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Several sources dedicated to all things Macintosh have cited reports of the Mac OS X being modified to work on any Intel-based PC.

It's a good thing iTunes and iPod have been propelling Cupertino-based computing legend Apple to record profitability. Mac hardware sales may take a slight hit in the future when Apple completes its transition to using Intel processors in its PCs.

TechWeb.com and others have been discussing the issue, where developer-only versions of the Mac OS X for Intel have slipped onto the Internet. Those versions have went from Apple-only hardware to cracked in short order, despite Apple CEO Steve Jobs' public declaration that the software will only be available for Apple-made hardware.

It appears the discussion about whether or not the Mac OS X could run on typical PC hardware has been answered. That begs a new question: what does Apple do now? Changing their position on the OS and non-Apple hardware would be tantamount to waving a bloodied flag in Microsoft's face.

Apple's OS X wasn't supposed to work on hardware that lacked Intel's Trusted Platform Module. May as well call that module Totally Proclaimed Moot. Lots of wild theories have been tossed around: Apple intended this to happen, John Dvorak wrote in his most recent column; Apple and Intel will merge, and the Mac OS will be available to all the OEMs, as Robert X. Cringely wrote two months ago.

Maybe it was Occam's Razor-simple. Maybe the TPM mechanism was no more well-suited to limiting Mac OS to Apple-only hardware than Windows Genuine Advantage was suited to keeping illicit XP users from obtaining software updates from Microsoft.

David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business. Email him here.