
My experience using Hackintosh low-end PC for 3 years - devcriollo
https://my-site.now.sh/hackintosh
======
leonroy
Really reminds us who are able to pickup RAM or a graphics card for a few quid
that not everyone in the world is so lucky.

Very impressed with what Jhonny managed to do.

It does beg the question though - what's next for Apple's cheapest Mac, the
Mini.

I think there is a real opportunity for Apple to release a low powered Mac
Mini say the size of an Apple TV which is ARM based and allows schools,
universities and folks unable to buy the latest and greatest to have a stable,
Unix based development and media platform to work on.

~~~
arthurfm
> It does beg the question though - what's next for Apple's cheapest Mac, the
> Mini.

If the MacBook Pro is any indication, a price increase (due to the addition of
Thunderbolt 3 ports and an Intel CPU with Iris Plus Graphics) and zero user-
upgradeable parts (soldered RAM/SSD)?

If the new entry-level Mac mini has a Fusion Drive or 128GB SSD as standard
this would also result in an additional price increase.

I can see more and more people going the Hackintosh route as Macs generally
become more expensive.

~~~
scarface74
Apple just reduced the price of the 13" MacBook Pro to $1299. That seems to be
inline with PCs from Dell with similar specs.

~~~
arthurfm
> Apple just reduced the price of the 13" MacBook Pro to $1299.

The 13" MBP is now $200 cheaper because Apple cut the SSD capacity in half
(256GB > 128GB). If you want the same size SSD as the 2016 base model had you
still have to pay $1,499.

[http://appleinsider.com/articles/17/06/10/review-apples-
new-...](http://appleinsider.com/articles/17/06/10/review-apples-new-kaby-
lake-13-macbook-pro-without-touch-bar-unexpectedly-speedy-vs-2016-model)

 _Apple cut a big corner in the device 's on-board storage to reduce the price
to $1,299 —and we feel that it shouldn't have. If you own the 2016, you have
at least 256GB of storage. We feel that the 128GB is a big step backwards for
those considering the 2017 who already own a 2016._

[https://www.macrumors.com/2017/06/08/2017-vs-2016-macbook-
pr...](https://www.macrumors.com/2017/06/08/2017-vs-2016-macbook-pro-tech-
specs/)

 _Apple refreshed its MacBook Pro lineup this week with Intel 's seventh-
generation Kaby Lake processors and faster standard graphics options from
Intel and AMD. There's also a cheaper 13-inch MacBook Pro with function keys
starting at $1,299 with 128GB storage, compared to $1,499 for the previous
base model._

~~~
wtallis
It's not at all surprising that Apple went back to 128GB for the base model.
Flash memory is pretty expensive right now, and 128GB is actually usable for a
lot of purposes. They'll most likely go back to 256GB when they're able to
transition to 3D NAND flash memory.

~~~
scarface74
If I'm going to spend $1500 on a MacBook Pro, I would rather get 16Gb
RAM/128Gb SSD than 8Gb/256GB SSD. I can always add more external storage if
needed.

------
Cheeseit86
Really interesting to hear this story and to leave the personal context to the
end makes it even more impactful. The perseverance and creativity that this
person obviously had to show to get this to work for so long are really
inspiring, even if lots of other people have done similar things before. I
really hope things get better for your country soon.

~~~
devcriollo
Thank you.

------
ig0r0
It is not true you cannot use Store or iCloud because it is not a real Mac. I
have been running a hackintosh for half a year now and I use iCloud, Store
even iMessage works.

~~~
landave
I am pretty sure that you need a Board Serial Number (SN) from a real Mac. At
least about a year ago this was the case. Did you use a SN from a real Mac? If
not, then you probably got lucky.

I think there is also the possibility of calling Apple's support hotline and
letting them manually activate a randomly generated Serial Number.

See also here:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/hackintosh/comments/525dsb/getting_...](https://www.reddit.com/r/hackintosh/comments/525dsb/getting_imessage_working_on_el_capitan_and_sierra/)

~~~
ig0r0
For the Store and iCloud you do not need anything. For iMessage you need to
generate a motherboard SN and other stuff, it is not so easy but doable with
the right tutorial.

------
willtim
Linux would provide support for old hardware far in excess of what Apple
provides. It's an OS for the many, not a priviledged few; and needs your
support.

It's​ also a big security gamble downloading these hacked OSX images from
questionable sources.

~~~
ekr
Linux ran on 80386 until not long ago. Now it requires an 80486.

~~~
mtreis86
486 was released 28 years ago

~~~
nindalf
Yeah but spare a thought for people who can't afford CPUs that recent. What's
my pop-pop with his 386 gonna do?

~~~
mnm1
FreeBSD.

------
ComodoHacker
>Later on I got to read a lot about the Kexts that basically are the
equivalent of the drivers in microsoft windows and _look for the ones that
would serve me for my video card_ , Everything worked fine.

>A few months passed until Yosemite came out, with a renewed interface a lot
of improvements, and even _included support for my set up_

>But I did the same again when buying my new _GT520 card_. And to this day
everything has worked perfectly

This makes me wonder whether his hardware happened to be used in some Macs or
Apple deliberately made those drivers for Hackintosh users?

~~~
wtallis
Apple tends to ship drivers that will work with almost any GPU from the same
product family and generation as the chips Apple is actually using. They could
definitely do more to lock things down if they wanted to.

I suspect that the slight lost hardware revenue is significantly offset by the
App Store revenue and long-term benefits of keeping users on the Apple
platform, so Apple doesn't have strong motivation to get in the way of
Hackintosh use.

------
ssutch3
Someone should send this guy an iMac

~~~
smnscu
That's a wonderful idea. If somebody sets up a gofundme I'd be happy to pitch
in.

------
Hnrobert42
He isn't missing much by not having the app store. I've used a mac as my
primary computer at home for since before the app store opened in 2010 and
have yet to find a indispensable app on the app store.

~~~
k__
I started using macOS 2 months ago (iOS development) and had the impression I
needed the app store for OS upgrades and xCode.

I there another way?

~~~
roblabla
You can get XCode and OS Updates through
[https://developer.apple.com/download/more/](https://developer.apple.com/download/more/)
(you need a login, but it's free AFAIK).

EDIT: Actually just checked, looks like there is no update for el capitan or
sierra on the dev portal. Drats.

My app store works on my hackintosh so I never actually had to use the dev
portal anyway ^^'. I used an old mac's ID.

~~~
k__
Nice to know.

I heared much FUD about hackintoshs, I'd just want a mac for work without much
hassle to develop. So I kust bought a mac book pro from 2013.

------
abhinai
Is this a standard blog design or is the author of this post also a very
creative designer? I am really impressed both by the content and the design of
this post.

~~~
aw3c2
It's very hard to read for me due to the low contrast and monospace font.

~~~
sundvor
The _black on white_ monospaced font? As a programmer I found it great.

~~~
aw3c2
Looks like this for me
[http://i.imgur.com/XNvYDk7.png](http://i.imgur.com/XNvYDk7.png)

~~~
vetinari
Probably font rendering issue at your end. It looks like this:
[http://imgur.com/a/9ArvB](http://imgur.com/a/9ArvB)

However, it uses mac-specific fonts first, the free fonts (dejavu sans mono,
bitstream vera sans mono) and then it falls back to Courier New and browser-
set monospace font.

~~~
devcriollo
Fixed

~~~
vetinari
Out of the curiosity, what was the cause?

Courier New is ugly, but not that ugly. Was it necessary to finetune the
cleartype parameters?

