Despite being widely accused of code theft, fraud and other chicanery, the author of the controversial CherryOS Mac emulator is sticking to his guns: It"s all on the up and up, says programmer Arben Kryeziu. As previously reported, CherryOS purports to be a Mac emulator that allows Mac OS X to run on Windows PCs. The complex system was ostensibly written in four months by Kryeziu alone, who claims it performs at about 80 percent of the speed of the PC host"s hardware.
On Oct. 11, Maui X-Stream, Kryeziu"s employer and a Hawaii streaming-video company, offered the software as a $50 download at CherryOS.com. But it appears the software was never made available, and all week the site complained of problems caused by overwhelming traffic and malicious attacks by crackers. Skeptical of the company"s claims and with no tangible product, critics became increasingly suspicious that CherryOS was a scam. Some accused the company of faking a product launch to stress-test its Java-based streaming video. The CherryOS site initially offered a couple of videos showing the software in action.