BlueStar Posted April 29, 2010 Share Posted April 29, 2010 Considering picking one of these little fellas up, good deal on a cheap netbook, refurbed from Argos outlet on eBay http://www.hotukdeals.com/item/665005/msi-wind-u100-10in-mini-laptop-refu Don't really need it, but it'd be cool on hotel wireless when I'm on holiday etc even if I just stuck to the bundled Win XP. But my curioisity has ben piqued by the fact that this machine is considered a perfect base to wack another gig of RAM in, hack it to run MacOSX and basically end up with a little macbook - except for £150 rather than whatever the hell a macbook costs these days. Has anyone got any experience of running a Mac operating system on a PC? Worth the effort do you think? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrissy Bee Posted April 29, 2010 Share Posted April 29, 2010 Hey I have one of those. I'd be interested if anyone knows anything. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Posted April 29, 2010 Share Posted April 29, 2010 Not too relevant to the topic but I picked up a Samsung N130 from that Argos eBay shop and it's been fine so far. Knackered box but other than that it's perfect. Came with a slip of paper explaining it was some IT company down south that refurbished it and the 12 months warranty is from them. Well worth the £60 saving I made on it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueStar Posted April 29, 2010 Share Posted April 29, 2010 Good to know ta. Looks pretty simple and everything is supposed to work (wi-fi, sound etc, some things which other netbooks have problems with in OSX). Seems that if I want to install it off a USB flash drive rather than using an external DVD drive I'd need access to a Mac (or a PC running mac software). I'll look into it, if putting on Snow Leopard seems too complicated I might just wipe XP and put something like a netbook-specific ubuntu build on it. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToonTastic Posted April 30, 2010 Share Posted April 30, 2010 I might just wipe XP and put something like a netbook-specific ubuntu build on it. Good lad Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueStar Posted April 30, 2010 Share Posted April 30, 2010 Well, ordered it, so I'll get to have a play. Apparently the refurbishers are fuckwits and keep sending people the wrong colour, so finger's crossed it's not pink If anyone's thinking of turning their netbook into a mac book, here's a compatibility list, with links to guides for that machine http://www.mymacnetbook.com/compatibility-chart/ Haven't really used a Mac since uni, but there's just something very pleasing about making a ultra-portable macbook for under £200. http://apcmag.com/images/MSIWind_MacOSX-625.jpg Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wacko Posted April 30, 2010 Share Posted April 30, 2010 My mate has an MSI netbook Hackintosh, and very nice it is, too. OS X runs like molasses on a netbook compared to Ubuntu, though. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SEMTEX Posted April 30, 2010 Share Posted April 30, 2010 I'm really tempted to join your little project bluestar, but I've got no use for it whatsoever. Plus as mentioned above, I'd be worried that it would run terribly slow. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueStar Posted April 30, 2010 Share Posted April 30, 2010 My mate has an MSI netbook Hackintosh, and very nice it is, too. OS X runs like molasses on a netbook compared to Ubuntu, though. Really? I was erring towards OSX because I'd read the opposite - that, surprisingly, OSX runs better. Has he wacked an extra 1gb ram in it? With 2gb of ram and the 1.6 processor overcloocked to 1.9 there doesn't seem to eb much spec difference between the wind and a real macbook. EDIT: ACtually, think Iw as just going off this rather outdated article from back when Ubuntu wasn't fully functional on the Wind http://www.liliputing.com/2008/06/msi-wind-runs-os-x-better-than-ubuntu.html Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wacko Posted May 2, 2010 Share Posted May 2, 2010 My mate has an MSI netbook Hackintosh, and very nice it is, too. OS X runs like molasses on a netbook compared to Ubuntu, though. Really? I was erring towards OSX because I'd read the opposite - that, surprisingly, OSX runs better. Has he wacked an extra 1gb ram in it? With 2gb of ram and the 1.6 processor overcloocked to 1.9 there doesn't seem to eb much spec difference between the wind and a real macbook. EDIT: ACtually, think Iw as just going off this rather outdated article from back when Ubuntu wasn't fully functional on the Wind http://www.liliputing.com/2008/06/msi-wind-runs-os-x-better-than-ubuntu.html More RAM helps, but OS X is a pretty heavyweight system (loads of animations), and no amount of RAM or overclocking will get a netbook up to Macbook performance levels: the Atom processors in netbooks are about half as powerful as the Core processors in normal notebooks at the same clockspeed, and Macbooks have much more powerful graphics, to boot. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tooj Posted May 3, 2010 Share Posted May 3, 2010 Someone on Toontastic done this a couple of months ago. Something I've been thinking of doing myself. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu Posted May 3, 2010 Share Posted May 3, 2010 Might try this... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SEMTEX Posted May 4, 2010 Share Posted May 4, 2010 My girlfriends macbook is broken! Huzzah! An excuse! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueStar Posted May 4, 2010 Share Posted May 4, 2010 I think my main problem is going to be that I need access to a Mac to prep a flash drive for the instalation. That or buy an external DVD drive just for this, just as they're ready to be consigned to Beamish. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wacko Posted May 4, 2010 Share Posted May 4, 2010 I think my main problem is going to be that I need access to a Mac to prep a flash drive for the instalation. That or buy an external DVD drive just for this, just as they're ready to be consigned to Beamish. You don't know anyone at all with a Mac? How big is the image? If it isn't too big (and complicated), I could maybe make you an ISO image and upload it somewhere for you. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueStar Posted May 4, 2010 Share Posted May 4, 2010 None of my mates are trendy enough to have a mac Here's the tutorial, think you need to be able to format it mac-style as well so I dunno if just downloading the files and using my PC to transfer them over you would http://www.insanelywind.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=41&t=2835 Edit: Might be able to do with with a windows program called transmac. Think I'll look into that when I've got bored of playing around with Ubuntu etc. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueStar Posted May 4, 2010 Share Posted May 4, 2010 OK, it's arrived. First impressions on the refurb, great, looked brand new, packaging good, even smelled new. Turn it on, greeted with this. http://img704.imageshack.us/img704/6380/img1077xf.jpg OK, joke over, how do I change it to English? I can select Togo and even the Vatican as my country but not England or America. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tooj Posted May 4, 2010 Share Posted May 4, 2010 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobody Posted May 4, 2010 Share Posted May 4, 2010 At least Zweden is there Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueStar Posted May 4, 2010 Share Posted May 4, 2010 Sherioushly, itsh difficult to postch on! Fuck it, on it now using the Linux Mint I've got set up to run off USB. Think I could reinstall XP in the right language if I really wanted to off USB, gonna just keep it seeing as how going off what the fuckwits have sent out to the other people on hotukdeals I'm lucky it's in mint condition and the right colour, rather than pink or covered in fag ash. Probably because the reason it's a return is cos someone turned it on, saw it was all in forrin and boxed it straight back up Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Posted May 5, 2010 Share Posted May 5, 2010 Been using my Aspire one (first lot of acer netbooks) for ages and best OS is xp, I recently tried the new Ubuntu release but it wasnt anything special, xp is fast enough for me I'd be tempted to try OS X but i have a feeling it would eat my battery Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToonTastic Posted May 5, 2010 Share Posted May 5, 2010 Been using my Aspire one (first lot of acer netbooks) for ages and best OS is xp, I recently tried the new Ubuntu release but it wasnt anything special, xp is fast enough for me I'd be tempted to try OS X but i have a feeling it would eat my battery Windows 7 not better ? We've got some netbooks at work and they fly with Windows 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam Posted May 5, 2010 Share Posted May 5, 2010 I haven't tried it, don't see the point really as I only need it for firefox and word so having some fancy new tool bars doesn't really make any difference. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueStar Posted May 5, 2010 Share Posted May 5, 2010 Ubuntu Netbook Remix is running nicely on it. Few quirks, webcam doesn't seem to work in it, although I can't imagine ever needing it. That and the fact the OS is pretty alien to me, keep wanting to press ctrl+alt+del when something crashes etc. Really simplified stuff in terms of general operation though, which suits the netbook format well. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
wacko Posted May 5, 2010 Share Posted May 5, 2010 As far as I know, Windows always comes pre-installed with one or more languages, and that's your lot. But you appear to have an international version, just with a Dutch interface, so: "Verenigde Staten" or whatever is in your screenshot there is Dutch for "United States". UK will look similar ("verenigd" means "united") or will start with "Groet" (or something similar), which I think means "great". Also: the top box is for language, the bottom box for keyboard layout. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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