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Why You Should Build a Hackintosh

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Re: Why You Should Build a Hackintosh

#151

Post by crispinb »

krylon wrote: post #31
mprev wrote: post #11

I moved to a Mac after a decade of Linux on the desktop. After years of fiddling with drivers, crappy trackpad behaviours and so on, I wanted a computer that got out of my way and just worked. MacOS is far from perfect but it works perfectly with Apple hardware. If I wanted to go back to seeing my operating system as a hobby then Linux would be mostly a better option.

It's funny, but after four years on macOS, I returned to GNU/Linux about 16 months ago, and I have not looked back since. Okay, there are a few things I miss, but all in all, there was more I missed on macOS than I now miss on GNU/Linux. And I do not consider spending a weekend (or longer) to get my sound chip working fun any more. I am too old for that stuff. Maybe I just have a lucky hand picking hardware, but exce…

> But the old cliche that getting hardware to work on GNU/Linux is not true these days

That's only true if you make a point of buying hardware you already know there's linux drivers for. I work with a few headless linux boxes, but not a GUI. Every year or two I try a distribution or two on whatever hardware I have, hit a problem, sigh after reading through numberless blog/SO/reddit posts contradicting each other on what's possible, and abandon the attempt.

I have a 2018 Dell XPS 15. From what I've read, there's only an 'experimental' (ugh) driver for the fingerprint scanner. To switch between integrated/GPU graphics, you have to log in and out (or you don't - depending on who you read). Not sure about the touchscreen, but I can't summon the motivation to find out. So much depends on fiddling, experimenting, and reading. I'd rather go for a run, and put up with Windows (which I loathe, but loathing seems to be a precondition of computer use in 2018).

Re: Why You Should Build a Hackintosh

#152

Post by vasili111 »

nwhatt wrote: post #147
ageitgey wrote: post #122

I can tell you from experience that building a Hackintosh is a terrible idea for almost all people. I have no moral objection to it and I totally understand the motivation. Apple is completely failing to provide hardware that runs at a fraction of the performance you'd get from building a commodity $2500 AMD/Nvidia desktop even if you give Apple $7000 for a Pro model. Apple's platform especially sucks if you do anyth…

This was my experience as well. It reminded of running Gentoo Linux a long time ago. Awesome feeling of accomplishment, but not practical if you have a day job.

Gentoo? I don't think it is quite good comparision.

Re: Why You Should Build a Hackintosh

#153

Post by bootlooped »

ironjunkie wrote: post #6

I really don't get it. The biggest appeal of Apple is their wonderful hardware. I dislike MacOS and it has been worse over the last years. It seems to me that a Hackintosh is the worst of both worlds. If you spend that much time hacking around the hardware anyways, why not use Linux ?

The Apple level build-quality hardware seems less consequential when it's a PC that you don't actually have to touch daily. You touch the keyboard and mouse, and you look at it through a monitor. Unlike a Macbook or iPhone where a person would physically interact with it during every normal use, and most or all input devices are built into the unit.

Re: Why You Should Build a Hackintosh

#154

Post by rozenmd »

ageitgey wrote: post #122

I can tell you from experience that building a Hackintosh is a terrible idea for almost all people. I have no moral objection to it and I totally understand the motivation. Apple is completely failing to provide hardware that runs at a fraction of the performance you'd get from building a commodity $2500 AMD/Nvidia desktop even if you give Apple $7000 for a Pro model. Apple's platform especially sucks if you do anyth…

The simpler solution most people miss is to just buy a hackintosh-able laptop, like the Lenovo ThinkPad X220.

Updates up until 10.13.6 worked seamlessly, only "hack" you had to do was change out the WiFi card.

Re: Why You Should Build a Hackintosh

#155

Post by felixfoertsch »

ageitgey wrote: post #122

I can tell you from experience that building a Hackintosh is a terrible idea for almost all people. I have no moral objection to it and I totally understand the motivation. Apple is completely failing to provide hardware that runs at a fraction of the performance you'd get from building a commodity $2500 AMD/Nvidia desktop even if you give Apple $7000 for a Pro model. Apple's platform especially sucks if you do anyth…

I have to disagree on your phrasing. I have been using a Hackintosh for over three years now. I agree, that it was a hassle in the past. It isn't anymore. I haven't had a serious technical problem with my PC since the beginning of Sierra. Even major updates don't pose a serious problem, if you have the correct hardware.

However, picking the correct hardware and figuring out the necessary basics is a challenge in itself. You need patience and technical knowledge. So it is far from going into the store and purchasing an iMac. That is certain. But it is not as dark as you are putting it, IMHO.

Re: Why You Should Build a Hackintosh

#156

Post by whatpad »

rozenmd wrote: post #154
ageitgey wrote: post #122

I can tell you from experience that building a Hackintosh is a terrible idea for almost all people. I have no moral objection to it and I totally understand the motivation. Apple is completely failing to provide hardware that runs at a fraction of the performance you'd get from building a commodity $2500 AMD/Nvidia desktop even if you give Apple $7000 for a Pro model. Apple's platform especially sucks if you do anyth…

The simpler solution most people miss is to just buy a hackintosh-able laptop, like the Lenovo ThinkPad X220. Updates up until 10.13.6 worked seamlessly, only "hack" you had to do was change out the WiFi card.

That is a 7 year old laptop.

Re: Why You Should Build a Hackintosh

#157

Post by MisterTea »

suprfnk wrote: post #90
tokenizerrr wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really don't get why I would want to run an operating system where the vendor refuses to support my hardware. Also, the font color on this blog is absolutely horrible.

> the font color on this blog is absolutely horrible. Yeah, I've noticed more sites do this. Super annoying. I made this bookmark for those cases: javascript:(()=>{document.querySelectorAll("p,div,article,section,ul,ol,li").forEach(x=>{x.style["color"]="black";});})();

Thank you for that. Nothing worse than shitty web design.

Re: Why You Should Build a Hackintosh

#158

Post by mnm1 »

ageitgey wrote: post #122

I can tell you from experience that building a Hackintosh is a terrible idea for almost all people. I have no moral objection to it and I totally understand the motivation. Apple is completely failing to provide hardware that runs at a fraction of the performance you'd get from building a commodity $2500 AMD/Nvidia desktop even if you give Apple $7000 for a Pro model. Apple's platform especially sucks if you do anyth…

> Finally you hit a point where your system is so far behind that you give up

My 2013 Macbook Pro retina will be at this point in the fall with two major upgrades uninstallable. I'd say this argument no longer holds because even the official hardware often can't be upgraded. I would be shocked if the next OSX version doesn't fail to upgrade like the one from last fall. That new filesystem breaks everything. Thankfully I had backups, but even attempting again is not worth losing a day to Apple's shitty software. OSX Used to be the one piece of software that was solid. Now there is no Apple software I use that is solid except old versions of OSX <= 10.12.x

Re: Why You Should Build a Hackintosh

#159

Post by Jonnax »

old-gregg wrote: post #66
jdietrich wrote: post #48

Why you shouldn't build a Hackintosh: it's a pain in the ass, things will probably break after a major OSX update and the usability gap between OSX and Windows 10 has closed considerably over the past few years.

> usability gap between OSX and Windows 10 has closed considerably over the past few years. What do you mean? A few examples would be helpful. I am not a frequent Windows user but my impressions, mostly confirmed by seeing other people comment online, is that Windows 7 was the "zenith of Windows UX", with a major step back due to "tabletization" with Windows 8 and partial return to glory with Windows 10. The fact tha…

People saying that Windows 7 is some holy grail are not worth listening to when comparing modern systems.

The operating system came out 9 years ago. Windows 8 was a massive misstep but they've righted the ship somewhat with 10.

There's two control panels bit in each update more functionality moves into the Windows 10 style control panel.

The calculator is just a flat styled application not sure why it's rediculus. But tbh I use Google, Excel or Wolfram to do my calculations rather than that app.

Features that Windows 10 has for usability. Well there's multiple desktops, small things like built in f.lux.

It's nice that you can set a device specific pin for your account. Though having a cloud based account like Android or iPhone may upset some.

Also there's excellent touch screen support as a lot of laptops these days support it. Unloke OSX. Sometimes it's just better to scroll using your hands.

There's a lot of things under the hood that make it faster and more secure.

There are downsides like Random reboots for updates.

Re: Why You Should Build a Hackintosh

#160

Post by mnm1 »

ironjunkie wrote: post #6

I really don't get it. The biggest appeal of Apple is their wonderful hardware. I dislike MacOS and it has been worse over the last years. It seems to me that a Hackintosh is the worst of both worlds. If you spend that much time hacking around the hardware anyways, why not use Linux ?

> The biggest appeal of Apple is their wonderful hardware

Not with the latest round of laptops it isn't. One spec of dust and it's toast. But, yes it used to be and on older MBPros it's amazing. I've abused the hell out of mine and it's still going, minus a couple screwholes in the base no longer holding and some dents. Given the abuse, that's amazing.

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