Anyone seen Hackintosh comps in real life?? + Thoughts

[Loono]

Today when I was on the train coming home from university, I saw my first hackintosh laptop (Acer netbook - running leopard) through my own eyes

For some reason I just felt really annoyed... one of the reason I buy a mac is because of Mac OS X itself.
If a kid can hack Mac OS X onto his acer, in the future i'm sure I will see alot more hackintoshes. I thought its rare to find them (such as you buy from Psystar).

Anyways, anyone else seen one in person and how did you react? (owning a hackintosh doesn't count).

[djellison]

Yup - seen a few. Done one myself. My thoughts - kudos to them for getting it to work on a laptop that doesn't suffer from form over function and high price tag above all else.

[ajthomason]

Originally Posted by Loono

For some reason I just felt really annoyed...
If a kid can hack Mac OS X onto his acer...

I don't see what there is to get annoyed about - what does annoy me is when people buy macs when clearly they can't afford them, I would much rather see someone buy a cheaper laptop and get the most out of it than buy a macbook on credit and struggle to pay it back.

I used to have a hackintosh at the same time as a couple of genuine macs - Now I don't have to use OS X before someone suggests it, I am sure that I will stay alive if I used Windows, but I want to use OS X and I also don't want to be told by one company what computers I can and cannot own - If I, or someone else, wants a netbook and wants to install OS X on it, then why shouldn't I/they?

I don't own a hackintosh anymore, but have seen a couple around - good for them, providing that they did buy a copy of Leopard/Snow Leopard, even if they didn't use it to install from.

[XNine]

Built one myself, and it's no easy task getting the OS installed, let alone updated. But it was always amusing to open up "About This Mac" and see the profile running on a 3.2 GHz AMD processor.

I called it Frankenmac. Then I killed it cos the OS was such a pain to upgrade, and now running Windows 7 on it.

[XP-User77]

Its cheaper then buying a mac and you can actually see how OS X is.Also you can have a OS X netbook!

[VPrime]

Never seen any one else.. But I had one. It let me experience OS X, which led to me buying a macbook. Great times. I have since removed it from my computer (Snow leopard pretty much ruined it).. I use my macbook 90% of the time any ways. I am contemplating on doing another hackintosh for my next computer (few years down the road) , or just buy a mac pro.

Originally Posted by ajthomason

I don't see what there is to get annoyed about - what does annoy me is when people buy macs when clearly they can't afford them, I would much rather see someone buy a cheaper laptop and get the most out of it than buy a macbook on credit and struggle to pay it back

I don't even get this... Who are you to say some one can't afford a mac? What a bout all the students who buy them through student loans?
Why settle for some thing less? IF they are taking a loan/credit then they might as well put the money to good use and buy what they want.

[rowsdower]

Originally Posted by VPrime

I don't even get this... Who are you to say some one can't afford a mac? What a bout all the students who buy them through student loans?
Why settle for some thing less? IF they are taking a loan/credit then they might as well put the money to good use and buy what they want.

I suppose it's true that there are worse things to spend borrowed money on. But it would probably be better to not borrow the money in the first place.

[ChrisA]

Originally Posted by rowsdower

I suppose it's true that there are worse things to spend borrowed money on. But it would probably be better to not borrow the money in the first place.

No. In theory, if the computer is being use for purposes other then as a toy then you can make more money by borrowing. Saving to buy capital equipment is a waste because you are not making money while you are saving. A loan lets you begin earning right away. There is a rule in business about always using "other people's money"

But I asume most Hackintoshes are bought for their entertainment value and don't support a photography or design business.

[Capt Crunch]

When I see a hackintosh on campus I get into a hissy-fit and squeal in anger at the offender. I mean, like, how could someone do that?!?!?! Don't they know it's an abomination to Apple?

When I couldn't afford my mac, I didn't go and buy a more affordable computer, I went and took out an interest free school loan! That's what they are there for right? To buy exactly what I want. Like I'm going to be caught dead with some POS PC just to save some money.

So, like, anyways, when I see people with hackintoshes I start slapping them everywhere and scream at the top of my lungs "Only Apple hardware is good enough for the Apple OS!!!!! Didn't you read the EULA!??!!?!" Boy, that's enough to get them red in the face with embarrassment. Serves them right.

[rowsdower]

Originally Posted by ChrisA

No. In theory, if the computer is being use for purposes other then as a toy then you can make more money by borrowing.

It's possible that someone bought a Mac using student loans and made money with it. But that is extremely uncommon. It's even less common that someone made more money that he or she could have after either not buying a computer at all, or buying a PC.

[ajthomason]

Originally Posted by VPrime

I don't even get this... Who are you to say some one can't afford a mac? What a bout all the students who buy them through student loans?
Why settle for some thing less? IF they are taking a loan/credit then they might as well put the money to good use and buy what they want.

I wasn't talking about student loans - they are completely different things. I was talking about the people that will have about £400 saved to spend on a laptop, decide they 'must' have a mac and then buy the rest on their credit card, not thinking about how much interest they will have to pay back and will then struggle to pay back the amount as the interest keeps growing.

[notjustjay]

Originally Posted by VPrime

I don't even get this... Who are you to say some one can't afford a mac? What a bout all the students who buy them through student loans?
Why settle for some thing less? IF they are taking a loan/credit then they might as well put the money to good use and buy what they want.

In fall of 2003 I spent about $2700 on a PowerBook G4. I couldn't afford it at the time (had no real savings, and a meager student job), but Apple was offering a 180-days interest free financing program, so I couldn't resist.

Long story short (I've posted these experiences in other threads if you're interested), that decision put me onto the loan payback treadmill, the "interest free" loan quickly became 28.8% interest, and it wasn't until winter 2006, after I had graduated and started a well-paying job, that I was finally able to pay everything off.

I don't even want to know how much I spent in total on that PowerBook. I loved it to bits, I loved the switch to OS X... but it was a very bad financial move. I had a very nice Dell laptop at the time so I didn't "need" a new laptop, I just "really badly wanted it".

I wouldn't judge someone for making the same choices, but I could certainly advise against it.

[Ttownbeast]

I commend any Hackintosh user who takes a little time to make it work for their ingenuity, I may perhaps go that route one day once I feel my G4 mother board is completely useless I may invest in a cheaper non apple intel mother board and continue to use all or most of my peripherals which are still fairly universal for the most part.

[Nermal]

I know three people with them. I haven't heard any complaints.

[thefnshow]

i wouldn't mind doing one myself...i had a g3 ibook and a mac mini...but i want something with real power...and apple is an abomination to apple

[mrfrosty]

I have a white Dell Mini 9 Hackintosh......It runs perfectly.

[MorphingDragon]

Yes and hackintoshs aren't worth the effort.

[thejadedmonkey]

Yup! Twas all the rage in my dorm, when the x86 builds of Tiger first hit the torrents. You had Dell, Gateway, IBM, HP... they were all running OS X, just because they could.

Looking back, even a 10.4 hackintos felt like a lighter system then 10.5 on my MBP does...

[beaner454]

Originally Posted by MorphingDragon

Yes and hackintoshs aren't worth the effort.

That's not necessarily true. If you build it from scratch and pick your parts with the intention of hackintoshing it's not bad at least so far.

I picked out a Gigabit motherboard, Core 2 Quad Intel Processor & a GeForce 9800 GTX+ graphics card. All have been shown to be very amenable to the hackintosh experience. And that's just what I've experienced, vanilla OS X no real hacks on it and I have been able to update using Software Update.

Now if you take a prebuilt machine and try and throw OS X on that, then yes I agree it's not worth it. Those are a pain from what I've heard.

[djellison]

Originally Posted by mrfrosty

I have a white Dell Mini 9 Hackintosh......It runs perfectly.

Originally Posted by MorphingDragon

Yes and hackintoshs aren't worth the effort.

One of you is lying.

[Bear Hunter]

Originally Posted by djellison

One of you is lying.

It's not the guy who says he has it running on his mini 9. I own 3 Macs and I also have a hackintosh Netbook (Dell mini 10v). I have Snow Leopard 10.6.1 running absolutely perfectly on it...and yes, it was easy.

[dmmcintyre3]

Originally Posted by MorphingDragon

Yes and hackintoshs aren't worth the effort.

They are when the computer you are doing it to was free.

I have not found a single Mac that meets my needs at ANY price.

Posted from my Dell Hackintosh