The Hackintosh Guide 453
An anonymous reader writes "A 'Hackintosh' is a computer that runs Apple's OS X operating system on non-Apple hardware. This has been possible since Apple's switch from IBM's PowerPC processors to Intel processors a few years ago. Until recently, building a PC-based Mac was something done only by hard-core hackers and technophiles, but in the last few months, building a Hackintosh PC has become much easier. Benchmark Reviews looks at what it's possible to do with PC hardware and the Mac Snow Leopard OS today, and the pros and cons of building a Hackintosh computer system over purchasing a supported Apple Mac Pro."
Mac vs. PC (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Mac vs. PC (Score:3, Insightful)
Can we please stop using the terms as if they are mutually exclusive?
No.
They're in the vernacular now. Can't speak for other languages, but in English, to say "My PC is busted" generally means "My windows PC is busted."
"My mac is busted" is straightforward. When further differentiation is required on the PC front we say "My Linux PC is busted" (although more than likely, we'd say "My Linux Box is busted.")
A parallel is saying "I'm American" - While not technically correct, this is understood in the vernacular to mean "I'm a citizen of the United States." Canadians like me have to say "I'm Canadian" even though I live in the Americas. It's the understood vernacular.
Re:Imagine if you had to Hack Windows to run on a (Score:1, Insightful)
I know of no DRM in Amiga OS to make sure it wasn't running on hardware Commodre hadn't been paid for.
Apple sells copies of an operating system that can run on commodity hardware.
Just as it is my right to play my legally-purchased music on any hardware that can play it, it's my right to run my legally-purchased software on any hardware that can run it.
By the way, it's utterly ridiculous for Apple to claim the DMCA has anything to do with this; it's not about pirating their software.
Re:Imagine if you had to Hack Windows to run on a (Score:3, Insightful)
Except Windows NT 4 had a PPC build/install disc option ...
Re:apple ][ clones (Score:2, Insightful)
This is the truth. According to Jack Sams, IBM Boca Raton started what they initially called 'Project Chess' after noting the success of the Apple II.
However, what made the Apple II successful and what made the Macintosh successful are two completely different stories.
Re:Mac vs. PC (Score:1, Insightful)
Can we please stop using the terms as if they are mutually exclusive?
No. They're in the vernacular now. Can't speak for other languages, but in English, to say "My PC is busted" generally means "My windows PC is busted." "My mac is busted" is straightforward. When further differentiation is required on the PC front we say "My Linux PC is busted" (although more than likely, we'd say "My Linux Box is busted.") A parallel is saying "I'm American" - While not technically correct, this is understood in the vernacular to mean "I'm a citizen of the United States." Canadians like me have to say "I'm Canadian" even though I live in the Americas. It's the understood vernacular.
Yeah I know, you have a point. I guess I'm just stubborn and obsessed with semantics. If I was Canadian, I would happily say that I was from America, and let people interpret it however they like. But the term "American", when referring to people, is quite exclusively reserved for referring to people from the USA. At least that's my understanding of it."PC", on the other hand, is not used exclusively to refer to a personal computer running Microsoft Windows. It can just as easily refer to any personal computer. One of the meanings is logical and useful, the other one isn't. Not that I really mind. I sort of enjoy calling Macs PCs and then watching the inevitable rage or confusion that follows.
Re:apple ][ clones (Score:5, Insightful)
What made the Macintosh successful and what made OS X successful are two different stories as well.
Re:Imagine if you had to Hack Windows to run on a (Score:2, Insightful)
...so then it should be a trivial matter to pop my Snow Leopard disks into a PC that lacks an Apple logo and create virtual machines to my hearts content in either vmware or virtualbox.
I did this once (Score:5, Insightful)
Not worth the trouble (Score:5, Insightful)
I have setup several Hackintosh's at home for my family, a dell 9 mini and a couple of desktops, and I have to say it's just not worth the time and effort. I should have just bought a Mac mini and a Macbook that "just worked" out of the box.
Actually let me amend that, it is worth your time if your time is worthless. :) The money I could have made (as a freelancer contracter) in the time it took to setup and support them would have more than offset the cost of a real Apple machine.
Re:Mac vs. PC (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah I know, you have a point. I guess I'm just stubborn and obsessed with semantics. If I was Canadian, I would happily say that I was from America, and let people interpret it however they like.
That seems somewhat silly, and I actually think you're wrong about the semantics.
What does "America" mean? The most obvious answer (and ignoring the handful of towns around the world named America) is that it's an abbreviated form of "The United States of America." To what else could it possibly refer? North America? No, that doesn't make sense because if you say "America" referring to a continent, how do you differentiate between North and South America. Likewise, if you're referring to both continents it doesn't make sense, because they -- the landmass as a whole -- is referred to as the Americas (pl). It's possible that in a historical sense "America" (s) could be used to refer to the entire landmass, but this is most certainly not a modern usage. Deprecated!
So, if you were a Canadian it would make perfect sense to say you were either from North America or from the Americas. Neither statement is particularly useful nor descriptive but they would be accurate. Saying you were "from America" would mean you were from the United States of America (unless as I said earlier you were from the handful of towns or cities around the world named America).
So is this a pedantic semantic argument? I guess so, but I don't see how you could possibly justify that usage of America.
Re:Wish Apple put some work on OSX (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Mac vs. PC (Score:5, Insightful)
So you value pedantic correctness over effective communication with your fellow humans? That says volumes about you, and very little of it positive.
It is exclusively reserved for referring to people from the USA only by informal convention & long-standing usage, not from some inflexible rule of language. Just like "Macs" are "Macintosh PCs" and "PCs" are "Windows PCs," in long-standing usage and informal convention. This is mindless semantic argument, made solely for the sake of argument. What is the point? You know what's meant, I know what's meant, and everybody else reading knows what's meant by the "Mac" vs. "PC" distinction.
Re:Imagine if you had to Hack Windows to run on a (Score:0, Insightful)
fanboi.. you cant deny it, your nick has Mac IN IT.
Because your an obvious fanboi, your opinion automatically means less then any other user on this site. congrats.
Re:Wish Apple put some work on OSX (Score:4, Insightful)
10.6 was released in late 2009, not 2008.
One year's of no updates appears much less stagnant than 2 years.
But the problem is, that if Apple releases updates every year or year and a half, people complain about costs of upgrades. If Apple waits too long to release an update everyone thinks that the sky is falling and MacOS is DYING. (Oh NOES!)
The Mac is not dead.
Re:Apple needs a desktop mini tower at $1000-$1500 (Score:3, Insightful)
I think the reason that Apple doesn't have a $1000-1500 mini desktop is because that market is heavily saturated and competitive. All of their desktops are in very select markets with little competition. They can get much more profit per unit. If they released a mini desktop as you suggested they would be competing with Dell, HP, Lenovo which are low margin on each unit but overall makes profit by selling high volume. Apple wouldn't make much money selling low volume (relatively) so it's not worth it.
As for the Mac Pro, people always forget/don't seem to realize that the Mac Pro is not a consumer desktop; it's a professional workstation. As such it is priced competitively with other workstations. People who are buying one are using it to edit sound/music/video/graphics for a living not simply to play games/edit their home movies/surf the web, etc. It's the same reason a professional DSLR camera costs a scale more than a digital consumer model.
Re:Mac vs. PC (Score:2, Insightful)
Why bother? (Score:3, Insightful)
Ubuntu is easier to install and supports more hardware and software.
Hackintoshes are like teaching a pig to sing. Even if you succeed, it just wastes your time and annoys Apple.
OSX Doesn't Make Money (Score:4, Insightful)
Long ago (in computer industry terms), OSX got Apple back on the road to financial success. OSX has become a favored, octogenarian at Apple. Treated well, but generally irrelevant to other projects.
Every time there's a consumer buying content for one of Apple's dedicated entertainment devices, they are made richer. The best part of this scheme is two-fold.
1. It's early days for dedicated entertainment devices like the ipad and even the iphone. Tons of money yet to be taken from the consumer while the personal use doctrine is being dismantled.
2. The distribution of entertainment is a U.S. government sanctioned oligopoly. Apple has become an blessed member of the oligopoly.
Contrast the scale of those revenue generating opportunities with the general purpose computer (OSX) where once the tower/laptop is sold, that's about the end of the revenue stream.
Re:unfair practices (Score:3, Insightful)
Sorry I am not going to spell it out. FTC should be involved whenever (paying) consumers are being held back by artificial means.
Next to no apps for NT on PowerPC (Score:3, Insightful)
Except Windows NT 4 had a PPC build/install disc option ...
But how many publishers of applications for Windows provided universal binaries?
Re:Mac vs. PC (Score:3, Insightful)
Talk about completely and utterly missing the point!
Really? We still tend refer to it as 'the new World' when talking about it as a whole :P Otherwise America is indeed a reference to the continent*, we refer to the US as 'the US', surprisingly.
Ok, that's fine and dandy, however when using the word "America" the singular refers to the USA, the pl refers to both continents. You can call it the New World, India, that-place-across-the-pond -- whatever you want! Doesn't change the meaning of America et al.
Strangely enough, prefacing 'South' or 'North' in front of 'America' is usually enough to get the message across...
Yes, that's exactly the point I was making. When the OP tried to make a new usage of the word America (eg, a Canadian saying "I'm from America") that requires a meaning of "America" to refer to North America. That doesn't exist. You use NORTH America or SOUTH America to refer to the landmasses. That's what gets the message across.
Re:It's not "the" guide (Score:3, Insightful)
The industrial design of Apple computers is simply the best in the world
Ok, so esentially they are really good at putting the components together, but the components have no real difference from PC components?
I get the impression that they are just more asthetically pleasing, with some nice peripherals.
Again, I'm not trying to be a troll, just trying to understand the rabid fanbois.. I mean the software isnt the best, the basic hardware is comparable to a PC's... Is there a reason I should consider Apple computers in the future... Will I get what I pay for, or will I pay for the privilege of being locked in a walled garden?
If there is a good reason to look into Macs, I will consider them the next time I'm purchasing a computer.
Re:Wish Apple put some work on OSX (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple doesn't like OS/X anymore. The platform has basically been stagnant since the inception of 10.6, in 2008. Hardware support is poor, even worse than Linux. For instance there is no way to make a Nvidia GTX460 run under OS/X at the moment, in spite of it being the best bang-for-the-buck video card right now. It was impossible to have an AMD 5xxx series run until only a few months ago!
This is hardly a new issue. Apple doesn't care about supporting hardware configurations they don't ship. It allows them to focus on supporting a small number of hardware configurations and giving the maximum stability and ease-of-use for their users.
The cost is that they have always been and will always be behind the performance curve on supporting the latest add-in hardware that is available on the PC. Plus if you were really interested in "the best bang-for-the-buck", you probably aren't buying an expandable Mac Pro (which is $2,500 / $3,500 / $5,000 depending on model you select).
In OSX, AMD 5XXX support came because they are shipping all 3 of these configs with the AMD5770 standard -- again, they really only support hardware they ship.
FWIW, on the PC, MS doesn't write the drivers for Windows. The hardware manufacturers do. If there was an actual GFX card after-market on the Mac, NVidia and AMD would write the drivers for the Mac (and there's a good chance AMD did write them for Apple when they won the bid to include 5770's in Mac Pros).
Re:but $2500 for a 1 cpu base system is too high (Score:3, Insightful)
but $2500 for a 1 cpu base system is too high cut it down to $2000.
Why don't you build a similar model on Dell and see how much it costs you. I think if you matched specs, it's close to what Apple charges. Most of the time you come within $200 but there are still enough differences to say whether it's a difference. i.e. iLife comes with OS X, etc. And don't build one with a iCore i5 and call it the same as a Xeon. They're not the same processor.
also apple should make the mini more like $500-$600.
Again price out what it takes. Also take into account the form factor. A micro-ITX form factor costs much more to build than a regular size because parts are more specialized. If a small form factor isn't worth it to you, then it's not for you. The only thing that comes close to the mini is the Dell Inspiron Zino HD which isn't as small.
and why not have a imac like system without the screen or at least a mate imac.
Read my post above about why Apple doesn't make a generic desktop. They won't make much money as the market is saturated and they have to compete with the likes of Dell whose business model is to sell at very little profit for lots of volume. It's not a matter of can't; it's a matter of that there isn't enough profit in it for them. And businesses are in it to make money for them.
apples pushing games on mac and the video cards are not there and with the imac the card in the system is weak for the screen size.
I don't think Apple has ever advertised any of their computers are hardcore "gaming machines" like Alienware. They've advertised you can play games on them which is true. It's more a problem of you what you want.
Re:Apple needs a desktop mini tower at $1000-$1500 (Score:2, Insightful)
It's why auto mechanics drop $40k on a Snap-on/Mac setup.
And it's why I'm happy to spend the money on Macs today. If a stint as a pro auto mechanic taught me anything, it's not to go cheap on your tools. Yeah, Craftsman may have the same lifetime warranty as Snap-On, may still turn a 10mm bolt, but when you're using that wrench a dozen or more times a day Snap-On doesn't look so expensive. There are differences that don't show up on a spec sheet.
I've since given up turning wrenches for a living and make my living with computers as my primary tool. I can save some pennies and get a laptop that I'll use because I have to, or spend more and get a Macbook Pro that is the first laptop that I actually enjoy using. Same with my 27" i7 iMac. I like good tools. Whipping out spec sheets and telling me how you could build "the same thing" for less isn't going to sell me. Because in the end, what you're really saying is, "I want what's cheapest". That's fine if I'm buying a set of coffee mugs. Not so fine when we're talking about what I use to make my living.