To the Mods: I don’t believe this is violating any laws or policy – if so, my apologies.
Anyway, I’m currently running OSX on PC hardware. Took about a week to get it running smoothly, but its more or less rock solid at this point. I must say that I’m enjoying OSX so far – I really haven’t used it much, up until this point; my initial reason for getting it was that I wanted to try iPhone development, and the SDK (and tools) are OSX-only.
I’m running on fairly wimpy hardware specs, too – P4, 786mb ram. I plan on upgrading my system soon, and having a really nice dual-boot setup (or even triple-boot, if I feel like including Linux).
So, anyone else doing this? Curious about it? I know Apple doesn’t “like” this concept, but I paid for the software, and frankly, think they should consider officially supporting it. (We can get into details of Apple’s business model if anyone cares to).
Be advised that this is mostly a guess, since I don’t own a Mac, or OS X
I can’t imagine that such a set-up would be supported by the Apple help crew. A large part of Apple’s image of “it just works” (IMHO) comes from their use of specific hardware sets. Anything else either breaks their warranty, or just isn’t supported very well.
Again, just a guess, since such a business practice would mean minimal R&D and support costs, plus a great image, and the ability to charge prohibitively expensive amounts for proprietary hardware
However, if you’ve gotten it working, I don’t see anything wrong with keeping it the way it is. As long as it ain’t broke, don’t try fixin’ it, or you’ll break something!
Bad guess. There’s really not a whole lot left that’s “proprietary” about the hardware these days. That’s why it’ll run on a IBM PC clone (yes, that’s an anachronism, too).
I’ve thought about doing this on my laptop. I support both PCs and Macs, and know enough Unix tricks to cause the Apple faithful to cross themselves in fear (launch single-user mode to repair permissions and they act like you’ve just shown them their own spleen). But I don’t want to carry two laptops, nor am I all that fond of paying the “Apple tax” on hardware, no matter how attractive.
I tried it. I built a PC according to recommendations for maximum compatibility. I got it working, except I couldn’t get “Core Image/Quartz Extreme” working and I couldn’t seem to get help on that. I ended up being given an iMac, so I’m trying to sell the Hackintosh. The iMac is a little slower, though, and if the Hackintosh worked I could get more money selling the Mac.
The selection of computers on the market frustrates me to no end. PCs are cheap, but I cannot imagine constantly having to worry about viruses. Apples have a nice OS, but a very limited selection of hardware with much of it geared toward fashion rather than practicality.
Huh? I’ve been a Mac owner since well before it was “fashionable.” What’s not practical? And what’s fashionable? Sure, the iMacs are nice (no tower and mountain of cables), but other PC makers make similar packages. There’s nothing at all unpractical about an Apple machine. They’re not even that more expensive. If you can’t afford an Apple instead of a Dell, you probably shouldn’t even be considering the Dell and should think about gasoline hitting $3 per gallon instead.
Limited selection of hardware? It’s the same hardware as the PC world. Hell, an Apple is a better Windows machine than a typical Windows machine, if you want to run it that way.
Not necessarily. Your general Mac starts at $300 above a regular PC price, and a MBP will run you $1000 over a similarly specced Dell. All this for a prepackaged hardware set with a customized Unix OS, no thanks.
They’re not unpractical, but they’re not economical either. A cheap dell will cost you $300-400. For less than $500 I can get a Core 2 Duo 2.8ghz, 4gb ram and 320 GB HD from Dell. The cheapest Mac mini will run you $600 for 2.0 ghz C2D, 1GB RAM and a 120GB HD.
An iMac with 2.6ghz C2d, 2gb RAM, and 320gb HD starts at $1200.
Macs aren’t bad machines, but they’re not very well priced for what you’re getting.
Also, their whole locked system really irks me. Why the hell can’t you change a battery on a macbook? On the flipside, their warranty isn’t bad.
Look, there’s no end of threads debating whether a Mac or PC has better hardware, which is a better value, and whether or not a Mac is decently priced for what you get. Is it not possible to have a thread that mentions Macs or OS X and have it NOT devolve into a religious debate? I’m not trying to play junior mod, just saying it’s really tiresome to have any thread that mentions Macs turn into a pissing contest.
What does the OSX license say about running it on non-genuine Apple hardware?
The mere fact you “paid for it” doesn’t mean you *own *a copy. It means you’ve *licensed *a copy. They still own your copy and you can only legally do the things the license permits you to do with it. Any and all other uses are illegal.
I’m not accusing here; I simply have no idea if the “Hackintosh” idea is kosher, or, like music file sharing, illegal by the letter of the law while actively practiced by the masses.
The License and end-user agreement is not law. I don’t think these things have been seriously challenged in court, so it’s debatable whether or not you would be any sort of trouble for violating their licencing terms.
OSX license does not allow this nor virtualization; that said I virtualize OSX with VMware. There’s an vmk floating on all the torrent sites with a working install if you are curious. No need to double or triple boot. VMs ftw.
Wow, you mac fanboys really live in fantasy world. I bought my brother a dell laptop with dual cores, 2 gig ram, a nicer lcd panel than a macbook, and a gaming video card for 550. The equivalant mac was 1200 but with a shittier video card and a crappier lcd panel. OSX is nice and Apple makes a nice product but stop denying the huge, huge markup compared to a PC.
If you get the apple extended plan, its okay, but thats another hidden cost of ownership.
At my last job we had a few imacs with capacitor plague. They didnt buy applecare but apple still honored the warranty because of extended support for these motherboards. I said great and asked for a shipping address. Apple refuses shipments on imacs. They only accept laptops via the mail. In the end I had to lug this monster to the Apple store via a cab. Not exactly ready for prime time business here, people. Apple will forever be stuck in the home ghetto because of their prices, policies, restrictive licensing, and ridiculous service restrictions.
Dell, panasonic, hp, et al, send a tech over or at the very least accept mailed computers.
The license says “…Apple Software on a single Apple-labeled computer at a time…” On another thread I joked that I would stick an Apple lable on my PC … hey they should have specified “Apple Hardware”.
Yes… I paid for it, I should do whatever I want to do with it… even use it like a frizbee.
Back to OP… and yes… I succeeded with PearPC… but it doensn’t support CD drives… and cant get it to connect to a virtual network… The only thing I can do so far is play Chess.
Everyone essentially calling the OP a thief: You’re welcome to send this thread to Apple to, you know, do your civic duty. God you people are annoying. The OP obviously wanted a technical discussion. Go do your policing in another thread.
To clarify my personal POV, in case your annoyance extends to me. And yes, I did “start it” by raising the question. This being GQ and all …
I really don’t care what the OP does. I have been curious about the Mac OSes for some time. I last owned a Mac when System 6.0.5 was the hot setup on a Mac II+ (I think I remembered those correctly). I would be interested in running a Mac OS on PC hardware or in a VM as en experiment. But I would not be interested enough to spend the money to buy a physical Mac.
Finally, being in the software business myself, I am scrupulous about licensing.
So my question was simply: What does the license say? It meant no more, and no less, than that.
“Fanboy”? Macs aren’t my only machines, and while they’re my most expensive machines, they’re worth every penny. That’s not being a fanboy. I also have a Lincoln instead of Hyundai. It’s called “disposable income.” I don’t buy cheap pieces of shit, like my work-computer, top of the line Dell laptop that’s constantly failing. If I had to worry about the price difference between a Dell and a Macintosh, I’d certainly reconsider the purchase of a Dell, and start saving my pennies for $3.00 gasoline. The difference is neglible, unless you’re poor.
My $3,000 late-2005 Apple Quad G5 is currently selling on ebay for around $900.
A $5,000 mid-2006 Dell XPS-710 is currently selling on ebay for around $530.
