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Why You Should Build a Hackintosh

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Re: Why You Should Build a Hackintosh

#191

Post by nerpderp83 »

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.

Wait, no way! Does the pen work?

Re: Why You Should Build a Hackintosh

#192

Post by dylan604 »

pixel_fcker wrote: post #167
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.

There’s not really a vendor here since macOS is free. Linux isn’t exactly free from the need to choose well-supported hardware either, particularly of you need to run a more stable distro

macOS isn’t really free. It just “comes with” the hardware you just bought. You’re not supposed to download the OS unless you have qualifying hardware. A hackintosh rig does not qualify.

Re: Why You Should Build a Hackintosh

#193

Post by linguae »

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…

I bought a Dell XPS 15 9570 over a month ago. I've been a Mac user since 2006, and I still have one foot in the Mac ecosystem since I use a Mac Pro daily. Anyway, I found my experience with Windows 10 on my XPS to be much better than my first experience with Windows 10, which was on a refurbished ThinkPad T430 with a slow hard disk (that was painful). I still believe that overall macOS is more consistent and more polished than Windows 10, but Windows 10 is not a bad OS, and I find myself very productive with the Windows Subsystem for Linux layer. In my opinion Windows 10 is at par with the Linux desktops I've used in recent years, such as Cinnamon and KDE Plasma. By comparison, I feel that macOS has not changed very much in terms of compelling features since Snow Leopard. With the exception of iCloud and updated web browsers, I think I could still remain productive in Snow Leopard even today.

The things I miss the most about macOS on my Dell XPS 15 9570 are certain Mac-exclusive software products such as Apple Keynote, OmniOutliner, and OmniGraffle. But I still have my Mac Pro and my iPad for these apps.

Re: Why You Should Build a Hackintosh

#194

Post by jdietrich »

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…

For the HN crowd, the Linux Subsystem for Windows is kind of a big deal - many traditional Windows annoyances are ameliorated when you've got a Bash shell. Pen input is a) available and b) very good. The split control panel is a bit gross, but it's also a reasonable compromise - novice users get a greatly simplified interface for basic settings, while experienced users keep a familiar interface for more complex configuration. The driver situation has massively improved, with the vast majority of devices being genuinely plug-and-play; hardware compatibility on Windows is still leagues ahead of Linux or OSX. Task and workspace switching works really well and the task timeline is a very useful improvement.

More broadly, I think that OSX has been moving backwards while Windows has been moving forwards. It's purely subjective, but I think that OSX has an increasing number of nasty and persistent bugs. Windows is an inherently more complex platform, but Microsoft just seem to care more about software quality and the developer experience. VS Code is emblematic of what's happening within Microsoft - it's the best new text editor in recent years, it's freely licensed in full and the dev team are highly responsive to feedback and bug reports.

Windows is still occasionally quite annoying and has gained a few new annoyances with the move towards touch, but the proportion of stuff that Just Works seems to improve with every major update. My current dev machine has been running Windows 10 since launch without a reinstall or a BSOD. I'd probably be running Ubuntu if I didn't need a few key pieces of proprietary software, but using Windows really isn't much of a hardship. I loathed XP and 7, but I cheerfully tolerate Windows 10. It's not my dream OS, but it has never ruined my day.

Re: Why You Should Build a Hackintosh

#195

Post by PascLeRasc »

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…

As an alternative, I can recommend getting a used tower Mac Pro and upgrading it. There's a ton of community info [1] [2] out on CPU, GPU, and RAM upgrading, and even the oldest 2006 model, the one I have, can run El Capitan, and the 2009-2010 models can do Mojave. There are guides for every configuration you could want and RAM is super cheap (even ECC!). You get as good a case or better than if you build a standard ATX hackintosh - 4 3.5" bays + 2 optical bays you could get more drives into, and the upside-down GPU prevents sag on the PCIe connector. And you get to be "legal" within Apple's T&C, so you could use it without worries in a business/academic setting.

[1] https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mac-pro-cpu-compatibili... [2] http://www.macvidcards.com/i-want-the-best-graphics-card-for...

Re: Why You Should Build a Hackintosh

#196

Post by ryandrake »

sli wrote: post #143
cma wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> since you cause some loss of revenue and investment Wouldn't leaving a bad review of a bad product be considered theft under this definition?

Yeah, I feel like that definition of theft would lead to some really awful legal precedents. If a family member has decided to buy some product, and I talk them out of it, I would be committing theft by that definition. At least in the US, that would run afoul of the First Amendment. The company can yell at me all they want or ban me from their services, but they could not legally get the police to arrest me for a ba…

Now walking somewhere is theft from the taxi company. Incredible how successful these media companies have been at redefining the word.

You can’t steal something from somebody if they still have it after the “theft” (the IP) or if they never had it in the first place (the revenue).

Re: Why You Should Build a Hackintosh

#197

Post by root_axis »

dkonofalski wrote: post #50
BillinghamJ wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's one of the key things about using Apple products. If you want to have a good time, you need to embrace the way Apple wants you to use the product. And then generally, you'll find that it really does "just work", most of their decisions were right and you can get on with just using the thing. For the more "power users" who prefer to customise things to a fine degree and make particular choices a typical…

I run into this all the time with Windows users switching to a Mac. I do a lot of training for new users when it comes to using Macs and the Windows users are always the worst when compared to people learning for the first time because Windows users always want to do it "the Windows way" and so they get frustrated when all their right clicking doesn't pan out. They bought a Mac because they were frustrated by Windows…

Interesting story but not seeing why it has anything to do with Windows in particular, you could have flipped the OSs and told the same story, it's not like you can't run software that sorts files by tags on Windows.

Re: Why You Should Build a Hackintosh

#198

Post by sdnguyen90 »

locusm wrote: post #188
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 is fud - buying the right parts means you'll have a working Hackintosh within about 30 to 60 minutes from start to finish. I'm typing this from a Hackintosh, my very first actually. All I did was follow the https://www.tonymacx86.com/ guides. No issues through all High Sierra updates, the nVidia drivers have been generally problem free too.

I built a hackintosh using the recommended build and had a mediocre experience. Things I take for granted like sleep and Bluetooth were broken. I ended up spending weeks trying to fix it. Eventually I gave up and bought Apple hardware which hasn’t been perfect, but it’s definitely less annoying than the hackintosh.

Re: Why You Should Build a Hackintosh

#199

Post by sundvor »

photojosh wrote: post #173
mixmastamyk wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If only during the recent bike thefts in our apartment building, the thieves would have run away with perfect copies instead of originals. :-(

I wouldn't steal a car... but I sure would download one if I could.

"You will face the consequences."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALZZx1xmAzg

Re: Why You Should Build a Hackintosh

#200

Post by facing_worlds »

dogma1138 wrote: post #102
21 wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If anyone remembers the long discussions at the start of 2000s in relation to music/video pirating, this is not "stealing", it's "intellectual property something something". The content companies had giant advertising campaigns trying to brand this as "theft" or "stealing". Of course, when they sued someone they used the proper term: "IP violation" I'm not arguing if it's acceptable or not, but it's not the same as t…

It’s on the same level as IP theft of any kind since you cause some loss of revenue and investment, now what portion of piracy results in a financial loss is a different story but it’s not 0. Look at it this way if I steal your trade secrets and clone your product after you spent R&D money on it I’ve essentially “stolen” both a part of your revenue and your investment. Music, film and games cost money to develop and…

Its not loss of revenue per se since apple doesnt sell licenses for the OS. And presumably you are making the hackintosh because you DONT want the exact hardware apple sells.
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