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The Merged Hackintosh Thread

What describes you?

  • No way would I build a hackintosh

    Votes: 349 23.0%

  • I'd consider it if Apple doesn't provide a new Mini or headless iMac in the next three months

    Votes: 185 12.2%

  • I'm considering it right now

    Votes: 578 38.2%

  • I already built one

    Votes: 403 26.6%
  • Total voters
    1,515
GFLPraxis said:
I own a MacBook, and I've purchased a licensed copy of Leopard. I can't afford the desktop Mac I'd like (heck, the lowest-end iMac is too expensive at the moment). $900 is about the best I can spare, and any Mac in that range won't have anywhere near the performance I'd like. My options are to either wait a year and buy a Mac Pro, or I can build this machine. :)
Click to expand...
I'm in the same boat here... I need to upgrade form my G4 desktop as well as my G3 powerbook (which I will replace with a macbook soon). I don't see spending 2800 on Macpro as a good deal and have never been a fan of the all-in-one iMac's.

Good luck with your build and let us know how it goes. I have other bills to pay right now so have put buying hardware parts off a bit.
 
Hackintoshs break Mac OS X's EULA.

other than that i think its a great way for users to get into OS X if they cannot afford Apple hardware or if you are curious and want to check out OS X on your PC before you buy a Mac.

ive checked out InsanelyMac.com before becuase i was curious to see how hard it is and if its stable. i was suprised to see that a large quantity of the users are doing it for a hobby and actually own Mac hardware and an OS X license.

if your into building gaming rigs and love OS X its a good opportunity to fuse the two together.
 
I think that Hackintosh's are really quite unethical. They're not really being honest to Apple, or yourself. And they break the EULA.
Even then, one of the reasons I use a mac is because the Software and Hardware are made by the same people. That minimizes the chances of crashes, plus the hardware and software are literally MADE for each other. Like, lots of the fun would be lost running a thin impersonation of the Macbook Air, because there would be no gestures. Also, people have to make modifications deep within your system (kinda like a NEWB tinkering with a PCs registry), and those haxies make me uncomfy.
Oh, and also did I mention that Apple has the capability to detect whether you are using their hardware? In some later release, like 10.5.8, say, they could halt your upgrade because your mac isn't authentic. Plus you can't have them fix something or transfer files either.


Well, I said it. This is just my own humble opinion, but I would still like to discourage you from buying a hackintosh, even if you can't afford a real mac. Doing it the right way is more rewarding, I promise.
 
As I recall, arn doesn't mind discussion of hackintoshes as long as the topic never, ever delves into ways to pirate OS X. Otherwise, it's okay.

Personally I have no problem with hobbyists making hackintoshes, as long as they pay for the operating system. From what I hear, they're usually more trouble than their worth, which puts them more in the realm of hobby territory in the first place than your average Joe who can't afford a real Mac.

I do have a problem with people who pirate OS X, and I think most forum members do.

I also have a problem with Psystar. A hobbyist making a hackintosh in his own home for fun is completely different than a company selfishly making money off of lots of other people's hard work (both Apple and people of project OSx86). Count me among those who want to see Psystar bite the dust. But anyone who wants to dish out the $129 for Leopard and want to try to build their own hackintosh? I say let them. But the selfish people at Psystar shouldn't be profiting from so many other people's hard work without doing any of their own.
 
dudeofblokes said:
out of curiousity i decided to do a poll on hackintoshs and simply want to ask what do you think?
Click to expand...

I think the most interresting thing is that Apple has been so quiet about this. They have not even gone so far as to complain, even once to people who are selling these (pystar) or those publishing the technical informatiion about how to build one. Nothing. It is as if Apple is saying they don't care.

This would not be so odd if Apple were not so quick to take action on others who would even leak rumors and photos. Apple's leagal department i not known for inaction.

Why is Apple silent? My guess is they absolutly do not want their EULA tested in court. If they were to loose it would be a huge blow. The court could very likely toss out the concept of a EULA.

After all how can a contract be binding if only one party agrees to it? Who ever heard of a "shrink wrapped contract" that you don't get to read untill after you open a box but then opened boxes are not returnable? LOTS of reason for Apple not wanting to take this to court. Better for Apple to ignore the problem

As for the Hackentosh itself. It is mostly done by people who just want to learn how everything works or kids who don't have the money to buy a "real" Mac. I doubt any of them cost Apple a lost sale

One other thing that may be holding Apple back is that when yu add it all up, I think half of Mac OSX was not written by Apple. They are using a TON of Open Source software they got for free from other people. The entire BSD kernal is the result of decades of work all done for free and given away. Much of the user space is free software too. All of Apple's printing and Postscript stuff and the ftp and http and networking. Apple may actually be worried about ethics bout ow they can take so much fromthe open source comunity and not give anything back. Actually I doubt they care about ethic, more likey it's perception and image. How would it look if Apple in effect said "hey we collected all this free stuff and put it in a box and now you arn't playing with it the way we want you to." Apple has all the right to say that but how would it look if they did?
 
Macs can be had on the cheap. I'm typing this on a G4 iMac I bought of Craigslist for $60, due to a failed attempt at replacing the hard drive. The kid broke the jumper for the monitor off the logic board. I bought it, brought it home, and plugged in an external monitor. Fired right up. Sold the iMac monitor and arm on ebay for $110.
 
I run a hackintosh and it was a pain to get working on my hardware. I did it to see if I would like it (so I would fall into the hobby catagory). It triple boots Vista/Ubuntu/OSX86 and since running OSX86, I have purchased TWO macs in the last 3 months and will be purchasing another in June or July for my son for college. Obviously I was impressed.

I think that speaks volumes of why Apple turns the other way. They don't have to support it and it gives free advertising for their OS.
 
sorry i never thought to mention when starting this post that its to discus peoples views on it not how to do it, i like a lot of others dont condone piracy nor should it be mentioned in this listing.

i just want to know what people think of the subject of hackintoshs and their experiences if going the way of them.
 
Personally, I have only ever run OS X on macs, but I think that it's cool that people can take it and make it run on other hardware. Of course, there is nearly nothing to it - but those first few who figured it out on their own... that was pretty cool.

I don't see anything wrong with it. If the license for it was acquired legally, who cares whether you're running it on Apple hardware or a junk x86 box. I know everyone on this forum bitches about the EULA, but I'd love to see that attempted to be held up in court. If people are paying for it... they may not be springing 5k on a mac pro... but they're still dishing out the dough for the software.
 
Well my 'Hackintosh' gained apple sales of a Macbook Air and Mac Pro. I firmly think that people who manage to run a hackintosh (and I mean those like me who DIY, not companies selling them as thats another issue), are generally the curious types. I had mine running for three weeks to ensure I could find apps to do all the things I do in Vista (and guess what - most i didnt need to look for as OS X did them out-of-the-box).

I do agree that some folks will build a hackintosh and never even consider purchasing an apple machine of software licence. These folks are not costing sales as they wouldnt buy it anyways.

The danger is the hackintosh sellers - they are selling a product which is based on a breach of the software licence and also is not a true representation of what it means to be Apple branded. These should be stopped.

Otherwise I think everyone should be shown how MacOS X works - even it means making a 'live' disk and giving it away on Computer Shopper. After all many users dont go-mac not because they dont want to, but becasue they simply are timid about something different to windoze.
 
I think that they generally break the whole Macintosh computer Model - something that is easy to use, easy to configure, and works out of the box.

Even the clones back in the mid-90s had issues. Far fewer than PCs had, but some.

I agree with the poster about Linux. Though Linux has gotten a lot better recently, especially Ubuntu.

:apple::apple:
 
Meh, Can't say i really care one way or another.

I do find it interesting though, that these people are willing to put up with, in some cases, worse stability and issues than a windows system...
 
slapguts said:
Macs can be had on the cheap. I'm typing this on a G4 iMac I bought of Craigslist for $60, due to a failed attempt at replacing the hard drive. The kid broke the jumper for the monitor off the logic board. I bought it, brought it home, and plugged in an external monitor. Fired right up. Sold the iMac monitor and arm on ebay for $110.
Click to expand...
Way to go slapguts, you demonstrated that not only is it possible to get an affordable mac, not only is it possible to get a mac for free, its possible to make a profit :D
 
rhett7660 said:
Not to sound like a prick, but if you do a search there are plenty of posts on this website that pretty much tell you what people on this board think of them...
Click to expand...

i hate when people say i dont mean to ..... if they didnt mean to they wouldnt do it. as stated at the start of this post this is a poll i was wanting to do, yes others may have done this before but this was something i wanted to know in a convient place thats all.
 
I really don't care one way or the other. If someone wants to go out, buy a copy of Mac OS X and then install it on any generic PC hardware, then that's great. But, yeah, it really doesn't affect me one way or the other.
 
I have a hackintosh, it was actually a computer I got for $50 on black friday which I purchased because it looked OS X compatible. Turns out it runs Leopard flawlessly.

I may get some flak here, but I'm running pirated Leopard on it. Cheaper and better machine than buying a used mac in the same price range. However, it turned me from being indifferent to OS X to liking it. If not for that pirated copy of Leopard running on my $50 box, I wouldn't be planning to buy a MacBook Pro, so I suppose the hackintosh community earned Apple at least one sale.

Linux can't touch OS X. Linux is fine on my headless servers, but I dislike it on desktop. It's not functional enough in my opinion, and I'm not thrilled with the ugliness of it. Gnome and KDE are both ugly.
 
It doesn't really make any difference to me. I do have a problem with companies like Psystar doing it, because whether or not it is legally enforcable, I don't think it's right to blatantly ignore the restrictions placed on one's own intellectual property and make a profit on it. That said, if everything is done legally (as in, you're not pirating it or anything) I don't have a problem with hobbyists doing it, as it really does nothing to me.

Baffles said:
I have a hackintosh, it was actually a computer I got for $50 on black friday which I purchased because it looked OS X compatible. Turns out it runs Leopard flawlessly.

I may get some flak here, but I'm running pirated Leopard on it. Cheaper and better machine than buying a used mac in the same price range. However, it turned me from being indifferent to OS X to liking it. If not for that pirated copy of Leopard running on my $50 box, I wouldn't be planning to buy a MacBook Pro, so I suppose the hackintosh community earned Apple at least one sale.
Click to expand...

Well, I don't think that makes it all right, but, who am I to judge you ;)
 
Having a hacked computer increases the chance of something going wrong. Then when something does, you have no support because it was hacked!

I don't believe in the hackintosh.
 
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