CherryOS Drama Ends, Product Retired

The drawn out saga between Macintosh emulator CherryOS and PearPC has come to an end, with CherryOS developer Arben Kryeziu announcing in his Web log that he has shut down the project. The news follows Kryeziu's claims in April that he would open up the source code of CherryOS to prove it was not stolen from PearPC.

CherryOS enabled users to run Apple's Mac OS X operating system atop Windows PCs. However, the closed product closely mimicked the functionality of PearPC, an open source project. After its initial announcement and subsequent controversy last October, CherryOS was released in trial form last March by Maui-X-Stream.

As reported by BetaNews, CherryOS boots up in the exact same manner as PearPC, and its error messages and source files are nearly identical. The emulator also includes MacOnLinuxVideo, which is the same driver used by PearPC to speed up graphics.

In response, PearPC threatened to sue Maui-X-Stream for GPL violations and began to raise money for the case. Despite the similarities, Maui-X-Stream staunchly defended CherryOS as original and last month, Kryeziu promised he would launch CherryOS as an open source project on May 1.

In a posting to his Web log over the weekend, however, Kryeziu said plans for an open source CherryOS had been abandoned and development would cease. The CherryOS Web site has also been removed.

"I decided that C-OS is not worth the hassle, not now or in the future," Kryeziu wrote. "C-OS went to work without brushing its teeth or taking a shower, it was not ready. Other current open source projects are progressing to the desired product; Qemu will soon support OS X and lead the way."

But it may not be the last Maui-X-Stream hears from the open source community. The attention CherryOS brought caused some code sleuths to also uncover potentially stolen source code in the company's streaming video codecs - where Maui-X-Stream primarily makes its business.