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Building a Hackintosh? There's a netbook compatibility chart for that

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Re: Building a Hackintosh? There's a netbook compatibility chart for that

#3

Post by petercooper »

For going to RailsConf 2009 I "hackintoshed" an Eee PC 1000HE. It was the first Eee PC with insane battery life (realistically around 9-10 hours in Windows). I had to dismantle the entire machine to put in a new wifi card (the only stock piece not compatible with OS X) but it ran OS X well and got 6.5 hours of practical battery life with no problems.

That said, after I got back, I bought a 17" MBP and never used the Eee again. The keys on these 9/10" machines make them a nightmare to type on for more than a few minutes (and the Eee's was particularly good) and not being entirely legit just makes them feel a little icky and undependable. I don't know anyone who hackintoshed a machine and stuck with it for more than a few months (not to say there aren't any - I just don't know them!)

Re: Building a Hackintosh? There's a netbook compatibility chart for that

#4

Post by djcapelis »

I imagine the release of the iPad has put a damper on the enthusiasm for hackintosh netbooks. Which isn't to say no one wants one anymore ever, but this hacky solution to Apple's unfilled niche is less necessary now that Apple produces a product closer to this area.

Re: Building a Hackintosh? There's a netbook compatibility chart for that

#5

Post by rglullis »

djcapelis wrote: post #4

I imagine the release of the iPad has put a damper on the enthusiasm for hackintosh netbooks. Which isn't to say no one wants one anymore ever, but this hacky solution to Apple's unfilled niche is less necessary now that Apple produces a product closer to this area.

The only reason I'm looking to get a Hackinstosh is because I want a cheap computer that would allow me to develop for the iPhone/iPad. if the iPad came with a SDK and you were able to develop in itself, you would be absolutely right.

Re: Building a Hackintosh? There's a netbook compatibility chart for that

#7

Post by brk »

petercooper wrote: post #3

For going to RailsConf 2009 I "hackintoshed" an Eee PC 1000HE. It was the first Eee PC with insane battery life (realistically around 9-10 hours in Windows). I had to dismantle the entire machine to put in a new wifi card (the only stock piece not compatible with OS X) but it ran OS X well and got 6.5 hours of practical battery life with no problems. That said, after I got back, I bought a 17" MBP and never used the…

Interesting comment.

This reminds me of all the "build your own PIX firewall" hacks that were going around about 10 years ago. I seem to remember that the general outcome of those was that people were doing it to try out the concept cheaply, and then when satisfied purchased the actual product (or, realized it wasn't the right product for them).

Re: Building a Hackintosh? There's a netbook compatibility chart for that

#8

Post by ronnier »

rglullis wrote: post #5
djcapelis wrote: post #4

I imagine the release of the iPad has put a damper on the enthusiasm for hackintosh netbooks. Which isn't to say no one wants one anymore ever, but this hacky solution to Apple's unfilled niche is less necessary now that Apple produces a product closer to this area.

The only reason I'm looking to get a Hackinstosh is because I want a cheap computer that would allow me to develop for the iPhone/iPad. if the iPad came with a SDK and you were able to develop in itself, you would be absolutely right.

FYI, I'm running Snow Leopard in a VMWare virtual machine on windows 7. Works great and allows you to write iPhone apps.

Re: Building a Hackintosh? There's a netbook compatibility chart for that

#9

Post by fierarul »

rglullis wrote: post #5
djcapelis wrote: post #4

I imagine the release of the iPad has put a damper on the enthusiasm for hackintosh netbooks. Which isn't to say no one wants one anymore ever, but this hacky solution to Apple's unfilled niche is less necessary now that Apple produces a product closer to this area.

The only reason I'm looking to get a Hackinstosh is because I want a cheap computer that would allow me to develop for the iPhone/iPad. if the iPad came with a SDK and you were able to develop in itself, you would be absolutely right.

How cheap do you want that computer ? Because pretty sure you could get an older Mac.

Also -- HTML5 and Javascript-level frameworks such as phonegap.com seems to gather some following. You might want to look into that.

I've written a few apps and even published a few but, in retrospect, none were so complex that I really needed to use Objective-C. As long as you have access to all the features (ie. camera, accelerometer, etc) Javascript might be the way to go. The only situation I think you really need Objective-C is for the Open GL ES part but rumor has it that the canvas on Mobile Safari uses that.

In conclusion, I think using a Hackintosh to develop for the iPhone/iPad might be just a way to find yourself a challenge, unless you plan on using your existing PC-hardware. Buying new PC-hardware instead of a mac isn't logic. But the side conclusion is that using the SDK itself might be unneeded for most of the common apps.

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