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Whats the point in a hackintosh?

roadbloc

roadbloc

macrumors G3
Original poster
Aug 24, 2009
8,784
215
UK
I just don't see the point in having a hackintosh.

If you have a pc, XP SP3 or Ubuntu 9.04 is the perfect OS for it, why put lots of time into trying to put os x on it?

I have nothing against os x, i like it very much (maybe not SL, but anyways...) its just that, it is designed to be run on the hardware apple provides and wouldn't trying to force os x onto a pc make it slow and buggy? And you'd have to be careful which updates to download n'all. All in all, just a pain with checking everything. A pain that you dont need if you just get a desent os on your pc.

Seriously hackintosh'es, buy a real mac, or just run a os designed for your hardware. Stop trying to be something your obviously not.
 
The point is usually to get an (almost) workstation class OS X system for half the money of a Mac Pro.

Is it a hassle? Probably. If people want to put the time in to it though, what difference does it make to you?
 
I built myself a pretty nifty Quad core Hackintosh about 9 months ago and planned to use it as a headless render node for Modo, but for some reason I never did use it. Somehow it just felt fake. I'm far more comfortable using my iMac instead.

As it stands I'm now lumbered with a pretty powerful Quad core PC with no operating system on it and no desire to install Windows or Ubuntu, so it sits under the stairs gathering dust. What a waste.
 
Skweeky said:
I built myself a pretty nifty Quad core Hackintosh about 9 months ago and planned to use it as a headless render node for Modo, but for some reason I never did use it. Somehow it just felt fake. I'm far more comfortable using my iMac instead.

As it stands I'm now lumbered with a pretty powerful Quad core PC with no operating system on it and no desire to install Windows or Ubuntu, so it sits under the stairs gathering dust. What a waste.
Click to expand...

ah.... jus stick a lightweight os on it and use it as a backup machine. Just to store backups and to use if ur imac ever fails on you.
 
Don´t ...

... use a Quad Core for backup server purposes, Jeeeez, that´s electric torture! Let it crunch´n´run.

A hackintosh makes sense, if you either are a tinkerer and love to push the shovel or you have not much financial backup to purchase the real deal, but need performance from OSX - well, nevertheless the second reason immediately forces you up to the first one, as you are obliged to tinker. Not alone, though ... the community is strong.

My hackintosh - running pretty stable ever since it was created in April 2008 - doesn´t look like an Apple machine at all, but it definitely feels like one while you work with it.
 
Hackintosh provides the elusive machine between the somewhat limited iMac and expensive Mac Pro.

Nowadays creating one is pretty easy. There are many tutorials on how to do it and you essentially just need to have a boot CD with certain files on it to install and then you install a bootloader on the OSX partition with the additional kexts your machine needs (about 4-5 in my case). If you have the right combination of hardware it will run very much like a real Mac. Aside from big OS updates like 10.5.x -> 10.6.x you can usually update via Software Update without problems.

In problem situations you do need a good understanding of the inner workings of OSX but you can minimize those by selecting the right hardware for your Hackintosh.

As for slow and buggy..well, the only thing that doesn't work on mine is sleep (mobo incompatibility) but otherwise it kicks the **** out of most real quad core Mac Pros in tests. Mac hardware isn't anything special anyway, just common PC components. Lack of driver support and some trickery to keep non-Apple systems from running by default are the only reasons why some machines don't work with OSX.

I refuse to install XP on anything anymore. It's an awful piece of crap compared to OSX and Win7. I don't like Linux distros much, I always find they're "engineer designed" aka usability isn't always the greatest.
 
kasakka said:
Hackintosh provides the elusive machine between the somewhat limited iMac and expensive Mac Pro.
Click to expand...

Mine benchmarks somewhere between the quad core and the octo core.

For me, I had a machine that runs windows for a single application every once in a while. My kids hate windows (no kidding) and won't really use it. I put OS X on it just to see if I could do it and found it wasn't all that difficult. It really saved me from having a pretty powerful machine sitting there doing nothing most of the time.

Personally I use it to rip/format convert movies for iTunes. It's much faster than either my iMac or my Mac Mini. The kids do kid things, surf the intertubes, watch movies, etc., and it doesn't tie up my iMac all day.

I don't really see why having a hackintosh upset's everyone so much.
 
I think the other guys summed it up pretty well - a Hackintosh is the nice midway point between an iMac and a Mac Pro. It gives people a chance to use OS X on a desktop or workstation without having to spend nearly $3000 or having to use a machine with laptop parts. It's the Apple tower that folks have been asking for for years.
 
A coworker hackintosh'ed a netbook. Since Apple doesn't sell a netbook, your suggestion to just buy an apple equivalent is impossible.

And some people do it for its own sake; for the fun of the task.
 
I've thought of getting a Dell Mini 10v and hackintoshing it for these reasons

- I write for a living, and end up going, "yeah, I am going to drag my Macbook Pro with me all day at a conference, just so I can bang some copy out between meetings."

- The netbook has a nice form factor for on-the-go computing. With cargo pants, it'll fit in a pocket.

- My workflow is OS X based. I don't want to use Windows

- I have a significant investment in OS X software to do my job. I'm not in a hurry to purchase Windows licenses to do the same tasks.

That said, my 13" MBP isn't a bad weight and now has me thinking against getting a netbook. But, if I'm going to be covering an event or needing to do work in a cramped space, or want a small form factor I can just toss in a bag, I'll order the Mini 10.
 
So people can have a cheap computer and the beauty of OS X.

roadbloc said:
Seriously hackintosh'es, buy a real mac, or just run a os designed for your hardware. Stop trying to be something your obviously not.
Click to expand...

HA! Thanks for starting my day off with a laugh!
 
roadbloc said:
If you have a pc, XP SP3 or Ubuntu 9.04 is the perfect OS for it, why put lots of time into trying to put os x on it?
Click to expand...

That's your opinion, not fact. There are tons of reasons why one would want to use OSX instead of linux or windows (e.g. they just like it better, don't want to put up with windows B.S., hate microsoft and think linux is too geeky for them, they want to run OSX-only apps, they want to develop OSX applications using xcode or something else, they want to run OSX on a machine that apple does not design (a mid-range upgradeable desktop), e.g.).

wouldn't trying to force os x onto a pc make it slow and buggy
Click to expand...

Why? There is nothing special about the parts inside an Apple computer. For the most part, it's just a PC in a fancy case (hardware wise). If you are careful about picking your components, it will run just fine and just as fast/stable as a real mac.
 
I build a Hackintosh first, and I loved it so much, I ended up buying my MBP a couple months after that. I actually helped Apple :D
 
roadbloc said:
Seriously hackintosh'es, buy a real mac, or just run a os designed for your hardware. Stop trying to be something your obviously not.
Click to expand...

So are you asking what the point is or telling people you are the smartest guy in the room and Hackintoshers are stupid?

I tell you what, when Apple releases a dirt cheap netbook ($200-300) I'll be the first in line. Until then I'll have to make do with my Hackintosh Lenovo S10.

Here is why I have it. There are times I need a computer, but I don't need the extra weight. If the MB Air were less expensive I'd use that, but I can't justify the MBA. I Hackintoshed my S10 because I like consistency and I don't want to rebuy apps for another OS (Win), or use an OS (Linux) that doesn't have the app I need.

My S10 is far from perfect, but it's perfect enough. Again, if Apple releases a cheap netbook I'll happily ditch my Hackintosh, but until then Apple has limited my options. (BTW I own 4 REAL Macs too, so that argument of yours fails too).
 
Find me a Mac with a IBM thinkpad style mouse, The touchpad is useless during the summer here. No amount of multi-touch will make a wet touchpad work, It makes it worse by doing weird things when you just try to move the mouse 1 pixel.

PS: I have 2 real macs, and 1 hackintosh. Having my real macs made it much easier to do
 
Its not a lot of effort, its pretty much no effort, and I can guarantee that its a hell of a lot less effort than using Linux.
 
I'm just not a fan of their particular hardware. I'm a Mac user who came from Windows, and I loved windows because I loved to tinker with hardware and software, including the OS. I purchased a Mac Mini to upgrade and then decided to hackintosh my HP Mini. I both bought and hacked because I love computers and needed a new project. The hackintosh also presented a product did not exist for Apple. This all brings me to a point. Apple doesn't do a good job of responding to the needs of the market in a timely fashion. Apple likes to create a product or a niche first and then fill it themselves. It tells you what to want, and I'm not too fond of that method of business overall. This is probably why so many Mac fanboys are mindless drones who don't listen to valid arguments...
 
Q: Whats the point in a hackintosh?
A: The point is in using OSX

..:confused:

What's so difficult to understand ?
 
Some folks just love to play with computers. Half the fun of working with computers, for some of us - is to make computers do things they were not built to do.
 
The benefits of a cheap machine with the advantage of running the greatest OS in the world. It's the best of both worlds.

While most people talk about building a machine with better specs then a Mac, they are usually omitting a few things that make it a Mac. Like the design of it, the materials used, being able to walk into the manufacturers store to get warranty support, and some other things which admittedly may not be worth it to some but do definitly add to the value of them.

Personally, I find Apple to be lacking in the desktop department. The Mini with nearly zero customization, the iMac with a built in monitor (I don't need or want that as I have 3), and then the Pro which is expensive as hell. All of those machines are good in there own right for what the are, but many people, including myself, want something in between. Something with the customization of the Pro, but for $1000 less. The PC world has that option, Apple does not.
 
For many, a Hackintosh is the route to a real Mac.

I started with a Toshiba Laptop which I made into a Hackbook. It was roughly the spec of the Santa Rosa MacBook. Because of this I learned OSX and bought a Power Mac G4. When the machine died, I decided the ideal laptop to replace it was a Whitebook. So I picked up an early '09 example.

So actually as has already been stated, a Mac since '06 is really just a PC. There isn't much difference.

Why do you think Boot Camp was such an easy addition for Apple. It really was just a firmware update and some drivers.
 
roadbloc said:
Having ran Ubuntu Linix and built a hackintosh, id say Linux is a hell of a lot easier.
Click to expand...

Interesting, because I would disagree with you there.

oh and btw, how in depth did you go with Ubuntu, did you just install it, or did you play with the underneath and recompile your kernel to optimise it for your hardware? To really optimise Linux and use all of its features you need to do more than just install it as the default install is almost as bloated as Windows.

Next, was your computer that you made a hack close to the spec of a real Mac. For older CPUs or AMDs there is a lot more patching required.

However for my Hackbook I needed a Boot 132 disc, and a retail copy of Leopard. It would then install just like on a Mac. Run Chameleon afterwards and Robert was your fathers brother.
 
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