Desktop platforms Toolkit

Mac emulator goes open source

Published: 11 Apr 2005 17:30 BST

The company behind the CherryOS Mac emulator has decided to release the source code of the product to put an end to accusations that it has taken code from open source projects.

Developers working on PearPC, an open source PowerPC emulator, claim that Maui X-Stream used code from the project to write its Mac emulator for Windows. But Jim Kartes, the president of Maui X-Stream, said it wrote the code for CherryOS from scratch.

"We have decided to change CherryOS to an 'open source code' product because we want everyone to be able to see firsthand that it is original programming and that we have not lifted code from any other sources," said Kartes in a statement.

The company is waiting until 1 May to release the source code to allow time to prepare for the "onslaught of response" that it expects. It will charge $14.95 (£7.90) for every download of the open source product to "help defray costs of development and marketing".