Anyone else using OS X on a daily basis?

[plop]

Hi,

 

I'm fairly new here but I wanted to share my experience and ask if anyone else is daring to use osx86 on a daily basis?

 

I haven't touched a hacked os x machine for over 2 years, on my first attempt, things were pretty basic, there was no such thing as working kexts for nvidia, and the whole experience though incredibly exciting was very slow. I've watched the progress over the last couple of years, and it seemed that now was the time that the hack machines were fast enough to use as you would use a real mac.

 

I bought a 15" mac book pro at xmas time, and I've been using it as my daily computer ever since - it's thin and light and because I have to fly within europe at least twice a week, it was ideal. But my job has changed, and now I'm chained to a desk. I have the luxury of working mostly from home, and so I get to decide what hardware I use. I'm so used to os x now that when I tried to use windows again on my new desktop computer, I found it very difficult and cumbersome to use. I mainly do development of c and some web stuff like php occasionally with a bit of design thrown in. My project for the next three months will mean I have to use photoshop and indesign on a daily basis.

 

So when I specced up my PC, I kept the idea of a hackintosh in mind, bought the parts and assembled it a few days ago. I'm shocked at how well it runs - my mbp is very new, the dual core model with 2gb of ram, but my new desktop is actually quicker - graphics performance is just as good if not better - disk transfer is definitely faster, and the OS functions just as well if not better than on my real mac, the mbp.

 

My specs are:

 

Intel Core 2 Duo - Quad core, 2.6ghz, overclocked to 2.8ghz currently

4gb ddr ram (can't remember the speed)

sata hard drives - 2 x 500GB seagate 7200rpm ( was planning raid, but I bought the wrong m/board )

2 x philips 22" 220VW monitors running at 1680 x 1050

nvidia 512mb 8800GT, using nvinject currently

 

I installed using the kalyway dvd 10.5.2 and I chose the kabyl kernel. Installation took no more than 15 minutes, and then I immediately download the 10.5.3 update by mysticus. I chose the wrong kernel the first time, but after a quick reinstall and choosing the kabyl kernel again, all was good.

 

I'm running photoshop using print resolution documents, and I use fireworks and dreamweaver for my hobby projects - they are all running like lightning. I remember my first hackintosh crawled when more than one app was open, and obviously video playback was more than an issue - but this is just like the real thing. My oki a3 colour laser printer is working brilliantly, and using vlc on my second screen for video playback while photoshop is running its tasks. I also have mamp running as well as skype and mail and umpteen windows in firefox rc 3. I also discovered a great itunes module for the top bar called you tunes by yousoftware.com.

 

This is day one of my "I'm going to use a hackintosh as I already own a mbp but the screen is too small" mission. Hopefully it will go well, has anyone else done this and used it for work and play on a daily basis???

 

Also - has anyone noticed any difference betwee the two available nvdia driver methods - I use nvinject, but is the other better or worse?

 

Plop.

[vaporATX]

Been using osx86 on a daily basis since 10.4.6. I basically do it like this: I have a main drive that I use for my stable everyday use system (10.5.2 at this time). I do everything with this... run my business... do all my online activities... everything I need works perfectly on this system (sleep, restart/shutdown, all my peripherals, all my software). I have three secondary drives. The first one is my backup drive. This one stores a working superduper backup of the main drive on one partition, disk images of various windows installs from the windows drive that I'll mention later on a second, and a testing partition for messing with bleeding edge osx86 installs (has 10.5.3 on it right now). The third drive is my windows drive. This has copies of Vista x64, Vista, XP SP2, XP SP3, and a small stripped down XP SP2 install with overclocking utils for testing new hardware that I add. This drive is mainly used for gaming and overclocking. The forth drive is a backup to the backup drive and also serves as a backup drive for all my media files. It also has some partitions set aside for playing with linux and bsd distros. I also have various external firewire and usb drives. One of these is a big 1TB firewire drive that basically lives in my safe deposit box and contains monthly backups of all the machines in the house.

 

So, once I'm satisfied with the stability and functioning of the osx86 install on the testing partition I make a compressed image of the main drive and store it and migrate the testing drive to the main. All very easy and very safe.

 

As far as nvinject the only difference I see is a few secs of extra boot time. I personally use efi strings for vid cards. Installer utils like nvinject are kinda for noobs. Nothing wrong with them, but there are better ways to go about such things.

 

Hope this helps some.

[knewsom]

Hey, I use my hackintosh every day, and am about to post my G5 for sale. What I do is a little different than VaporATX. I have two internal hard drives - one a system drive, the other is just a media drive for using with Final Cut Pro. Externally, I have several others, but one of them I use as my Time Machine backup. Before I upgrade any of my software, I make sure I backup my current, stable system, then unplug the drive. I research any new software before I install it, and then once it's installed, I test it awhile before I do any additional backups. If it breaks my install, I revert back with my Time Machine backup and my install DVD. I also keep multiple backup copies of important media files, but I haven't gone so far as to keep them in a safe deposit box... I do keep some of the most important things backed up on a server though. Sadly, my iDisk doesn't work anymore, that was originally the easy way I did that.

[HBP]

I have come back to using OSX on my Hack after 2 years of not using it at all. I have found that it is by far easier to use and more Stable then windows on the 2 computers I use it on. I use it for Web devel, Gaming(world of warcraft), and School. so far it has out preformed ANY windows or linux distro I have used.

 

being a Management Information Systems student, a Stable and reliable system is a must.

 

I Still have a windows partition on both my laptop, and my desktop, but it's been almost 6 months since I have been on ether windows side.

 

I also provide Tech support for my friends and family's real mac's.

[vaporATX]

but I haven't gone so far as to keep them in a safe deposit box...

 

The reason I keep off-site backups has nothing to do with my computer hobby and everything to do with mine and my wife's livelihood. I have large amounts of customer documents, personal finance data, and my wife is a writer and also has lots of irreplaceable data. If we had a fire, tornado, got robbed, etc... we'd be screwed without backups. Whatever isn't on the monthly backup is on usb keys in my pocket when I leave the house. One of the services I provide to customers is data recovery. When you spend years looking at the desperation on people's faces it makes you insure that you NEVER allow yourself to get in that position.

 

Also, everything that could be damaging (to me or my customers) if it fell into a thief's hands is encrypted.

[impulsion]

if i could get it to run on my laptop i would only use OS X!

[plop]

Been using osx86 on a daily basis since 10.4.6. I basically do it like this: I have a main drive that I use for my stable everyday use system (10.5.2 at this time). I do everything with this... run my business... do all my online activities... everything I need works perfectly on this system (sleep, restart/shutdown, all my peripherals, all my software). I have three secondary drives. The first one is my backup drive. This one stores a working superduper backup of the main drive on one partition, disk images of various windows installs from the windows drive that I'll mention later on a second, and a testing partition for messing with bleeding edge osx86 installs (has 10.5.3 on it right now). The third drive is my windows drive. This has copies of Vista x64, Vista, XP SP2, XP SP3, and a small stripped down XP SP2 install with overclocking utils for testing new hardware that I add. This drive is mainly used for gaming and overclocking. The forth drive is a backup to the backup drive and also serves as a backup drive for all my media files. It also has some partitions set aside for playing with linux and bsd distros. I also have various external firewire and usb drives. One of these is a big 1TB firewire drive that basically lives in my safe deposit box and contains monthly backups of all the machines in the house.

 

So, once I'm satisfied with the stability and functioning of the osx86 install on the testing partition I make a compressed image of the main drive and store it and migrate the testing drive to the main. All very easy and very safe.

 

As far as nvinject the only difference I see is a few secs of extra boot time. I personally use efi strings for vid cards. Installer utils like nvinject are kinda for noobs. Nothing wrong with them, but there are better ways to go about such things.

 

Hope this helps some.

 

It sounds like you take backup very seriously!

 

using efi strings for the graphics -does it make a speed difference? This is my everyday machine, so I have done everything 'out of the box' style as much as possible so that it can be a) rebuilt very quickly stops me fiddling - imaging the drive is an option obviously, but that doesn't stop it taking three times as long in the first place. If it makes a real difference though, I"ll start fiddling.

 

Great to see so many using it on a daily basis.

[adamsweeting]

I sold my actual iMac to pay for a far superior Hackintosh. I have owned Macs for years.... but was a PC mod/overclock enthusiast before that. So I've put a lot of my hard earned cash Apple's way over the last few years (got an iPhone too!).

 

I find 10.5.2 super stable, and my Hackintosh wiped the floor with the iMac performance wise. I use my HackPro as a Logic Pro workstation - and it flys.

 

Thanks to some advice from Vapor I've got my HackPro overclocked and running super fast. I use it every single day and have had no crashes, my M-Audio Firewire Audiophile work perfectly as does LAN.

 

I haven't taken the 10.5.3 plunge as yet.... Been reading the boards to see what it busts. Will do it soon though.

 

I haven't used the EFI strings.. I may give that a shot too. Does that survive an update then?

[MiniBUU]

I have been building custom pc for a while and tested out hack osx a while back on vmware which was slow as hell but still exciting to say the least. I just recently got back into when i got so bored with my pc that I wouldnt even use it anymore. My first install was Zeph release of Mac OS X 10.5.2 on my Kust0m Asus M2N SLI-Deluxe (64) and it ran perfectly with the exception of no sata support so I switched back to windows. When rev 2 came out tested it and everything worked except I couldnt burn dvd/cds on a sata dvdrw. Switched back to windows, set it up as a storage hub, bought a laptop, installed Leo4All v3 (Kalway 10.5.3 update) and have been happy ever since. Everything works except for the few minor annoying Dell Inspirion 1525 problems. Doubt Id go back to windows ever again if I dont have to. And the reason why I bought a pc laptop is because of the cost.

[robi62]

Since I installed it in January although i have window on other partition I always use osx for every thing.

it brilliant faster secure best os i ever used.

Slowly learning all differents shortcuts......

[zeamp]

Been using various Hackintoshes since I took "deadmoo" native on Tiger. The need of Windows became nulled with the release of 10.4.8 JaS and I've been Windows-free at home on OS X from my Hackintosh boxes except at the office where I need to troubleshoot Exchange and Outlook issues. Still gotta have Redmond for that.

[loukaniko]

I have used mine everyday since 10.4.8.

 

Currently I use 10.5.3 for all my personal, business and entertainment needs everything works perfectly. I dual boot with Vista for games and nothing else.