Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
You can put OSX on the PC but you have to make sure your hardware is supported so you'd have to do lots of research and work before you get it to run. Also it wont be legit because you cannot buy any version that will just simply install on a PC. Lastly you'd be on your own for support so if you're very computer literate, then you can probably fix your own probs but if you're not then you're just in for a headache.

If you really need Garage band then you either have to get a new Mac or a used one...if you cant afford those, then your only choice is to find an alternate application that will run in windows.



Hello

I was/am getting a Mac Mini for xmas but MyBig brother is telling me not to. He has a valid point when he says 'What will you use it for?, You can put Osx on an Intel Based PC (AKA Yours)'

So what shall I do?

I want GarageBand Etc... but hes right, i could just put osx on my PC for that.

What else pulls me towards one? I really want a good laptop but My Parents wont buy me a MacBook (double wammy, Laptop and Mac Osx) as they are a bit expensive.

Thanks
Tom
 
There is a legal way to run OS X on PC hardware- I believe that only the GUI cannot be run on non Apple hardware, so you can run just terminal without a GUI, which is totally pointless.

If you want OSX, the only real way is to get a Mac. :)
 
Oh yeah, one other thing.

If you want to run Garage Band, as you say you do, you will need to spend about £300/400 on a decent external sound card for the PC, as PCs have very very poor quality sound cards built in (even my £200 Audigy wasn't up to the job of this kind of thing). If you use one of these cheapo soundcards, you would end up with a few seconds delay between pressing a key or strumming your guitar or whatever, and the sound actually coming out.

Macs on the other hand, have excellent sound cards built in, and I get no audible delay (or latency as it's officially called) with the built in 'should-be-crap-because-it's-a-built-into-a-laptop' sound card on my MacBook Pro. The fancy 5.1 audio thingy which came in my Dell Desktop (which cost more than my MacBook Pro) couldn't do it.

Trust me, if you want to do musicy stuff, Macs are what you want. Pretty much every studio on the planet has a Mac in it!
 
There is a legal way to run OS X on PC hardware- I believe that only the GUI cannot be run on non Apple hardware, so you can run just terminal without a GUI, which is totally pointless.

If you want OSX, the only real way is to get a Mac. :)

Correct, the core of OSX is Darwin, which is open-source and thus free for anyone to use and modify. The aqua interface is patented, so you could run the base system on a pc legally, but it would lack all of OSXs greatness.

As for running OSX on a pc, I had a friend who did that a while back and a really nice laptop but it ran absolutely horrible (slower than my iBook it seemed like) Windows and Ubuntu were a welcome change on that laptop (not to say Ubuntu is bad, just not as good as OSX), not to mention that it is illegal and requires a hacked version off of bittorrent and there probably never be any updates and thus is quite unstable.
 
Hello

I was/am getting a Mac Mini for xmas but MyBig brother is telling me not to. He has a valid point when he says 'What will you use it for?, You can put Osx on an Intel Based PC (AKA Yours)'

So what shall I do?

Well, given that you don't have any moral problem with breaking Apple's license restrictions, I think you need to do some research. Stop listening to other people, and look into it yourself.

If you actually look into putting OS X on a generic x86, you'll find that at any given time several components won't work at all, or will work badly - it might be networking one time, it might be sound at another time, it might be DVD burning, etc. Check out their forums and especially their FAQs.

The whole point of using OS X is to have tools that "just work" and are easy and intuitive. If you can't count on that - and with the cracked version, you can't - there's no particular point in running OS X other than to say "hey I got it working on generic x86 hardware". If you don't care about having to tweak, and patch, and reinstall just to get stuff working every few weeks, then install Linux instead. It's going to be pretty much the same experience as running the hacked OSX on x86. Seriously.
 
Folks,

It's pretty apparent to me that the OP wasn't clear on the whole OS X/Intel Mac/PC thing. He's made other posts about his desire to purchase a Mac mini and seems genuinely interested in learning more about Macs. But then his brother turned his world upside-down by mentioning that OS X could be run on PCs. (Whether the brother was simply confused by the Intel/Boot Camp thing or if he's advocating hacking isn't known, but regardless, it threw the OP for a loop.)

He comes on here to ask about it, and people jump down his throat, calling him a troll and saying that he has no morals for purposely trying to circumvent the OS X license.

I just don't see any of that. I see someone who is somewhat confused by some information he was given and is looking to be straightened out. For his purposes, it seems like it's enough to give him the info he needs to understand the situation without jumping all over him.

Can we please try to do that?
 
Hello

I was/am getting a Mac Mini for xmas but MyBig brother is telling me not to. He has a valid point when he says 'What will you use it for?, You can put Osx on an Intel Based PC (AKA Yours)'

So what shall I do?

I want GarageBand Etc... but hes right, i could just put osx on my PC for that.

What else pulls me towards one? I really want a good laptop but My Parents wont buy me a MacBook (double wammy, Laptop and Mac Osx) as they are a bit expensive.

Thanks
Tom

the mini is a good entry level machine, but if you can do anything to go for a refurbed macbook, you'd never look back. I think the real argument you should give your brother is that you can run XP on your intel mac. Apple's put together a pretty decent piece of hardware for the price, and the mini was just updated a couple of months ago, so both OSes should run fine. Really, though, if you can hold out for a MB, go for it! And welcome to the forums :)
 
I really want a good laptop but My Parents wont buy me a MacBook (double wammy, Laptop and Mac Osx) as they are a bit expensive.

And i could never earn £200 - £300 by doing stuff for them

Sounds like you're not ready for a mac yet then

i really want that new Audi A8 down at the dealership but i know theres nothing i can do except
Work harder, go for my masters, and invest more

whats the point in owning a BMW if you cant afford to maintain it?

anyone that owns an apple can clearly tell you that the saving up is far from over after you got a mac
in a sense "it has just begun" be prepared to embrace Apple with open arms and an open wallet
I myself dont mind paying the extra money i think of it as "Insurance" or you could say"Assurance"

im not trying to make it sound like money is what it's all about but, you need to think about how deep it is before you jump in
If you cant afford the mackbook how are you going to afford the apple care to keep it maintained?
 
Do what you want to do. I had loads of people tell me not to get a mac when i decided ti get ine and stuck to it and got one and LOVED it. id say go ahead and get the mini and within 4 weeks your brother will lable his piggy bank "mac fund". Good luck with the new machine.
 
What are you talking about? Its a Sigmatel chipset just like some dells and other notebooks and some onboard audio on full size PC boards like Intel , Biostar..etc. Its nothing special. The Audigy as bad as it is, would be better and you got totally rap*d on that price that you paid. Also the delays you were getting is because it was in a PCMCIA most likely.

I have a home built PC with onboard audio by Soundmax which is a 7.1 which is alright but I put my older addon M-Audio 2496 PCI card in there as my speakers are not computer speakers. They are bookshelf speakers I built which are fed from my soundcard to my preamp/power amp combo. I could hear that S/N was not so good with the onboard sound. My old Audigy is quieter but the 2496 is dead DEAD silent.

...I will also repeat that Apple does NOT make hardware. The macbook and Pro versions are supposedly built by Asus and Quantra. They make OEM's for tons of other manufacturers. Trust me, there is no magical onboard sound as much as you'd love to believe it.

Also the reason most sound studios run Apple computers is because there are more choices for the software - not because of any hardware. In this case, he wants garage band which is Mac only so he really has no choice. He has to get a Mac.


Oh yeah, one other thing.

If you want to run Garage Band, as you say you do, you will need to spend about £300/400 on a decent external sound card for the PC, as PCs have very very poor quality sound cards built in (even my £200 Audigy wasn't up to the job of this kind of thing). If you use one of these cheapo soundcards, you would end up with a few seconds delay between pressing a key or strumming your guitar or whatever, and the sound actually coming out.

Macs on the other hand, have excellent sound cards built in, and I get no audible delay (or latency as it's officially called) with the built in 'should-be-crap-because-it's-a-built-into-a-laptop' sound card on my MacBook Pro. The fancy 5.1 audio thingy which came in my Dell Desktop (which cost more than my MacBook Pro) couldn't do it.

Trust me, if you want to do musicy stuff, Macs are what you want. Pretty much every studio on the planet has a Mac in it!
 
Thanks guys,

Ill try and get the MacBook by earning a little bit of money. Yes I have heard of linux and unix. I have used them and Osx is built on Unix i know.

My three daughters have used both operating systems since they were tall enough to reach the keyboard.

If they have anything important to it's always on a Mac.

Even though they are now advanced users in both platfoms knowing how to keep their P/C reasonably secure, they still have to deal with friends who are not as diligent about Windows security, so now it's not an issue any longer since all 3 will soon be running Mac OSX exclusively.

Their P/C is just gathering dust in the corner.
 
Thanks guys,

Ill try and get the MacBook by earning a little bit of money. Yes I have heard of linux and unix. I have used them and Osx is built on Unix i know.

When I made the linux comment I wasn't trying to be belittling, so I apologize if it came across that way. It's just that people have this idea that the osx86 project gives you the real "Mac experience" on generic hardware, while if you read their FAQs and other notes you find that it's not at all like that.
 
Hello

I was/am getting a Mac Mini for xmas but MyBig brother is telling me not to. He has a valid point when he says 'What will you use it for?, You can put Osx on an Intel Based PC (AKA Yours)'

So what shall I do?

I want GarageBand Etc... but hes right, i could just put osx on my PC for that.

What else pulls me towards one? I really want a good laptop but My Parents wont buy me a MacBook (double wammy, Laptop and Mac Osx) as they are a bit expensive.

Thanks
Tom

Kindly ask your brother to stop selling wolf tickets.
 
Well, TROLL, the Mac platform is much better as it's a computer that will last you much longer than that cheap Gateway you're using. And OS X isn't exactly all that legal on a non-Apple PC.


no need to call him a troll......such a nice welcome to the forums when guys like you do that. annoying
 
Get a PC!

My two cents: if you're even close to being on the fence, just get a PC, you don't get it. This is the advice I give people who are in the music and film business, who actually ask me whether to get a Mac or not! If you can't see the incredible value of using the best tools for your work, PLEASE just get a PC so you won't be competition to the rest of us who are serious about our craft. While we're happily creating hour after hour, you'll be trying to get your cracked software running on an E-Machine, which is just fine with me. While I'm delivering another score, you'll be downloading anti-virus crap.
The days of me trying to explain to people why the extra $200 you spend on a Mac will save you HUNDREDS of hours of frustration are over. I'll just be happy in my creative world, where Logic runs perfectly, Final Cut runs laps around the ancient Avid systems, all for pennies on the dollar compared to even 5 years ago.
Just get a Gateway, run Cakewalk and WinDVD and WinPhoto or whatever.

NW
 
Wow, there seems to be some very stong feelings on this subject. As far as morals go, I could think of a lot worse things then putting osx on a pc :eek: :eek: :eek:
I wouldn't do it, I wont even download music from any place other then itunes, all I'm saying is people need to worry more about the real problems in the world.
 
It really isn't easy to get OS X running well on a PC. And I haven't heard of anybody doing it with non problems or features missing.

Putting OS X on a PC does not make it a Mac.
 
Take your parents to your local Apple Store and show them the MacBooks.

While you're there, also have someone show them the iMacs.


Try to find a good sales rep that can really show them the iLife Suite
along with MS Office and other essentials.

It won't be long before your parents own their own Mac.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.