Gawd help me, I'm being seduced by the dark side...

I know that oldskoolboarder has successfully built and enjoys his hackintosh.

What do you all think of this concept?

It might be a way for me to try out the Apple OS without making a specific hardware commitment.

http://lifehacker.com/5351485/how-to-build-a-hackintosh-with-snow-leopard-start-to-finish

For $29, it's hardly a risk if you've already got the hardware on hand. If you don't have the hardware on hand, you can buy a Mac mini for $600 (or $500 refurb) and skip the hack completely.

Might as well give it a shot. You never know, you might like living on the 'dark side'. Just don't blame OSX if you have problems with the hardware.

When my Dell/Vista notebook started going downhill a few months ago, I made the jump to a Macbook Pro. I love it. Zero regrets. I bought mine as a refurb direct from Apple. Can't tell it's not brand new. Same warranty as new. And was almost $1,000 less than the original MSRP. At that price, it was actually a bit *cheaper* than a comparable Dell/HP notebook.

I'm not a Microsoft hater either; Microsoft SQL Server administration and C# .Net project management/coding is what I do for a living.

So for me it's Microsoft by day, Mac by night.

Mac by night, away from here
Change my life again
Mac by night, goodbye my dear
My ship isn't coming and I just can't pretend...

I think Dell has the Mini 9's on sale again for $199. IIRC, it may only be 4GB or 8GB, but IMHO, you should upgrade it to at least 64GB. I have mine as a dual boot, you could go triple if you want. It has Win7 and OSX 10.5.8. No Snow Leopard yet, waiting for the Hackintosh devs to complete the installer, right now audio seems to be the last thing not working but they are close.

LOVE my Mini 9. I've taken it on trips to the Philippines and Canada and no issues. I love the size and battery life can go to almost 4 hours if I shut off Wifi and BT. I also use my headphone USB DAC to listen to AAC lossless on my Grados with iTunes. Sounds great. It has Skype and we used my Skype out to do international calls. It doesn't handle MKV files well, but it is a low end machine. AVIs are fine. Great for trips because of the SD slot to off load camera pix.

It's not that hard to do, more than happy to help you if you decide to go that route.

http://www.mydellmini.com/forum/

http://www.mydellmini.com/forum/mac-os-x/

The Mini 10V is also nice, it may have better video handling.

Although I really love Macs and OSX, I do have to admit that Win 7 is great. It is FAST. I tried it on my Macbook using VirtualBox and an external HDD. It was faster than my Parallels Windows and faster than my Thinkpad T41. You could also forego the multiboot and put only OSX. Then use Virtualbox to run any other OSes you want to try.

My friend went the Hackintosh route w/ a desktop version he put together for under $500. He really likes it but you have to more conscious of the OS updates and install packages. The biggest advantage of the Mini 9 is that once it's working, you can (usually) just run standard Apple updates w/ no issues. W/ other hardware, you have to wait for the devs to create specific installers to match your h/w config.

Very good, OSB. Thank you SO MUCH.

No prob. This is also a good reference.

http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/12/17/osx-netbook-compatib.html

Cool.

The Mini9 sale seems to have ended yesterday

I DON'T have the parts or netbook yet; the idea is that I feel like we need to add some capacity to the family computing resources. Mrs. Tuttle is using a 1.8GHz P4 Dell and our only notebook is an amazingly old Dell. Thought I'd learn about some other stuff in the process.

All the buzz has me wanting to ensure that whatever I do is compatible with Snow Leopard.

I'm sure I'll end up with a house full of W7 late next year; we're running XP on 3 machines and Vista Home Premium on one right now.

Thanks again. I will take you up on your offer when I get my stuff together!

Bearing in mind of course (somebody has to say it) that you would be doing the equivalent of buying the Upgrade version of Windows 7 and installing it on a machine without owning a previous version of Windows.

Actually, I'll be buying a full version of Windows 7 for my netbook. There were rumors of netbook versions on USB sticks but I'll wait until next month to know for sure.

Currently, my Hackintosh has all 'legal' software, everything has a valid license. Now maybe not to the letter of the law regarding the EULA because it's not Apple hardware...

http://lifehacker.com/5360150/install-snow-leopard-on-your-hackintosh-pc-no-hacking-required

I'm going to have to try this on my wife's laptop. She's been complaining that she misses the Mac.

must...resist...

Resistance is futile.

Um, I think you mean "feudal"

The proper way to say it is Fyoo-tile. With about 1000 other voices backing yours.

That fifth of ten. She's HOT.

Hey, that's the same actress in True Blood. Now I remember, it was buggin me...

Who?

Are you talking about Seven of Nine, Jeri Ryan? She wasn't in True Blood.

Perhaps you are you thinking of Michelle Forbes? She does have a TrueBlood|space scifi connection. She was in Battlestar Galactica; captain of the Pegasus.

Yes, Michelle Forbes.

She was in Star Trek: TNG, though. Played Ensign (later Lt.) Ro.

I want to do a 7 of 9 with Jeri Ryan.

Dell Vostro A90 (Mini 9) on sale again for $199.

http://www.techdealdigger.com/pr/cheap-d...inux-deals/1456

I'm gonna get somebody to bite...

Ooooh!! Evil yet hot. Killer combo!

Well that too...

How could I forget Ro!

Could a person load SL on that Vostro or would one need to increase the size of the SSD to 32GB or something? $100 doesn't seem to be a horrible price for that upgrade.

I know, just go to insanelymac myownself. But service here is SO much better.

I've heard people do it on 16GB, but I think 32GB is a usable minimum.

8GB is only useful for ubuntu.

You can get 3rd party SSD from places like Runcore. I have the Dell STEC I think, it's the stock 64GB. Make sure it fits, it's a PCIE card but it's a specific size, generic ones don't fit.

THANKS!