Yesterday I showed you making my Hackintosh—What if you had an Apple Netbook? Part 1: If you build it, will it purr?—today I spent some time making it a useable machine. Well mostly useable. Because this wee machine wasn't intended to run this much OS so it's having a few issues keeping up.
[Note: The opinions and methods here are my own. Future Shop is not responsible for the ways I choose to use my own personal equipment.]
Since this machine, I'm using it to write this post right now, is intended as a backup mThe achine, something to compliment my MacBook Pro, I wanted to keep this pretty lean with only a few core apps on it.
Syncing
The first thing that was essential is being able to have files sync up between this machine and my primary one. DropBox is the automatic choice here. I've been using it as a light file sharing and back up tool for months now, and using DropBox for this just logical. Files are just the start here. What about passwords? And bookmarks? Passwords are easy, and DropBox is the key here. I use 1Password to manage all my passwords and it has a handy feature to export all my passwords to a password-protected HTML file. I just save that to DropBox and I have passwords where ever I wish. Course I have to remember to save the file often. Bookmarks are also easy using Xmarks. Ok, syncing is good. Next, apps, or rather the there of.
Apps
Since I only have 16GB as my primary drive, I need to make room. A combination of AppCleaner and XSlimmer let me clean house a bit. For things to install, I tried to keep it simple. I installed Scrivener, Yojimbo, and Blogo and that's pretty much it. I tried AbiWord, but it needs Rosetta to run and I'm not going there.
Downsides
This isn't a perfect machine. Because it's pretty underpowered as a Mac (or even PC), it's a mite sluggish at times. I also haven't finished applying all the patches and such so the sounds doesn't work and it doesn't really wake from sleep well. Then there's the keyboard. The keyboard takes (re)getting used to. A lot of getting used to. If you've seen an Eee PC 901 you know the keyboards are wee things. Cramped typing is an understatement.
What's the verdict, keep or wipe out?
As much as this machine needs a little more TLC and isn't a speedy bugger, I think I'm going to keep it as a Hackintosh. The primary reason is that it keeps all the machines that are in active use in the house on OS X. A lot of the apps I buy have "per user" licenses so I can install them on several machines. Also when I am trying to work on something, well it's nice not to have to worry about file conversion issues. Finally I think it's just cool. Come on, who doesn't want to push things a little bit. Work a little outside "regular users". That's want being a geek is all about isn't it?
"Oh nice netbook."
"Thanks, it's nice and light to tote around as a second light-duty machine."
"Cool. What's it running XP? Unbuntu?"
"Snow Leopard, OS X.
"Oh. Wow. Cool."
Enough said.
Message Edited by Laura on 12-09-2009 02:30 PM
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