No, this is not going to be another OSx86 site. There are enough of them, and pretty good ones, too.
I just wanted to mention this topic once, because many people are not even aware that something like this is possible.
What is this „OSx86“ thing about, or all the talking about „HackMac“, „HackingTosh“ and whatever other funny words there are?
It is about running the wonderful Mac OS X
Apple designed OS X to run only on their own hardware. Which has a lot of advantages – e.g. „everything works“. (Well, usually…)
But there are some reasons why you would want to put OS X on a PC, notebook, netbook, etc…
- you want to „try“ OS X and if you would really like to switch to Mac.
- you want to use a type of hardware that Apple is just not offering (like a Netbook) or test OS X inside a virtualisation software like VMWare
- you are short on cash and can not (yet) afford a real Mac
- you don’t give a rat’s ass about design and figured out you could get the same performance at half the price using an ugly PC „box“ or much more performance at the same price.
- you like good sport and just WANT to make it work on YOUR machine ;-)
There are several approaches, some are better for certain configurations, some hardware just can not be convinced to work with OS X, others make an almost perfect Mac.
Personally I belong into the category that currently is short on cash and still saving for a real Apple MacBook Pro.
I used a cheap netbook ( Medion Akoya Mini 1210, a clone of the famous MSI Wind 100 U), got OS X 10.5.8 „Leopard“ running on it and had a stable „HackBook Nano“ for well over a year. The Mini died on me recently, now I have got OS X 10.6.2 „Snow Leopard“ running on an Acer Aspire Revo AR3610
So how do you do it?
Sorry, no „How to“ here, no easy step-by-step for the non-technical person.
Read. Learn. Try.
Really.
I mean it.
That’s also the reason why this article is just a „teaser“ and I am not going to answer any technical questions in the comments.
You want „out of the box“ OS X without any hassle? Buy a Mac
You want a HackinTosh, for whatever reason? Go and start learning.
In a way getting ordinary hardware running with OS X is much like installing Linux in the old days… only that the outcome is much more satisfying. If you make it.
Two good starting points:
The forum at insanelymac.com
Overwhelming for the newbie, but there is a solution for almost any problem you can think of. Might just happen you don’t understand the solution. At first.
and the „Empire EFI“ bootloader (something that tricks OS X into thinking your whatever is a Mac and boot up) from Prasys
check his blog here: http://prasys.co.cc/
Good luck, and may the force be with you!
P.S.: Running OS X on a non-Mac is legally questionable. Up to you. At least give Apple some credit – hey, they made the best OS that is currently available! Go buy Snow Leopard, no matter where you are going to install it. Its just 29 bucks. Click here to buy OS X at Amazon.com!
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