Brian's Brain

Slashdot, Wired and I have been closely following the travails of Maui X-Stream these past few months. The company first unveiled its CherryOS software, which claims to enable you to run Apple's Mac OS X and applications on AMD- and Intel-based hardware, mid-October of last year. Very quickly, the developers of the open source PearPC emulator cried foul, claiming they'd found numerous pieces of evidence that proved Maui X-Stream had 'lifted' the GPL-d PearPC code without proper attribution or reciprocal access rights.

Maui X-Stream has strenuously denied the accusations of the open source community, but earlier this week the CherryOS website was stripped bare, with only a terse "on hold until further notice" message on the home page. Today, there's a new message: "Due to Overwhelming Demand, Cherry Open Source Project Launches 5.1.2005".

Here's what Maui X-Stream President Jim Kartes told me in an email I just received: "Brian. Here’s the deal. We have decided to change CherryOS to an “open source code” product. We will do so May 1st because we need a few weeks to prepare for this. We will be charging only $14.95 for this to cover our cost of development, plus ongoing development as well as marketing costs.We are doing this because we want all to see that we have not lifted source code from other sources."

I'm scheduled to be in Maui on vacation early next month, and while I'm there I have an onsite interview scheduled with Maui X-Stream. Please post, in the comments on this blog entry, general topic suggestions for discussion during my interview, along with specific questions that you want me to ask Jim and other company representatives I meet with. I'll report back after the meeting.