Back on 4-20 I was thinking about visiting Psystar’s offices to discuss the Mac clone. Psystar is a short drive from my house. I’m sure they’re scammers, but I want to see for myself. So today, I figured I’d drive by.
First a few words. Their claims have been met by skepticism on all fronts. They claim to be a company that has just moved. Their new address was wrong. Many people claimed the new address doesn’t exist on mapping software. I’ll get to that in a moment.
Everything about them is suspicious and I’ll skip all of that because it’s documented everywhere. First, they are in a nice building — many photos are on the web. Today’s Sunday and most companies are closed. Psystar’s lot was full of crappy-looking cars — not the sign of a successful company — but their neighbour company was open: cottonImages, so perhaps the cars were theirs. The main doors were closed, and the company did not appear to be open for business and the door is silk-screened “not open to the public.”
I mention this only because it is a shared building. One building, two tenants. Their door graphics were done by the same company, obviously. And it looks like despite Psystar’s claims, they’ve been there a while. On the Psystar side, the bay doors were closed. A blue ocean container was blocking one of the doors.
This brief visit did not instill confidence. However, the address is valid and has been valid for years. Some map software may not show it because it’s a gated complex. That means by shutting a gate, the entire complex is closed off and there is no public access. Those criticizing because the address is invalid are just blowing smoke.
I’ll report more, but sometimes you just have a bad feeling. This is one such time. (This is my opinion and perhaps my facts are wrong.)
4-28-08 Update: I’ve got some links of interest. This link from ZDNet has photos of the Psystar offices and some commentary that is semi-positive. More upsetting is this link from Gizmodo which shows some of the old “offices” but what concerns me is the last paragraph. If you want to see the registration for Psystar on the state’s website, it’s here.