What is it with companies building PCs that aren't Macs but will run Mac OS X? Do they really think there's a hole somewhere in Apple's end user license agreement, or do they have death wishes?

First there was Psystar, with its "Mac clone" escapades. The Miami-based company is currently involved in a trademark infringement and breach of contract lawsuit with Apple.

Tuesday, ITWire's Stephen Withers pointed out there's another company selling Mac OS X compatible machines. RSOL PC, also based in Florida (North Lauderdale), is offering Jive, a PC made from generic parts that is capable of running different operating systems. According to the RSOL PC Web site:

Tried and tested, the Jive will run just about any operating system you can throw at it, including Windows XP, Windows Vista, Fedora, Ubuntu and even OSx86

Like Withers said in his post, if the company knows the Jive will run OS x86, then someone installed it and tested it out on the machine. But RSOL is not putting itself at risk like Psystar did -- or so the argument will go, I imagine -- because there is an "important information" link on the Jive detail page that links to the following text:

If you intend to use the Mac OS X Leopard® operating system (or its variant commonly known as OSx86) on the RSOL PC Multi-Platform Desktop Computer models, it is imperative that you understand the following:

The list includes things like:"The RSOL PC is considered a non-Apple labeled computer," "You will be in violation of the Mac OS X 10.5 software license agreement...," which means the user won't get any software updates, patches or technical support from Apple, RSOL PC will not provide software support for non-Windows operating systems, etc.

But my favorite is the next to last bullet point, which reads, in part:

If you do not agree or understand any portion of this document, please do not order your Multi-Platform Desktop computer model with the sole intention of running the Mac OS X Leopard® operating system.

How many people (other than overly cautious attorney types like me) will actually read the entire "Important Information" document, if they even click through in the first place? And if they do read it, is one little paragraph going to deter them from buying the PC? I seriously doubt it. I realize RSOL PC is protecting itself, but I think it may have been easier not to mention OS X Leopard or OSx86 in the first place.

Some people would probably try it anyway, but at least they wouldn't be getting the idea from RSOL.