I have always loved Apple Macs but can only afford the Mac Mini which is ok but could be so much better. Although my Windows Machine is running super sweet [touch wood!] i was interested to find someone mention that he has a Hackintosh. I looked into what one was etc and found that there is quite a strong community of hackintosh owners.

If you don't know what a Hackintosh is, it's a way of running Apples OSX leopard opperating system on a normal Intel computer. The sites have lists of what hardware to use and suggestions on how to successfully run the OS on the PC. You have to be carefull what hardware to use but providing you do your research you can have a relatively painless build and will include Leopard updates for the OS.

If you use a bought original copy of OSX then the only issues regarding the leagality of it all is the end user agreement between you and Apple and from what i have seen it seems that all that Apple will do is not give any support. There may be more to it than that but i have read that you are not breaking the law. You can use an ISO but that is braking the law so best to use the orig discs.

The results have been mixed but generally as said if you use the correct hardware then all should be fine. Some people have managed to get it running on Dells and HP machines! So it could be very cheap or from my calculations about 50% cheaper than buying an equivelent Mac.

Anyone looked into this? Any thoughts?

[Edited on 24/2/09 by donut]

From what I've read, I don't believe it will be 'relatively painless'. The mac does not use BIOS like most motherboards have for example. The point of the mac (to my mind anyway) is that it does just sit there and work. If you want to play about with an OS get one of the (actually free) linux distributions - they have drivers for loads of different hardware, you can install it on your mini until you are familiar with it (not all versions)(I remember seeing a photo of linus torvalds at home with a mac running linux), and have strong support forums. You will not be tied to using exactly the same hardware as the mac has. The main thing that is annoying with the macs is the stupid prices for memory, hard disks and DVD writers - All those parts are relatively easy to change, even on a mini or laptop (If you can build your own car that is). The web site ifixit.com will tell you every thing you need to know.

Regards, and good luck whatever you decide(Let us know if it does turn out to be painless).
Hugh

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From what I've read, I don't believe it will be 'relatively painless'. The mac does not use BIOS like most motherboards have for example.

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The bios has to be changed in certain areas before any software instalation. There are drivers etc and as said if you buy the right hardware then most/everything works from the get go.

You can build a high spec machine for about £600!

As for Linux, i have an old Dell that i'm going to use to explore Linux Mint which i have used before but it's got alot better since then.

I'll let you know if i do decide to build a Hackintosh and do a report.

[Edited on 24/2/09 by donut]

I vaguely looked this as a cheap laptop option - its been tried I guess because apple do not currently have an e-book/mini netbook option (although the mac book is fairly small). I have not looked at this completely but had bookmarked it for further investigation:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/6428329/Leopard-on-EeePC

I used a hackintosh for a good 8 months before I bought a Mac Book Pro and a Mac Pro.

It isn't as straightforward as you thnk, you can't use the OSX disk you have to use a modified build, Kalyway was the favorite when I was doing it.

I don't use a windows PC unless I have to now!

You CAN use a bought OSX disc. There are plenty of people who have but as you say it isn't easy. Thats the only thing that worries me as there could be some coding to do and i really don't fancy that! Also i'm not very good at building PC's as i did it once and swore NEVER EVER to do it again! Prob best to save my pennies!

To be honest i was looking on ebay and for a decent 2nd hand iMac that would suit me is about £700-£800 so not worth building a Hackintosh, unless you want a super fast machine!

Why would you not go back to a Windows machine?

I've got OSX running on an Advent 4211 (MSI Wind) 10" netbook as my 12" Powerbook laptop was dying and there was no Apple replacement. No real problems at all, although I do need to get around to fixing power management to get more life out of the battery. The powerbook cost me £1200, the Advent £270.

Lots of info at http://forums.msiwind.net/mac/