1
The 7 Ways I Am Using My Hackintosh Laptop
7 Comments | Posted by Victor Goh in Blog, Dell, Mac OS X
My primary purpose for getting a hackintosh laptop was to be able to access the Internet with a laptop when I’m out of the house. The Dell Mini 10v, being a small and light laptop was perfect for that purpose. Apart from Internet access, I thought about what other ways I intend to use my laptop, and came up with this list.
I am using my Dell Mini 10v hackintosh to:
- Surf the Web – I have Safari, Firefox, Camino and Google Chrome on my hackintosh laptop.
- Read Emails – I am using Gmail as my primary mail account, Google Apps hosted email for work related email and Yahoo Mail as my backup. I don’t use the Mail application.
- Chat – I connect to my Yahoo and MSN account using Adium.
- Read eBooks – My collection of pdf, chm and lit files is handled by Adobe Acrobat Reader, iChm and Lexcycle Stanza.
- Read digital Manga and Comics – FFView is the best comic book reader for the Mac OS X.
- Listen to Music – iTunes.
- Watch Videos – VLC player supports all the major video and audio formats.
My Dell Mini 10v hackintosh does what I need it to do perfectly. Having the proper expectations is key to being satisfied with your laptop.
After thinking about what I intend to use my hackintosh laptop for, I also thought about what I’m not going to use it for. Basically, it’s not going to be used for any tasks that is CPU intensive or require tons of memory. My hackintosh laptop only has 1GB of RAM and I don’t intend to upgrade to 2GB anytime soon.
I am not using my hackintosh for:
- Software or Web development – The small screen and Intel Atom CPU is not really suitable for extended periods of programming.
- Video or DVD Editing – Once again, the small screen and Intel Atom CPU is not suitable for this purpose.
- Photo Editing – Once again, the small screen … you get the idea. Maybe I’ll use it occasionally for simple photo touchup using iPhoto.
- Gaming – I’ll stick to my Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS and Sony PSP for video games.
What are you using your hackintosh laptop for?
Related posts:
- My First Impression of Mac OS X Snow Leopard on my Hackintosh Laptop
- Why Did I Choose the Dell Mini 10v as My Hackintosh Laptop?
7 Comments for The 7 Ways I Am Using My Hackintosh Laptop
Derek | October 1, 2009 at 8:42 pm
Author comment by Victor Goh | October 2, 2009 at 2:07 am
Hi Derek, great to hear that the 2GB upgrade went well and your Hackbook Mini performance has improved. Let me play around with my Mac Mini for a little longer and see if I need the upgrade.
Derek | October 2, 2009 at 12:21 pm
Victor, for what you’re describing right now you probably do not need the 2GB upgrade. Basic performance is only a little snappier with the extra memory, but it definitly opens the door and will allow you to run more memory intensive programs and multitask alot easier.
If you have any questions about the upgrade or need help with any issues let me know, i’d be glad to help!
cyberguerilla | October 8, 2009 at 1:58 am
I am a bit ambivalent about what you said about NOT using it for software development.
Unfortunately, certain devices (e.g. anything Apple-related) require the use of Macs as a development platform. For example it would be very costly to buy a Mac just to get the machine to learn how to develop applications for iPhone!
Maybe if I learn how to increase resolution if I get it set up with an external monitor, the development experience is better.
Author comment by Victor Goh | October 8, 2009 at 4:04 am
Hi cyberguerilla, I wouldn’t use the Mini 10v for software development because it would probably be too slow for productive work. IDE are usually very resource hungry. I have friends who want to learn iPhone development but don’t have a Mac. Let us know how was your experience with iPhone development on the Mini 10v. I’m sure there are plenty of folks who want to know too.
nooidea | October 8, 2009 at 12:26 pm
this’s a fantastic hackintosh blog 
quite usefull
i tried hackinosh on my ibm r50e 2and half years ago~ and then i owned my real mac 2years ago~
haha i’ll have a go on dell mini end of this year if i can get one mini~~
great!
Author comment by Victor Goh | October 8, 2009 at 3:17 pm
Hi nooidea, thanks. I tried to hackintosh my dell 700m 3 years ago and failed. The wifi wouldn’t work and couldn’t get the display to use 1280×800 resolution. It was stuck at 1024×768 and I gave up installing after that.
Great posts! I’m extremely happy with my Hackbook Mini 10v. I find it extremely useful for field work as well. I work in IT and lugging around a giant laptop to do simple network tasks can be a hassel. I have VirtualBox running Windows XP for everyday field use and it works great! Even with 1GB of RAM, i dedicated 128MB to the XP box and everything was still smooth sailing.
Just today I installed a 2GB stick and it drastically improves performance when you have multiple windows up. It allows the OS to be much more flexible. The stick with $30 off newegg with free shipping, any DDR2 SO-DIMM laptop memory stick will do. Don’t be intimidated by the isntallation! It’s fairly simple if you follow the guides posted online, if you can use a screwdriver then you can perform the upgrade, it’s cheap and well worth it to unlock the 10v’s full potential.