Monday, February 01, 2010

Hackintosh.... I did it!


I am always looking to reduce the amount of stuff I have to carry on assignment and personal trips. I recently bought a Dell Inspiron mini 10V netbook, in order to reduce the size of my travel computer. I'm a MAC guy and it hurt me to buy a Dell for sure, however, my Dell is now a MAC!

All I really need from my travel computer is the ability to check email, surf the web, store images, and video conference with my wife and son via Skype. I typically don't process my images on the road, I really just need a way to view them and store them until I get home.

I ran across a wonderful web site that showed in detail, how to convert a Dell 10V into a MAC. The web site is called Gizmodo.com and the actual post which gives you the details to do this is here. I am so excited to have done this, I've been a MAC guy forever and just did not understand how the Windows system worked. I guess you just get use to what your use to? Anyway, I now have a min netbook MAC with OSX Snow Leopard running and I couldn't be happier.

11 comments:

Unknown said...

I would be careful as Apple are cracking down on software abuse, as you are violating there terms and conditions, they treat it as theft.

Personally I think you have done a good job as i hate my PC as its rubbish.

Did not know it would fit on a net book, amazing!!

Andy Q said...

Now this I will need to check out! Thanks David...

Unknown said...

How about I bring a 10v to Santa Fe (Feb 21-27) and we can hack it as a demo :-) My wife and I would LOVE this!

Unknown said...

Hey David,

Great blog. I was wondering if you plan on tethering to your 10v. You inspired me to get one, and should be picking it up tonight.

Thanks,

Jason
www.jasonkb.com

Unknown said...

Great post.
You mentioned Skype... does the built in camera work?
Also Im curious can you hook up an external monitor to this lil computer? IF so... have you... I am curious to know if I would be able to drive an external 19" monitor.. or "gasp".. a 27 inch model I have...
Most importantly... will this run Lightroom? ( I would have my image catalogue velcro piggybacked on a passport hard drive.
Your the best! keep up the wonderful work.

I am quite seriously considering building one in the next week.

David Tejada said...

I have connected a projector to the VGA port with only a small problem. You need to turn off mirror screen option using "Terminal code".

As far as I have been able to tell, this is a MAC. I downloaded Lightroom Beta 3 and it works fine. Camera works for Skype... it's a MAC, what can I say. DT

Unknown said...

Thank you so much!Wonderful! I will be constructing one shortly! Hey.. enjoy the superbowl.

Unknown said...

Hey cool! I did the exact same thing with a mini 10v myself. It's a great road machine, and it got enough umph for minor editing with the GIMP. Projectors and monitors work fine, and I aslo tether with my phone for internet on the road when wifi's not available. It is completely a mac, with everything working without a lot of monkeying around.

Unknown said...

David, did you buy any options for the Mini? I was considering the bigger battery and possibly the 16GB SSD. Any suggestions now that you've lived with the MacMini for a little while?

David Tejada said...

I did the extended battery. DT

Pat said...

It's great that you went through all this trouble but I'm curious, why not get a real Mac then?