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.

Cool story. I too am a recent convert.

I started out about a year and a half ago with my first Hackintosh, and now here I am, MacBook in hand as I type this reply. My story is quite similar to yours too. Thanks for sharing!

Wow I didnt last as long as you guys.. 2 months after having my first Hackintosh i bought a mac mini im now looking to get a mac book pro as soon as i have the money!

been wanting a mac for years to run logic (pretty much ever since version 6 was released)
got OSX86 running mid november last year
in 2-3 weeks i'll have a mac pro

Same situation here. Got it running on a Dell XPS1710 last fall and am now looking to order a mac pro in June or July.

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!!

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.

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

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!

I've been a long time mac user. My work got me a gateway with the 916gux board and a p4 3ghz. I tried the Jas 10.4.3 install and it worked great !. I've been hooked since.

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!

Yeah I was a staunch anti-Apple guy before I tried OSX86. It lead to my iPod, iPhone, current Hackintosh, and soon-to-be Mac Minis and Macbook.

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!

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.

Still don't understand the gateway drug reference.


Think Mark

Gateway drug means it introduces you to the addiction of real macs.

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 ) When you get hooked it's hard to stop. Now back to MacWorld mag to look for my next fix

haha the way you wrote this reminds me of Edward Norton's narrative style in Fight Club. Read the original post with that voice/style...

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!

When there's a better video chipset than the crippled 8600M I'll consider it. Doesn't even need to be my 8800M GTX, I'd be happy with a derivative 9600 part. I'm sure Apple will have them soon after nVidia announces it.

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.

Is the screen capable of 1440x900 @ 75hz or better. ? I know the screen looks nice, wondering what the refresh rates are.

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

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.

Yeah you're right. I was being a bit too sure by saying "it doesn't hurt them".

It certainly helps them though. A lot of people including myself have OS X running on their PC's and love it. and much like the orginal poster I too started off with OSX86 only to buy a real mac.

I just got tired of all the problems I was having and worrying about updating and kernel panics. I dont get much of it anymore but having a real mac is better

Probably not that many get these two confused. Anyone coming here and learning about this stuff, etc. has to be at least somewhat computer savvy, which means they can discern. I'm sure there's exceptions, but I would say they are few. Most people who attempt this either give up and lose interest, not thinking more or less of OS X; the others who succeed, the vast majority of them seem to grow to love it.

If it wasn't for OSx86 I would have never switched. Apple has made thousands from me personally because of this, and will continue to make much more in the future. I've also converted 4 of my friends, and probably "planted seeds" with many more.

I would say the positive impact FAR outweighs the negative.

Hey Moderator, you should get royalties or something from Apple because I'm sure plenty of people here started out with Hackintoshes and eventually moved up to the real deal. I stared out with an old 17" Sager monster laptop in 2005 where I had installed OSX86 on an external drive so I could see what the big hubbub was about with this OSX. Boy did I fall for it. I first bought a MacBook Pro a few months later (like 6 months) and then in the end of 2006 I bought my pride and joy, a MacPro 2.66ghz which I now have with 8gigs of RAM, ATI X1900XT, 1tb of storage, a ton of cool software, plus Vista Ultimate in Boot Camp as well as a ton of cool Windows games. Am now eagerly awaiting my nVidia 8800GT for 1st Gen MacPros to replace the ATI card. This MacPro kicks ass! It's happy with everything I throw at it and will be even happier once I get that updated video card. I was actually planning on selling my MacPro on eBay and using that money to buy the new 2008 MacPro but really, it didn't make sense to me since this 2006 MacPro is so good. Oh, it also helps that I have the Gateway XHD3000 30" LCD with this.

Thanks to everyone here. I know my post count is low but I do a lot of reading and only post when compelled to reply to topics like this one. Again, Apple should be happy of insanelymac.com because I'm sure it's contributed to the recent upsurge in PC market share. It's not just the iPod. Well, perhaps for the non-technically savvy it is the iPod, but for the likes of us it's sites like this one that lead us in a path of enlightenment.

Interesting Discussion.

I too am hooked on osx. It only took a few weeks for me -happy to be "dll free". I really like the way you can use the cool osx GUI and then in a second drop to terminal and start tearing into the guts of the machine.

I have spent years surounded by hardcore media mac addicts & was always impressed by their hardware. But I hate to buy things, particularly expensive things. I like to start at the free but lame/barely working level & then work my way up. Think how much you have learnt by using/configuring osx. I dont know any mac users that know the first thing about darwin or kexts or even hardware.

Personally I dont think that Mac are bothered by osx86, as long as it's not on a manufacturing/commercial basis -or they would have moved against it. read an interesting post from someone who called Mac Helpline & said they wanted to buy a leopard dvd & install it on their windows machine. Story was: the advice was to go ahead by all means,not illegal -but they wouldn't be getting any support for it.

Been looking at hardware to build a good everyday desktop & the mac mini is looking good in comparison -suitably hacked of course. The graphics capabilities look rather underwhelming, built in graphics . still -im on a budget & my everyday desktop has intel 82845GL onboard, cant be any worse!

Threres no doubt about how good their OS is, but the prices/choice of hardware and corporate policies are very unnatractive to me.
example, plan to encode the buyers zip code into tunes bought on iTunes wtf?

I'm back to
running a NEW Dell Dimension 9200...... 10.5.2
running an NEW HP DV6716EZ......10.5.2

no more G4's......

SticMAN

Andrey, glad you like your Mac but wanted to point out an inaccuracy to you. Although the X2s clock speed is indeed higher, an X2 is actually a significantly slower processor than a Core2 Duo. An X2 would have to run at about 3GHz to xbench the same as a 2GHz Core2. So your higher xbench is to be expected. Just thought I'd point this out.

I myself too, am a recent convert from the 10.4.8 days. I've been through every distro out there, and settled with leo4all for a good year, before i gave in last week and picked up myself a 24 inch iMac . Definitely a gateway drug.

Started with a Dell Dimension 9100, everything worked perfect but the video card that was an 8800GTS, later on drivers came out and i had a fully functional hackingtosh, and for over a year i used multi boot with Vista, on May of this year, i sold that PC with everything it had, including spare vista and XP installation discs, soon after, i bought an Apple imac AL 20" and not planning on going back to windows anytime soon.

Interestingly I started with a Hackintosh, still have it and use it as my main computer. (It's a laptop, and I can't afford a MacBook atm - however my next computer will be a MBP).

However I didn't run and buy new. When my desktop PC died I went and got a 1999 vintage PowerMac G4. And I must say I love it. It runs Tiger just great and with a few cheap tweaks here and there, I will have it screaming along with Leopard soon

Have to agree. I started with a Dell XPS 1710 from work and loved it. Tax free weekend here in GA starts Thursday and we'll be picking up a 20" iMac for now with an eye on getting my wife a macbook around Christmas time. When the mini finally gets redesigned we may purchase one of those for the kids. Of course, I could always give them the iMac and get myself a Mac Pro..... Gateway drug indeed.