My netbook experience, even slower then I thought

[poofyhairguy]

Wait you can install OSX on a netbook? Are their are special things you need to do so? Or is it like a regular Windows install?

You need a boot disk like Empire EFI. You boot from that disk, and after it is loaded you pop in the Snow Leopard disk. Then after the install (it will fail on the last part) you reboot and use the same boot disk to boot into OSX. Once in OSX you install Chameleon EFI, the needed kexts, and anything else needed to get things to work (usually a custom DSDT).

I have gotten to the point I can do all this blind folded. It is not as easy as installing Windows, but still pretty easy (especially since OSX doesn't need activation).

 

[poofyhairguy]

Yes, its possible to install OSX on a netbook, however, Apple actively tries to stop people from creating Hackintosh's on on non-Mac system. Several of the Snow Leopard 'updates' have been designed to stop the Atom. Good to know their priorities are in the right place.

Yeah, Apple tried to end Netbook hackintoshing with the 10.6.2 update- they purposefully made the kernel not work on Atom. Not a big deal- you can get EFI bootloaders that purposefully patch the kernel on boot to remove this artificial restriction.

The real thing that is killing the Hackintosh netbook market is the fact that all Pinetrail Netbooks (and ALL CULV Notebooks from the start) come with the GMA 4500 GPU with is COMPLETELY unsupported in OSX. In fact, unlike previous Intel GPUs, Apple has specifically avoided this GPU in its real Macs just as Intel forced the GPU down everyone's throat on Netbooks.

I honestly think Intel and Apple did it on purpose, which wouldn't make me so mad if Apple would actually SELL a 11.6inch form factor notebook (and no an iPad doesn't come close to cutting it for me).

If you want an OSX netbook the best thing is either to get a last gen ION Netbook (so either a HP 311 or an Asus 1201n) or a N270 GMA950 Netbook. I personally love how my HP allows for overclocking in third party bios (so its faster than any Pine Trail netbook on the planet), but the dual core in the Asus makes it more future proof.

Either way, I expect within a year that the excitement in the hackintosh community caused by the release of the Dell Mini 9 to have completely faded, and for hackintoshing to get back to its roots- making Mac Pros for thousands less than Apple is willing to sell them for.

 

[jihe]

a 1.6ghz atom takes forever to do anything. It takes me forever to open documents, load windows, surf the internet, etc... 2ghz would not fix it... it needs multiple cores, maybe some out of order execution, etc... basically, it needs to be a CULV.
Not dropping frames on hulu, or playing wow (I have seen it do both) don't help me, anyone who gets it gets it to WORK... and work means doing basic things (internet and documents) quickly. if it does those noticeably slower then its impeding your ability to work and fails at its primary task.

Also, I wish flash a painful death. HTML5 FTW

No, you don't get a netbook for WORK. Terrible keyboard + tiny screen = no work.

 

[taltamir]

No, you don't get a netbook for WORK. Terrible keyboard + tiny screen = no work.

well, you certainly aren't getting it as a gaming machine... so work is all that remains, it DOES fail in that purpose though.
while the screen and keyboard are terrible (which impedes your ability to get work done), it does not completely inhibit it, and it makes up for that by being very light. But the atrocious speed cannot be made up for.