Mac OSX on DELL XPS 1330? Worth the trouble?

[Fae]

What a mess :-/

 

Some days ago, after long and arduous discussions with friends and review-reading,I bought a DELL XPS 1330.

Dell had a -325€ deal going, so I finally came to my senses and bought myself a relatively lightweight

notebook for carrying around the campus.

BUT: After a few days of Vista Home Edition and the feeling that this is only another stressful Windows computer

(got one of those at home.. you all know how fidgety they can get.. "Oh! There's WLAN!", next day "Nah, don't see

any WLAN here, mate.", "Whoopsy - I seem to have bluescreened myself.."). Somehow I am not looking forward to

more sitting around in lectures desperately trying to get WLAN working again, while friends of mine with macbooks

seem to have NO problems at all!

 

To cut a long story short: I really, really like the hardware that the XPS 1330 features and I would not turn it

in for the stuff in a regular macbook (Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100, less RAM, less HD-space, no LED

backlit screen...); but I can't stand this GODAWFUL OS anymore! Downgrading to XP as with my pc at home? Nah.. thanks...

don't need that on the laptop, too.

 

 

In short, would you recommend to kill VISTA and throw Kalyway's Leopard on the 1330 or is it unrealistic that

the thing would perform well? I've read that the Intel Wireless 4965 is still not working on either Leopard

or OSX 10.4., is that right? If that is the ONLY thing that won't work I'm perfectly ok with buying a USB WLAN stick.

 

Moderator macgirl wrote at http://staff.osx86project.org/macgirl/ that LAN and WLAN still won't work in any 10.5.1

release...

 

 

Sorry to post the questions but I've only once tried to install Mac OSX on a computer before - on my computer at home -

but the installation didn't even get started. Soo... I've got roughly 7 days left to return the laptop to Dell or

to figure out if this thing is actually working for me.

 

I'm only looking for some quick hints on how much work this is going to be for a newbie in OSX86'ing and if it

can be done in a resonable timespan... or if this is going to take ages, figuring out which driver I need to

get things working, etc.

 

If I can't get OSX to work on this thing I'll probably return it. I'm interested in portable Windows madness anymore..

 

 

 

Cheers from cold Berlin *freezing*

[vallie]

Everuthing but wireless and ethernet works... so usb wireless [ralink based chipset] are the way to go or buying a wifi mini pc card that has osx drivers.....

My m1330 arrives in feb 2008 then maybe a try to compile a darwin version of some ubuntu intel drivers that flows on the internet??.

 

Macgirl: any change with that???

 

Alsso : could a vmware like solution help to route internet by vmare drivers???

 

UPDATE : ubuntu succes: -> http://www.uluga.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=644904

 

UPDATE2 on ethernet: F5D5055ed /http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=281799 usb-> ethernet 'gigabit' [1gb versus 480Mbps??] So for the really necessary utp connections this is a workaround....

 

Waiting for an expresscard with wifi n speed including ethernet 100/1000 Mbps combination that would be great! Anyone??

 

 

EDIT3: mini pci card : http://www.sparklan.com/product_details.php?prod_id=170 based on Ralink RT2860 so drivers 10.x up to 10.5!! about 80 euro

http://www.welektra.de/eshop/index.php?a=4...a327ad358073d55 -> a lot cheaper about 60 euro!

http://www.oxfordtec.com/us/p119/SparkLAN-...oduct_info.html -> about 50 $ !! [so about ±57 euro?? [+sending costs and taxes]]

 

Interesting:sepcs in swf format http://www.oxfordtec.com/us/flash/Specific...lity%20list.swf

 

Still issue with dual band, my apple netwokr router has dual channel but 2.4ghz and 5Ghz, but this one is for pre-order !!!

http://www.oxfordtec.com/us/MiniPCI-Wirele...oduct_info.html

 

this one is from gigabyte : http://www.oxfordtec.com/us/APPLE-OSX-Wire...oduct_info.html

Same chipset and ready for sale!

 

Dual ban ddraft n wireless 2.4+5ghz band! : same chipset as macbook pro !!! according to : http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=429484

 

So would be supported in 10.5 native!!!!!