# Anyone else running OSX on a PC? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 23, 2009, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-running-osx-on-a-pc/497369 "2009-05-23T02:47:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![QuanSu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/c37758/32.png) [@QuanSu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuanSu)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2009, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-running-osx-on-a-pc/497369/21 "2009-05-26T22:45:30Z")
I have it running on my spare PC as a dual boot OS X/Win XP Pro machine. It is running stable on a 50 GB partition, but I don’t use it much since I don’t have much software to run on it. I got a special deal through work on Office 2004 for $40 a year ago and I wanted to check it out. My Powerbook is just too old to run it. My rig has about the same hardware as yours: P4, 2 GB RAM, 500 GB hard drive. Switching between OSes sometimes confuses me briefly, though. ---
**Author:** ![HorseloverFat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8e8cbc/32.png) [@HorseloverFat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HorseloverFat)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2009, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-running-osx-on-a-pc/497369/22 "2009-05-27T03:15:57Z")
> [@](#): > > You tell me which system has more value. Nice cherry-picking of systems. A 5,000 dollar gamer desktop system loses value very, very quickly. My 450 dollar laptop can be sold for 300 dollars right now. I lose about 200 dollars for two years of use. Thats sales tax on your mac. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2009, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-running-osx-on-a-pc/497369/23 "2009-05-27T04:08:33Z")
> [@HorseloverFat](#): > > Nice cherry-picking of systems. A 5,000 dollar gamer desktop system loses value very, very quickly. My 450 dollar laptop can be sold for 300 dollars right now. I lose about 200 dollars for two years of use. Thats sales tax on your mac. I just picked two quad-core systems of about the same vintage. Just how old is your $450 laptop? My $2,000 2006 MacBook is going for around $750 on ebay right now. ---
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2009, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-running-osx-on-a-pc/497369/24 "2009-05-27T05:02:11Z")
In other news, hackintosh corporation [Psystar has apparently filed for bankruptcy](http://gizmodo.com/5270448/psystar-files-for-bankruptcy) due in part to Apple’s ongoing lawsuit regarding the EULA etc. ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2009, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-running-osx-on-a-pc/497369/25 "2009-05-27T06:42:53Z")
I bought a netbook recently expressly for the purposes of turning it into a Hackintosh. I certainly don’t think Apple cares if you do this to your own computer. On the Hackintosh forums, a commonly recommended tactic is to affix an Apple label from your Mac to your PC as you install OS X. They’re sure as hell not going to give you support or be liable for anything that goes wrong with your computer, though. OS X works well on Macs because Apple makes the hardware uniformly and doesn’t have to worry about weird component conflicts, etc. This is one place where I can empathize with Microsoft - how many configurations of PC exist? I am certain that Apple is quite aware of the Hackintosh sites and just don’t care as long as you buy a copy of OS X. You’re probably a beta tester of sorts. Of course if Apple ever endorsed or made a version of OS X for PCs, they’d essentially put themselves out of business. Why buy the Mac if you can buy a FrankenPC and have it do the same thing? ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2009, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-running-osx-on-a-pc/497369/26 "2009-11-10T20:02:45Z")
Hey, resurrecting this bad boy to let y’all know that I have a netbook Hackintosh. It came out of the factory as a Dell Inspiron Mini 10v, but it Thinks Different now. It was a PITA to install a new stick of RAM (2GB) and I had to take it apart literally to the motherboard, but there are great YouTube guides and a Gizmodo tutorial walking one through the entire process. Everything to date works, though it seems to not like hotswapping the VGA cable when I need to use it for projection purposes. The Dell Mini 10v trackpad is a nightmare as well, but other than that it’s been a real cool ride. I’m running Snow Leopard 10.6.1 - no upgrade to 10.6.2 because apparently Apple have broken Atom support in this version. Pretty sure some enterprising sort will figure a workaround pretty sharpish, though… ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2009, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-running-osx-on-a-pc/497369/27 "2009-11-10T20:35:05Z")
**Hippy** , I’d be very interested to hear how performance is on that model. I am thinking of getting a 10v to hackintosh, but I’m worried about things like full-screen flash video and H.264 encoded content. Can you watch HD video on it at all? How about Divx encoded stuff? How bad is the trackpad, and in which ways? ---
**Author:** ![Geek\_Mecha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecae2f/32.png) [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2009, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-running-osx-on-a-pc/497369/28 "2009-11-10T21:14:47Z")
Thank you for the update. I’m resurrecting my PC to use Windows 7, but I would like to get a Mac upgrade as well, from my PowerBook G4. A netbook Hackintosh would be excellent. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2009, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-running-osx-on-a-pc/497369/29 "2009-11-10T22:27:47Z")
A friend of mine bought a netbook to install OSX on it, too. What **Casserole** said about “It Just Works” depending on having Apple hardware has some truth to it: I’ve never seen a genuine Macintosh have any trouble hooking up to the projector in our conference room (it’s as simple as plug it in and go, as opposed to the half-page of instructions for connecting PCs, that doesn’t always work), but he couldn’t get that netbook to talk to the projector after about 20 minutes of trying (after which he gave up). And he had chosen that particular model of netbook because it had a reputation for running OSX particularly well. Now, I’m sure that if he had really stuck with it (maybe downloading new drivers, or the like), he could have gotten it to work, but it was definitely much harder than with a genuine Mac, or even most PCs. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2009, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-running-osx-on-a-pc/497369/30 "2009-11-10T22:41:45Z")
I don’t have any illusions about a hackintosh being as good as a real Mac laptop, but I’m computer savvy and willing to put up with a bit of headache. I’m looking for a small laptop with a long battery life for little money, and Apple simply doesn’t offer anything in that space. They can’t even really hit 2 out of 3. I like Mac OS enough to pay for it and do a little bit of hacking to get it working, but not enough to spend an extra $700 buying a Macbook over a netbook. So, the real question for me is “will it be better than Windows/Ubuntu?” If not, I’ll probably just use whatever comes by default. ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2009, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-running-osx-on-a-pc/497369/31 "2009-11-10T23:01:52Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > 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. This is simply not accurate. There may be some jurisdictions in which it works out this way but in many it doesn’t. Here is info from a recent ruling on this very issue, against the vendor (Autodesk): > [@](#): > > However, ruling aside Autodesk’s arguments, Judge Richard Jones from the US District Court for the Western District of Washington, specified in his ruling: “No one would characterize a person’s possession as something other than ownership.” > > Denying Autodesk’s copyright misuse charges against Vernor, and validating secondhand sales, Judge Jones said: “The court cannot characterize Autodesk’s decision to let its licensees retain possession of the software forever as something other than a transfer of ownership, despite numerous restrictions on that ownership.” ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2009, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-running-osx-on-a-pc/497369/32 "2009-11-11T01:09:54Z")
Hey **walrus** , I had a pretty good response to you on my Mac at work, but I left (and left the computer there too - netbook is much easier to carry!). I watch stuff I download in Xvid encoding and it works great using VLC 1.0.2. Something like Vimeo-type video is jerky, but watchable. YouTube looks great. The trackpad is annoying, but usable. I would say go for it as a second Mac. It doesn’t like to have a VGA plug inserted - every time I’ve done this it’s crashed, but I presented at a national conference using it as my main rig with a Keynote slideshow. Worked just fine. Next step is going to be installing a Bluetooth module… and maybe a bigger battery. Also, I’m used to the Mac’s backlit keyboard, so I need a solution to light the keys in the dark. So far so good! ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2009, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-running-osx-on-a-pc/497369/33 "2009-11-11T16:30:52Z")
(this is the message I was writing yesterday) > [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > **Hippy** , I’d be very interested to hear how performance is on that model. I am thinking of getting a 10v to hackintosh, but I’m worried about things like full-screen flash video and H.264 encoded content. Can you watch HD video on it at all? How about Divx encoded stuff? > > How bad is the trackpad, and in which ways? **(:3=**, I’m viewing a vimeo clip that I showed in class yesterday - it’s at [http://vimeo.com/2408371](http://vimeo.com/2408371) It’s pretty jerky. It serves the purpose of showing the images, and the less movement, the better it looks. The audio skips somewhat in those busy spots as well. I watch a soap opera I d/l from bittorrent and it’s XVID encoded, looks great with VLC 1.0.2. The trackpad is pretty horrible. You’re supposed to use the corners for left click and right click. There are drivers that some folks in the community have developed that are supposed to work better. I might try one out. ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-running-osx-on-a-pc/497369/34 "2009-11-12T17:35:15Z")
Thanks for the info. I think I’ll hold off for a bit and see what else comes out, what Apple does with future releases, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-running-osx-on-a-pc/497369/35 "2009-11-12T22:19:11Z")
Someone was telling me today that the latest OSX release includes some lock or similar that will specifically prevent it being installed or run on Atom processors (i.e. netbooks). ---
**Author:** ![Geek\_Mecha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecae2f/32.png) [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-running-osx-on-a-pc/497369/36 "2009-11-12T22:36:26Z")
10.6.2 appears to prevent it, but I’ve heard workarounds are being developed/already exist. ---
**Author:** ![galen\_ubal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/galen_ubal/32/4440_2.png) [@galen\_ubal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/galen_ubal)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-running-osx-on-a-pc/497369/37 "2009-11-12T22:44:05Z")
> **[InsanelyMac](https://www.insanelymac.com/)** This site (and it’s associated Wiki and Database) gives a large amount of information on making and tweaking a Hackintosh. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2009, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-running-osx-on-a-pc/497369/38 "2009-11-12T22:46:32Z")
Why not run some other flavor of Linux that is made for PCs? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-running-osx-on-a-pc/497369.md?page=1)