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Early Mac OS seen running on Surface thanks to Windows RT jailbreak

Early Mac OS seen running on Surface thanks to Windows RT jailbreak

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Surface jailbreak
Surface jailbreak

Earlier this week a security researcher revealed how it's possible to jailbreak the Windows RT operating system that powers Microsoft's Surface RT tablet. Using a method to exploit a setting in the OS, developers have released a jailbreak tool that simply runs and unlocks the device. It will need to be applied at each boot of the OS, but it will provide access to run ARM-based desktop apps.

Microsoft locked down its Windows RT operating system to new Windows 8-style applications, rather than allow developers to compile ARM-based apps. Irish programmer Steve Troughton-Smith has tried the technique on his Surface tablet today, revealing that he was able to run an early version of Apple's OS X server operating system on a Surface tablet. With XDA Developers members eager to test the jailbreak, it's possible that Windows RT might develop a healthy homebrew community for desktop apps providing Microsoft doesn't attempt to patch the flaw in future.