Jump to content

OSx86: The Ultimate Gateway Drug *long post warning*


Andrey
 Share

35 posts in this topic

Recommended Posts

As this and other communities like it have proven, as "gateway" drugs go, OSx86 rivals in potency only to the most extreme consumable substances. Simply being a member of this forum and reading and participating in the glorious triumphs and data-threatening sorrows the next Security Update or kernel extension can bring pretty much casts your vote in agreement with that. I personally have been afflicted with the OSx86 habit for over two years - My name is Andrey, and I'm an addict.

 

By mid-year 2005 through a number of small purchases, trades, and haggles I ended up with an Athlon Thunderbird 1.4Ghz Windows XP box that was big on heat and small on RAM. This simply wouldn't do, so in October 2005 I purchased the eMachines T6524 outlined in my signature. Not a week after my purchase I heard from a friend about the OSx86project.org website. The timing literally couldn't have been better. Ever since its inception, I'd fantasized about running OSX on a modern Mac, but the system I spec'ed out at the time was several thousand dollars on the side of uncomfortable. Reviewing the basic requirements for turning my humdrum PC into a sort-of-Mac gave me a sort of Dr. Frankenstein-like hope that if I glued enough of the right bits together I'd end up with something that was basically functional.

 

It started the way all drug habits do, casually. At first I was reading the wiki, taking note of compatible hardware. Before you know it, I'm buying a 120GB drive specifically for testing the deadmoo developer kit I downloaded. After immeasurable amounts of fiddling and a few all-nighters I got to my first Apple logo boot screen. That grey-and-white splash screen was the thing that sent me over the edge. It didn't have a proper IDE driver (ATi SB400), it couldn't play sound (ATi IXP AC97), I was stuck in 1024x768 with no QE/CI (on-board ATi X200), but it was already better than running Windows. In two months' time I'd upgraded the video card to a basic ATi X300 that could muster QE/CI, bought a Turtle Beach USB sound card, found Zappadoc's/Scousi's ATi IDE driver, upgraded the processor from an Athlon64 3500+ (2.2Ghz) to the 4200+ dual-core screamer, and added another GB of dual-channel PC3200 to make 2GB. In March of 2006 I deleted my Windows partition and never looked back. The little eMachine that could made it all the way from deadmoo to JaS 10.4.8 SSE3 PPF1&2 Final without so much as a single kernel panic!

 

And one day, actually a week ago, like an aging rock star who'd taken one hit too many, I got tired of it all. The chore of avoiding System Updates coupled with the fear that it would all go horribly wrong one day was too much to bear. The eMachine had become my main machine, storing over 9,000 photos of irreplaceable family events, not to mention all of my applications and movies. I had a full image backup (thanks, SuperDuper!) but I couldn't shake the feeling that I was missing out.

 

Turns out I was. On the 7th of February this year I officially kicked the habit and bought a Mac mini, the one with the SuperDrive. I got AppleCare and everything. Threw my 19" Samsung LCD in the bin and picked up a 22" widescreen. Transferred my million photos from my backup image and made my 320GB external into my Time Machine drive. Sexy. Now before all you Mac Pro owners jump all over me for buying (either) Apple's most portable desktop (or) least portable laptop, I did a harrowing, knuckle-biting self-upgrade to 2GB of RAM in the mini and since then it hasn't paged a single kilobyte out to disk. It also Xbenches 18% better and GeekBenches 12% better than my Hackintosh, despite its faster hard drive and processors.

 

So where am I going with all of this? On one hand it's a heartfelt thank-you to this and every other OSx86 community. Without them, I wouldn't have ever gotten a Mac, I'm certain of it. It's a thank-you to Apple obviously for making the damn thing possible in the first place. Mostly it's a testament to the power of ideas. I don't know a single person who has fought or would fight this hard to run Windows on non-native hardware. Not even for money. It's not a slam on Microsoft, just my perspective. And speaking of Windows, the eMachine has subsequently been restored to Windows Media Center and will be given away along with my 19" LCD to my sister's boyfriend. Sad, kind of.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Started out with a Dell Inspiron e1705. Barely got it to boot at first, then for the longest time I had no sound, QE/CI, and ran it at 1024x768. Then suddenly, everything started working. Sound came through a linux dump, kexts for the x1400 came out. I loved it so much, but I hated the 17" battery life (like less than an hour). Upgraded to a macbook pro last March, and havent looked back since. Btw, now I'm getting 3 & 1/2 hours of battery life. WOOT!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Update on Project mini: I was a little out of it last Friday (read: drunk) and accidentally-on-purpose ordered a 4GB PC5300 upgrade from noted Mac supplier OWC (Other World Computing). Now, I've read all the bumpf about how the mini can't address 4GB of RAM (3GB is the limit due to an issue with the memory controller or something) but 2x2GB will give me Dual Channel video performance. And I want that extra 5% gain! Plus, I'm still within the return policy of the 2GB kit I bought - it's nearly a wash price-wise. I hope to have it installed by Wednesday.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Count me a convert too! Picked up a nice MacBook 1.83GHz with a warranty from eBay and it came in the mail on Wednesday. I am having a blast, and now wonder what took me so long! (I have a close friend who has been tooting the glories of Mac for about 10 years!) I first tried OSX86 in November, so it only took about 4 months to convert. Note to Steve...offer demos of OSX and you will see many more converts.

 

Jennifer

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 Months, running an old HPnx7010........

5 Months, running a NEW Dell Dimension 9200......

3 Weeks, running a G4 AGP 450MHz Graphite.....

4 Days, running a G4 AGP 1.33GHz Graphite.....

 

see where this is going?

 

I'm a convert

 

SticMAN

ps I mailed a copy of the first post to my wife the other day, NOW she understands, she says!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

as an old school longtime pc user back in the dos days, i started out with putting jas tiger osx86 10.4.8 onto a toshiba laptop. now with leopard, i got a used first gen macbook black. i'm getting used to os x but am enjoying the new os experience. i still have my pc laptops as they have modems builtin for the dialup internet that i have at my home location.

 

another genuine mac convert!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Was about to build a hackintosh but bought a 1gb time capsule to go with my 250gb firewire boot drive, 2gb 2.13Ghz mini (engineering sample cpu :-) instead!

 

Also just got an elgato h.264 hardware encoder too, if you download lots of vids and convert lots this thing kicks ass. It puts my cpu to shame!

 

The great news is that one of my mini stacks can connect through the time capsule and is totally usable is way cool (shame no software raid with tc drive though).

 

Sod time machine, there's far, far more you can do with a tc. It's a solid router and proper nas box with support for usb external drives :-)

 

mini + firewire drive + hardware h.64 + Gb NAS v's a damn powerful hackintosh..... apart from 3d my mini can kick some arse!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welcome to the support group.

 

We're here if you need us (except for loans on new Apple Hardware).

 

I've been a financially oppressed Mac Lover for a long time. Then I cashed out a 401(k) for a move (Thank god I did, it would have been gone by now with the market taking a dive) and had enough for my MacBook Pro 15". Now, as you can see from my sig, I've added a few more. Working on converting my desktop and my wife's old laptop to Leopard.

 

We'll see how that goes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I pretty much did the same thing, But my first Hackintosh was a VAIO laptop. Then I got a MacBook (white), then an iPhone,Then an Alum.20" iMac plus stuff like Airport Extreme with Gigabit ethernet. etc etc etc....All in less than a years time. Only two more systems in the house to replace. (got a Mac Mini on order as I type this :P ) When you get hooked it's hard to stop. Now back to MacWorld mag to look for my next fix

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I to am a Mac-addict. I started when JAS released his first version of 10.4.7, in fact I still have it and I use it to install on anything that I know won't handle Leopard. Anyway, when Apple released the faster Macbook Pro's this past February, I jumped in. I can now say that I am done with kernel panics and locating kext's. Thank you all for this wonderful forum. Without you, I would've never even considered a Mac. Check my sig for my rigs.

 

I seriously think Apple should sell their OS and make it usable in a virtual environment. That way there is no kext editing of kernel panics and everything can be controlled in their virtual environment. Apple has the right idea already in place with their user-license change to Leopard Server. Imagine running a legal version of OS X in Virtual PC on Windows, now that will get people to switch BIG TIME!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Same story here.

I have a Dell Inspiron 6400 with Leopard 10.5.2 installed. I decided to sell it for a real mac (iMac Mid 2007 20" 2.0GHz) . I haven't updated my signature yet. But I was happy because i don't have to worry anymore about updates and things like that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Lol OSx86 is a free advertising campaign for Apple, it doesn't hurt them :lol:

How many people go away cursing OS X because they couldn't install OSx86 or some update killed their system?

 

A large majority of the population isn't discerning enough to separate the OS X from OSx86 and myths/lies about Macs and OS X get perpetuated.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...