders are being shipped in the order that they were received, don’t worry, you’ll get yours soon. Upon shipment an email notification including tracking information will be sent to you automatically.

Hmmm….

Whether this company is legit or not, it is clear this entire thing was a well orchestrated publicity stunt. Everything was precisely stated to hit practically every button of the Mac community. And to cap it off, the guy bashes his Steveness:

“We’re here to help Steve Jobs. He’s not making enough money. We’re here to help him increase sales.”

We have yet to see how this story will end up, however ITWorld makes a good point in saying that this whole thing goes to show that Apple should license Mac OS X. They say:

If nothing else, Psystar’s impending martyrdom will blaze the path for countless other companies that believe they can stand up to Apple. And who can blame them? Steve Jobs’ closed-off policy is draconian at best and as Mac OS X continues to gain popularity, even more companies will crop up trying to do the same thing as Psystar.

They have a point: there would be a HUGE market for Mac OS X if Apple freed it from Apple-branded hardware. Likewise, there is a lot of frustration that there is no tower based computer from Apple short of the expensive Mac Pro. There is a LOT of breathing room south of the Mac Pro and the all-in-one form factor isn’t desired by most. So, whether or not Apple ever releases OS X to other vendors, one thing is definitely true:

The market WANTS a Mac tower that is affordable.

Why Apple hasn’t listened yet is completely beyond me. The Mac Pro is a great tower, but it is beyond the price range of most consumers.