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Want to buy $100-$300 Laptop/Netbook from Apple

In my country, there is someone selling a 14" iBook G4 at 1.3Ghz, 60GB HDD, 2 batteries, original disks, in nearly perfect state for about $250. The point is, although I don't think he will send it to you, that there are SH notebooks available at this price, although very very old. Maybe you'll be OK if you run Tiger. OS 9, maybe? :)
 
Darth.Titan said:
Hackintoshes are for geeks and tinkerers.

Don't give your Mom a hackintoshed Dell. She won't be happy in the long run.
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Exactly, if you don't know what your doing and hand this off to your mom it's going to be a disaster. There are driver issues, issues with Wifi, trackpad etc.. it's not a "daily driver" for someone that doesn't realize what they have and how to resolve the issues. You will be getting very angry calls on why things don't work lol.

Your better off finding a older mac running Tiger than a hackintosh unless your the kind of person that has no problem pulling apart a laptop to replace a wifi card or HDD etc... it doesn't always happen but from the 4 I've done/helped with it was 50/50 that some of them had issues, totally random and fixable but not for someone "un" technical unless you enjoy being frustrated and searching forums for answers.
 
Well, I talked it over with my mum and it seems she says that she'd rather wait and save to get a more decent computer.

Thanks everyone who helped!
 
r.j.s said:
We get it, you're new Atom can beat an old G4 ... I'm glad you didn't let my point get in the way of some good-old Apple bashing.
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Apple bashing? The PowerBook 12" is a nice machine but this is 2009 and PowerPC is sadly dead. Running Leopard on such hardware isn't what I would consider to be a good experience. Why suffer? Masochism?
 
Eidorian said:
Apple bashing? The PowerBook 12" is a nice machine but this is 2009 and PowerPC is sadly dead. Running Leopard on such hardware isn't what I would consider to be a good experience. Why suffer? Masochism?
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I agree that the PPC is dead, I never said that the G4 was a great choice. I don't think budget machines run anything very well.

My point is that I would not give a hackintosh netbook to someone who may not know much about computers in general.
 
r.j.s said:
I agree that the PPC is dead, I never said that the G4 was a great choice. I don't think budget machines run anything very well.
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Your mileage my vary. A X2 250, 780G, and 4 GB is greased lightning.

r.j.s said:
My point is that I would not give a hackintosh netbook to someone who may not know much about computers in general.
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What other option is there then? Even a Core Duo MacBook is out of reach and PowerPC is just beating a dead horse to try to shoe into the budget.
 
Eidorian said:
What other option is there then? Even a Core Duo MacBook is out of reach and PowerPC is just beating a dead horse to try to shoe into the budget.
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Wait. Save some more.

You get what you pay for, and although it may take a little longer, saving more and spending a little bit more may make all the difference.
 
r.j.s said:
Wait. Save some more.

You get what you pay for, and although it may take a little longer, saving more and spending a little bit more may make all the difference.
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It sounds like a broken record around here. All this waiting for perceived value.

I know you didn't bring up the 12" iBook/PowerBook G4 but I see plenty of users underestimating the power of even $300 of computer hardware.
 
Consultant said:
NPD: Netbook buyers confused, unhappy
http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/06/23/netbook.buyers.unhappy/

A. Old iBook or maybe really banged up MacBook would be in that price range.

B. Wrong. Keep in mind that iPhone without contract >$300

C. Not the same experience with knockoff.

Why does she want a laptop?
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I don't think the expectations of a netbook are exaggerated here and I don't think they want to be bound to a phone contract for an experience that still isn't OS X. I don't see how you can pass off an iPhone as an OS X computer experience.

I haven't heard of any complaints of OS X on a Dell mini.
 
Eidorian said:
I don't think the expectations of a netbook are exaggerated here and I don't think they want to be bound to a phone contract for an experience that still isn't OS X. I don't see how you can pass off an iPhone as an OS X computer experience.

I haven't heard of any complaints of OS X on a Dell mini.
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I'm currently typing this on a Dell Mini 9 running 10.5.7 and it's awesome, it's 100% supported, software update works, everything, I like it so much that I purchased a Dell Mini 10 for the bigger screen and harddrive, I'll be selling this one soon, not because I don't like it but because I upgraded, this is probably the best 'Mac' I've owned, it's so useful, I'm sitting in my car tethered to my iPhone typing this, so anyone who discounts the Dell Mini 9 either hasn't used one or is an Apple fanboi who believes OS X should only be on genuine Mac's. With a Dell Mini 9 you get the complete OS X experience!

Good luck!

Andrew
 
Eidorian said:
I don't think the expectations of a netbook are exaggerated here and I don't think they want to be bound to a phone contract for an experience that still isn't OS X. I don't see how you can pass off an iPhone as an OS X computer experience.

I haven't heard of any complaints of OS X on a Dell mini.
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I am saying that iPhone costs more than the OP's budget.

Chances are low that a more "capable" machine will cost less than an iPhone.

Personally I am a 17" MBP type of guy, not the girly-man type.
 
One point that can possibly be inferred: OP's mom is tech savvy enough to WANT OS X on her laptop. By this inference, she may just be capable enough to deal with a hackintosh. Additionally, many mac users are perfectly happy not updating to the latest OS X or even version updates, and a hackintosh with everything set up may last her a few years, without the need for maintenance.
 
Andrew Henry said:
I'm currently typing this on a Dell Mini 9 running 10.5.7 and it's awesome, it's 100% supported, software update works, everything, I like it so much that I purchased a Dell Mini 10 for the bigger screen and harddrive, I'll be selling this one soon, not because I don't like it but because I upgraded, this is probably the best 'Mac' I've owned, it's so useful, I'm sitting in my car tethered to my iPhone typing this, so anyone who discounts the Dell Mini 9 either hasn't used one or is an Apple fanboi who believes OS X should only be on genuine Mac's. With a Dell Mini 9 you get the complete OS X experience!

Good luck!

Andrew
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I have a 9 and also 10v on the way, and we all know what's going to happen once I get them. A couple comments, 1) I hope you got a 10v and not just a 10 for OS X, and 2) last night on the news, they said texting while driving is just as bad as driving drunk...I wonder what they think about typing on a netbook while in the car ;-).
 
goldenaustin said:
I have a 9 and also 10v on the way, and we all know what's going to happen once I get them. A couple comments, 1) I hope you got a 10v and not just a 10 for OS X, and 2) last night on the news, they said texting while driving is just as bad as driving drunk...I wonder what they think about typing on a netbook while in the car ;-).
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Ofcourse I bought the 10v, it's maxed out, N280, 54whr battery, bluetooth, wireless-n, etc. I'm typing on it now, I also bought a 64gb Kingston SSDNow V-series SSD to put in it, it will fly once I put that in, they have sustained 100mb/s/80mb/s read/write, so this sucker should fly! If I wasn't such a sissy I would upgrade it to 2gb of ram, but I'm not sure if it's really all that worth it, seeing as this is my ultra mobile computer that does web browsing and e-mail, and the occasional video. But none-the-less it's awesome, and for all of the nay-sayers, I just did the 10.5.7 combo update and ran Software Update and updated straight from there with ZERO problems!


EDIT: Also with the upgraded battery I get 7 hours on battery power, someone PLEASE beat that !
 
I got an Acer Aspire one for dirt cheap and installed OSX on it using iDeneb. No problems whatsoever, it's just a pain in the ass to type on and the trackpad sucks but it is great for taking to class.
 
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