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Well basically here it is, a call to create a cheap PC notebook friendly

version of the Leopard installation to create the ultimate coup: a super

cheap MAC Laptop alternative.

 

I was in the local MicroCenter store and saw one of these super sales on a

cheap Intel based PC laptop for $379 (Celeron M/440 SSE3, 512MB, 80GB)

$379! Such deals are now common with BEST BUY, CIRCUIT CITY,

and the ilk; BEST BUY just finished one for a Core Duo equipped Compaq

Presario T2310 for $449. I bought the ACER thinking for that price it would

be worth it to see if I could create what I thought would be the ultimate

"coup"- a CHEAP in-your-face answer to all of APPLE's snooty MAC Laptops,

the lower end I don't even like anyway (hate the big square keys on the new

keyboard, seem designed to make you want to spend more money for a yet

more expensive unit). I have also see Intel Core Duo units on special sales

for $399. All of these generally have Intel GMA950 or X3100 DVMT/UMA

graphics which is fine. Most are Intel ICH7 or the ilk, SATA drives, HD

sound chip (Realtek, Sigmatel), some cheaper gigabit ethernet chip

(some form of Marvell Yukon but NOT the one it seems the Leopard dists

seem to support?!), and of course a (NOW) PCIe "mini" WiFi card (Atheros,

Intel's, or Broadcom) which I just can't see to find any osX86 dist to want

to talk to (why??).

Some of you may have seen the more specific post done some weeks ago

asking about PCIe "mini" laptop WiFi support but let's step beyond that as

sadly no one posted any replies. I want to open this up in a broader way,

a sort of call to arms.

 

So basically this is an open call to the Hackintosh developers. It isn't

too hard to come up with desktop configurations in a way that seem

to work, I've gotten several of them to work on various mobos. But wouldn't

it be a real coup if we could come up with a configuration that was

known to work on a few of the real cheap ($350-$499) laptops, make a

tested config where the kext's worked for all the devices and we had some

established models out there "known to work" ? Yes this is somewhat of

a moving target, new models do come out regularly, but the incremental

development I would think to keep up would not be too difficult.

 

What a wonderful Xmas that would be :) Seriously, a cheap MAC

laptop, a huge fraction of the cost of APPLE's own that does about

the same thing, perhaps even more to the liking in terms of style

and appearance no matter the price.

 

Discussion?

Don't manufacturers change suppliers of parts during a product's cycle? So it would be somewhat hard to implement this idea? It may be possible, depends on the manufacturer. I know that Dell E1505 has several audio chip sets and different wireless cards? Why not just buy a laptop made from industry standard parts similar to apple spec that would work pretty well. I know that Acer pretty much makes their stuff with standard design parts, while other like HP/Sony/Dell have some minor differences and require proprietary drivers in windows.

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