I'm with kryyst in the sense that there is a very different distinction between one of us hacking it onto our own hardware for our own use and a company selling a hacked OS X box. There may not be a distinction in how legal or illegal it is but Apple obviousely recognizes the difference because they are suing Psystar while I've never heard of a single individual getting in trouble.

There are a couple of other things to keep in mind too. Yes OS X is an OS and if you think of it as just an OS you guys make valid points about putting it wherever you want. Keep in mind though that OS X is more then just a standalone OS, it's the software that comes with your hardware and since you can only legally run it on Apple hardware you could look at buying the latest versions as upgrading, not buying a who new OS. You already have to have an earlier version (if you're legal) regardless of how many versions ago it is that you're running.

Considering that Apple sold Leopard for $129 and they'll be selling $29 for Snow Leopard you could make the argument that the OS is subsidized by the hardware you're buying. It's a package deal.

So maybe they should unlock the OS and offer a $250 version for non Apple hardware but it dilutes their reputation and ability to support their customers. It also makes it much more difficult for Apple to write an OS that now has to run on hundreds of thousands of different configurations instead of just the stuff they've designed themselves.