Editing CherryOS (section)

==History==
===Background and development===
On October 12, 2004, the [[emulator]] CherryOS was announced by Maui X-Stream (MXS),<ref name="cososweetensmac"/>  a [[startup company]] based in [[Lahaina, Hawaii]]<ref name="coslstarbulletin"/> and a subsidiary of Paradise Television.<ref name="coslstarbulletin"/>  At the time MXS was best known for developing software for [[video streaming]], particularly their VX3 encoder.<ref name="cosmmexpress"/>  As a new emulator intended to allow [[Mac OS X]] to be utilized on [[x86]] computer architecture,<ref name="cosmmexpress"/> CherryOS was advertised as working on [[Windows 98]], [[Windows 2000]] or [[Windows XP]],<ref name="cososweetensmac"/> with features such as allowing files to be dragged from PC to Mac, the creation of multiple profiles, and support for networking and sound.<ref name="cosktechspot"/> With development led by MXS employee and [[software developer]] [[Arben Kryeziu]],<ref name="cosmmexpress"/>  CherryOS was made available for pre-order<ref name="costnovmeberharvest"/> on the MXS website.<ref name="cosynotbs"/>

Some articles hailed CherryOS as a new potential competitor for programs such as MacWindows,<ref name="cosrtechnews"/> while the ''[[Irish Times]]'' would later write that certain groups of consumers "were suspicious as to how a little-known Hawaii-based outfit... could suddenly do something that had evaded much larger firms."<ref name="cossirishtimes"/> In explaining the suspicion, [[Ars Technica]] later noted that emulators by small developers like [[PearPC]] had reputations for working extremely slowly,<ref name="cosfarstechnia"/>  meaning CherryOS's claim of operating 80 percent of the host PC's speed would have been "a major breakthrough" in the industry.<ref name="coslstarbulletin"/>  When asked by the ''[[Star Bulletin]]'', at this point Kryeziu denied any possibility that CherryOS would contain code from a rival program like Apple,<ref name="coslstarbulletin"/>  MacWindows, Emulators.com, or PearPC,<ref name="cososweetensmac"/>  stating that "our lawyers have looked at this and say we're in the clear. We wrote this from scratch and we're clean as a whistle."<ref name="coslstarbulletin"/>

According to the ''[[Star Bulletin]]'', suspicions that CherryOS might be a hoax "were fanned" by glitches on the CherryOS home website,<ref name="coslstarbulletin"/> and three days after the site opened for pre-sales it crashed after taking 300,000 daily hits.<ref name="coslstarbulletin"/>  MXS president Jim Kartes crediting the crash on both unexpected high traffic and Mac "purists" who had hacked and destroyed the servers,<ref name="coslstarbulletin"/>  and though MXS continued to accept non-digital pre-orders,<ref name="coslstarbulletin"/>  by October 19 the CherryOS website was offline entirely as MXS switched to a new web host.<ref name="cosqdenystealing"/>

===Pre-release version===
Initially the company did not offer a trial version of CherryOS, citing concerns the code might be pirated. However,<ref name="coslstarbulletin"/>  "as a direct result of the overwhelming response to our October 12 announcement,"<ref name="costnovmeberharvest"/> as of October 15 the company was readying a free [[Software release life cycle#BETA|beta]] version<ref name="coslstarbulletin"/> with a projected release date of November 25, 2004.<ref name="costnovmeberharvest"/><ref name="coswwired"/> On October 18, Kryeziu stated that a free public demo would be released within a week,<ref name="cosynotbs"/> and CherryOS was first registered to be trademarked in the United States on October 19, 2004.<ref name="cosgjustia"/> On October 19, however, Kryeziu withheld a timetable for the CherryOS release, stating the company had been pre-emptive in releasing the earlier "soft launch" version,<ref name="cosqdenystealing"/>  and that CherryOS still had too many [[software bug]]s<ref name="cosynotbs"/>  to predict a release date.<ref name="cosqdenystealing"/>   ''[[Wired News]]'' reviewed a pre-release version around this time, reporting on October 22 that an expert had found distinguishing "watermarks" from [[PearPC]]'s source code in CherryOS.<ref name="costnovmeberharvest"/>  Moreover, the pre-release version was reviewed to run at the same slow speed as PearPC,<ref name="coswwired"/> though ''Wired'' noted "they've actually done some work on it. They've written a whole graphical interface that makes [PearPC] easier to use."<ref name="cosqdenystealing"/>

In response to the article, MXS stated that the edition tested by ''Wired'' had been a "very bad...premature version" that "is not CherryOS,"<ref name="coswwired"/>  and that one of the CherryOS programmers had since been fired<ref name="coswwired"/> for directly grafting elements of PearPC code<ref name="costnovmeberharvest"/> into the release.<ref name="coswwired"/> A competing emulator, PearPC been released the year before under the [[GNU General Public License]], which allows commercial products to use the software for profit under "certain conditions, such as acknowledging previous work."<ref name="cosynotbs"/> Kryeziu stated PearPC had provided the inspiration for CherryOS, but "not the work, not the architecture. With their architecture I'd never get the speed I got."<ref name="costnovmeberharvest"/>  He argued that some similarities between CherryOS and PearPC were a result of "the fact that they were designed to perform similar functions,"<ref name="cosqdenystealing"/> and that "there are some functionalities that can only be done a certain way, and names are going to be similar or identical."<ref name="cosynotbs"/> ''Wired'' senior editor [[Leander Kahney]] posited that if the final CherryOS release did contain PearPC code, PearPC would be unlikely to sue Maui X-Stream for "a cut of any profits since open-source codes are protected more by an honor system than any legal basis."<ref name="cosqdenystealing"/><ref name="cosynotbs"/> By October 22, Kryeziu stated to ''Wired'' that he'd been contacted by [[Apple Computer]] for an undisclosed reason that "wasn't bad."<ref name="costnovmeberharvest"/>

===CherryOS 1.0 release===
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move to pearpc page? or delete ~~~~hidden by Earflaps November 19, 2015

Since the Software Freedom Law Center would not do actions pro-bono, if made in [[Hawaii]], the PearPC team began collecting donations to prepare for a lawsuit against Maui X-Stream and CherryOS.<ref>Slashdot: [http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/03/30/1552223&tid=98 PearPC Trying to Sue CherryOS]</ref> As CherryOS withdrew, this money became largely unnecessary, and was later donated to the Software Freedom Law Center, who represented individual developers of PearPC.<ref>Software Freedom Law Center: [http://www.softwarefreedom.org/news/2007/mar/30/pearpc/ PearPC Donates Legal Defense Fund to SFLC]</ref> 
-->

After a delay, CherryOS 1.0 was released in its final form on March 8, 2005. Maui-X Stream initially offered a free copy for evaluation<ref name="cosnmacobserver"/> on its website,<ref name="cosnmacobserver"/><ref name="cosxrereleased"/>  with 14 boot allowances<ref name="cosdresurfances"/>  and five free days per copy.<ref name="cossirishtimes"/>  According to MXS president Jim Kartes, within the first few days the free version was downloaded 100,000 times.<ref name="cosnmacobserver"/>  Stated Kartes to the ''Mac Observer'' on March 8, 2005, "there has been a lot of misinformation about this product... I think we have proven those skeptics wrong."<ref name="cosnmacobserver"/> Initial reports of certain computers encountering slow speeds<ref name="cosnmacobserver"/>  and glitches were explained by MXS as "expected," as "it's got bugs. That is why we're offering a free trial download. If it doesn't work, they shouldn't buy it.... we will use the testing of consumers to improve its stability and performance."<ref name="cosnmacobserver"/>  Kartes extrapolated that after development, somewhere between "60% and 70% of all PC owners" would be able to use the CherryOS product.<ref name="cosnmacobserver"/>   MXS announced plans to market CherryOS throughout the summer of 2005, but withheld specifics on when it would be released for sale.<ref name="cosnmacobserver"/>

BetaNews.com reviewed CherryOS upon its public release, arguing that there were again similarities between CherryOS and PearPC, including specific non-generic lines of code.<ref name="cosdresurfances"/> Maui X-Stream president Jim Kartes denied that CherryOS had grafted in PearPC code,<ref name="cosfarstechnia"/>  and on March 24, 2005, a spokesperson for CherryOS stated to the ''[[Irish Times]]'' that CherryOS 1.0 was "absolutely not" a knockoff of Pear PC, as "there are considerable differences between the two products: Both products emulate the Apple operating system but the similarity ends there."<ref name="cossirishtimes"/> The spokesperson further explained that "certain generic code strings and screen verbiage used in Pear PC are also used in CherryOS. They are not proprietary to the Pear PC product. For example, Pear tops out at G3 emulation and CherryOS is the only stable G4 emulator on the market today. CherryOS uses multithreading architecture for speed and ease of use. Pear employs a step-by-step approach; CherryOS features a shared-drive emulator, a drag-and-drop option allows you to connect the Windows drive to a Mac environment and CherryOS is the only emulator to support sound."<ref name="cossirishtimes"/>   Kartes further stated that although PearPC introduced their code before CherryOS, that "doesn't give them a claim on certain technical aspects of our product."<ref name="cosnmacobserver"/>

On March 30, 2005, [[Ars Technica]] reported that the creators of PearPC were "contemplating" litigation against Maui X-Stream.<ref name="cosfarstechnia"/><ref name="cosplinuxinsider"/>   On April 6, 2005, Cherry OS was announced by its developers to be on hold "until further notice."<ref name="cosconhold"/> A day later, CherryOS announced on its website that it would no longer be a commercial product, and that "due to overwhelming demand, Cherry open source project launches May 1, 2005."<ref name="cosugoesopensource"/> The trademark for CherryOS was filed as abandoned as of June 21, 2006.<ref name="cosgjustia"/>