
Hackintoshed: Life With My “MacBook Nano”  - chuck_taylor
http://theappleblog.com/2009/10/08/hackintoshed-life-with-my-macbook-nano/
======
SwellJoe
I enjoy my Mini 9 Hackintosh. It works really well, though I haven't been
brave enough to upgrade it to Snow Leopard, yet.

I do also have to admit that I finally begin to understand why people put up
with all the negatives of buying a Macintosh (cost, weight, Apple, single
mouse button, limited options). It's just a much nicer OS than Windows, and in
some ways nicer than Linux (though not in a few that are particularly
important to me).

~~~
NathanKP
Personally I bought a MacBook because when I tested other competitive laptops
they felt like pieces of junk. One $700 Sony laptop that I tested had a screen
that flexed diagonally if I closed it with one hand.

Another medium grade laptop (I think it was a Dell) had a body that flexed
inward if I laid my hands on it between typing.

In contrast my MacBook feels sturdy and dependable. I can throw it in my
backpack without needing to cushion it in a bulky laptop bag because I know it
can take it.

And I am confident that over time my MacBook will pay for itself in lack of
need for repairs. As far as the single mouse button goes I just plug in an
external mouse and work away. But over time you do get used to the two finger
on the touchpad right click.

~~~
elai
I used to have a macbook, and a thinkpad, and found them of equal quality. I
would watch out for the front bezel cracking problem (I got it). Fortunately
apple will replace it out of warranty if you goad them enough, since it is an
engineering flaw (so said a local mac repair guy)

~~~
yardie
If you are getting a thinkpad then you are getting into pricey computer
territory. Most of the complaints I hear about Mac is the price first. I made
the mistake of going from a company owned thinkpad to an equally spec'd Acer.
It was half the price and a year of usage showed where they cut corners.
Initially, the speakers blew, the battery wore down faster than expected (6
monthss). And random screws and chunks of plastic fell out the vents. Since
acer is now the #1 laptop maker they got their by building them cheap, replace
often.

~~~
nunb
Acer may also be the #1 maker because they make lots of laptops that are sold
under other brandnames.

For example, they make the Macbooks for Apple.

------
there
_Once I was sure I had all the components working, I did a Software Update to
10.5.8. Doing so killed the Wi-Fi, keyboard and trackpad, but a repeat of
replacing kext files restored them to a working state._

the hackintosh always seemed cheesy in that regard, much like a jailbroken
iphone. a new official release comes out with bug fixes and new features and
you're left waiting around until someone can crack it open again before you
can update.

anyone know how psystar gets around this issue of running mac os on custom
hardware that needs 3rd party kernel extensions?

~~~
thismat
I believe Psystar runs their own updater and supplies the pre-hacked updates
to users.

Is this incorrect?

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arithmetic
The screen real estate always bites you (as stated in the article). 9/10
inches is just not good enough for all the Mac UI.

~~~
NathanKP
Yeah the Mac UI is designed for the widescreen format. And I don't believe
there has been a widescreen netbook yet, am I right? I think a few months ago
someone posted here on HN about a "Hello Kitty" looking netbook that had very
impressive screen resolution but even it didn't have widescreen format if I
remember correctly.

~~~
edmccaffrey
I couldn't find one that _isn't_ widescreen on Dell's, HP's or Asus' website.
Even the old Asus EEE PC 701 (the model that arguably started it all) is
widescreen.

~~~
blasdel
The whole netbook format owes its existence solely to the market being utterly
flooded with portable DVD player LCDs -- those awful 7" 800x480 screens cost
ASUS less than $5 each!

------
hugothefrog
I 'created' one of these for my partner. I find the keyboard too cramped, but
she loves it. She's not technical, so some of the rough edges (audio output
for one) annoy her a bit. It's fast enough for all her uses. I did drop in a
replacement HD with a higher spec, though.

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borism
Why bother? I'd go with Debian/Ubuntu/Fedora/other Linux best supporting
particular netbook. Seems much more suitable choice for that hardware.

What I'd love to have is proper graphics on netbooks (like 9400m.)

(I've been Mac OS X user for the past 4 years, Linux before that)

~~~
elai
Because you need a mac (like iphone development, or other pieces of software).
Atom netbooks run w/ geekbench scores of around 1000, G4 iBooks around 800,
air's around 2000, macbooks 3500,etc.

~~~
buugs
I'm sorry but if you need a mac you should buy a mac. Else you really don't
need a mac, especially for something like iphone development which requires an
initial investment.

(Note: I don't own a mac.)

~~~
elai
No you don't, especially with a high risk of unprofitability (I am an iphone
developer). I own a macbook nano & a desktop hackintosh for development. It's
far better than my previous compromise of just one 15" macbook pro. I tend to
find it more awkward if i have the "laptop + external monitor" setup, and
prefer a desktop for serious work (not to mention the additional performance).
I prefer the macbook nano to my macbook pro portability wise due to its
smaller weight and form factor, not to mention less worry of loss & damage
being a major expense. If i wanted to get something similar, I would have to
spend more than what I spent for my macbook pro just to get a macbook air &
thousands for a mac pro. The main mac advantage comes from OSX, otherwise
apple would just be another sony vaio, and I think steve jobs is quite aware
of that.

Actually my perfect "mac laptop" would be a 12" thinkpad x200 with a WXGA+
screen (1440x900), 10 hour battery life, and better performance, size and
durability compared to a macbook air (not to mention identical weight), but
since the x200's hardware isn't too compatible with osx yet, i'm using a
netbook.

