Running Mac OS X on Generic PCs with Parallels/VMWare? [Update]

[wellofsouls]

I'm also sure that OS X won't run as well on Dells and HPs because of the difference in hardware (video cards, sound boards, etc)

It may not run as well on those pre-built Dells and HPs budget PCs, but it will run much better on a enthusiast DIY rig, since nowadays a Mac is nothing but a pre-built PC with Intel CPU(s) and ATI/nVidia Graphics card(s) and generic onboard audio.

 

[bplein]

Zadillo:

Some last thoughts before I take off for work.

I'm not saying Apple intends to abandon hardware. They couldn't do that and continue to make iPods, AppleTVs and so forth. However, my point is that they are already psychologically, as a company, gearing up for business strategies which they have not previously embraced, and I think that one of those is the unbundling of Mac OS X from Apple computer hardware.

I think bringing in your Linux comparisons are, well, just misplaced.

Opening up Mac OS X (not necessarily "Open" as in Open Source, but "open" as in legally allowed to run on more hardware) would reduce the "Mac Experience" to the same hit-and-miss that people have with Windows and Linux.

Yes, many distributions of Linux work nicely out of the box on a variety of hardware. Linux distributions have, for the most part, gotten away from the days where they installed a lot of icons for programs that weren't even installed. It's gotten away, for the most part, from requiring fiddling with X configs just to get a decent desktop.

But the problem with that openness is that end users who just want to run their software and do the things their brother/sister/father/mother/friend do, won't be able to do it unless they go buy the same hardware that their brother/sister/father/mother/friend have bought.

Oh, can't do bluetooth? Sorry, you didn't buy a compatible BT card. Video? Did you check the compatibility matrix? Wireless-N? But I thought everything that worked on Linux was working on Apple, can't I just use the madwifi compatible one I bought last week?

Then these users throw up their arms, and say "wow... all the same issues I had on Vista because of missing drivers... and no shoot-em-up games? Macs suck!" Apple has to grow their support team 10-fold, and in the end they are losing money because the first 1-hour call eats up the profit on their $150 operating system.

With today's model, a Leopard CD will install on any/all of the hardware supported. No additional driver downloads necessary.

Installing Windows Server 2003, however, on a Dell PE1950 requires a special linux-based boot cd that you must have to force the install onto the internal SATA drive, because Windows doesn't ship with the Dell SAS chipset drivers. Guess what? Dell will sell you the PE1950 without a floppy. Meaning there is no way to bypass the Dell installation CD that preps your hard drive for you. It's easier to do a boot-from-SAN Fibre Channel installation on the Dell PE1950 than a native Windows install to the internal hard drive. THAT is not the world I want my Mac experience shifting over to. And I don't want the stability of the base OS compromised because of over zealous efforts to support more hardware.

No thank you. I run Windows (at home and at work), and Linux and FreeBSD. All of them have their place (well, I'm still trying to think of the place for Linux, but that's my BSD bias showing up).

 

[bplein]

It may not run as well on those pre-built Dells and HPs budget PCs, but it will run much better on a enthusiast DIY rig, since nowadays a Mac is nothing but a pre-built PC with Intel CPU(s) and ATI/nVidia Graphics card(s) and generic onboard audio.

I tried out a Hackintosh install on my enthusiasts rig (well, it was an enthusiasts rig at one time!)

AMD dual core, NVidia graphics, add-on sound. First of all, the drivers for the graphics sucked, after struggling to make them work. The sound was functional, but didn't sound as good as my MBP (which supports 5.1 optical out). The mouse was "gritty", and I couldn't make it operate smoothly.

All of the above could be rectified by good drivers. Who is going to enforce that every vendor of every part make good drivers for an "open" OS X? NOBODY. In order to build a good system, you'd have to hunt through every forum, do tons of research, and pick only the right parts, and hope that your research was good.

And your mom is going to want you to build one for her too, and support her. Gonna let her do Software Update on her own with a hackintosh? Don't think so...