Over the summer I had a little argument with a coworker about the “Mac tax.” I was telling him that a Mac uses pretty much the same hardware you will find in a “PC” (that word, PC, used in that context annoys me because PC is Personal Computer, so technically as Mac is a PC, but marketing prevails I guess) but Mac’s are a lot more expensive. So in an attempt to prove my point, I tried to install Mac OSX on to my HP laptop. After about 15 tries, all I could get it to do was finish the installation. Never got it to boot. I gave up, moved to California, bought a MacBook Pro because I wanted a Mac and the USC Bookstore was having a sale.

Very happy with my MacBook Pro I did not pursue ihackintosh any more. Then after the netbook craze, I found a lovely Mac OSX netbook compatability chart and noticed everything works on the Dell Mini 9/Vostro A90 (they are the SAME computer). A Mac netbook, that would be cool!

I waited, trying to save up some splurging money. Meanwhile I helped two of my friends pick out netbooks for themselves (both were HP Mini 10, one with solid state and one without), which made me want to buy one. On top of that I found some Dell discounts from a friend, and I went to the Dell Outlet and bought a Vostro A90 with 16GB SSD and Ubuntu for $280 delivered.

Since I am going to be hacking and all that, I figured I would buy a nice retail copy of Mac OSX 10.5.6 (which I also got at the USC Bookstore, seeing as they sell it for $99).

With my new-to-me netbook and fresh retail copy of Mac OSX, I went home and stayed in on a Friday night, to bump up my geek cred!

This is not meant to be a full tutorial, there are many many online, but more of a checklist of items needed and the guide I followed, and some road blocks. And a little review of my Mac Vostro A90 at the end.

I only had one issue worth noting. After I booted off of the DellMiniBoot 8.02b1 and swapped the disc for the retail Mac OSX install disc it took a few tries for the OSX installer to load. The Vostro didn’t recognize the install disc right away after I swapped the discs. I had to wait about a 15 count before I hit ENTER on the boot screen after I put in the retail Mac OSX install disc. So if you get stuck and the intaller will not load, just keep trying! It took me about 10 minutes of fiddling before I go it to load the installer. Other than that, follow the guide to the letter, they do a very good job of outlining what you need to do.

UPDATE: To get to the BIOS hit 2 at boot up, and hit 0 to get to the boot menu.

UDPATE: ***For sleep to work you must deselect usb wake from sleep and usb legacy mode in bios***

Checklist:

• Dell Mini 9 OR Vostro A90 – $280
• Mac OSX 10.5.6 Install Disc – $99
• DellMiniBoot 8.02b1
• Print out of DellEFI Install Guide
• DellEFI 1.2a5.zip (put it on a USB memory stick)
• Mac OSX 10.5.7 Update DMG (put it on a usb memory stick)
• Xslimmer – $12.95 and so worth it, esp on a small hard drive, makes the applications smaller in size
• Touchpad Driver for 2 finger scroll!
• 10.5.8 update sleep fix I did not need it, but some poeple did, or just don’t do the update to 10.5.8
• About 2-3 hours of free time.

I have been using my Dell Vostro for about 2 weeks now. I took it on a trip to Chicago, and it played about 4 hours of TV shows from a USB stick on the plane ride. Which is pretty good considering its a refurb and I know that batter is not at 100%. The computer is very small though. The screen is nice, but the resolution is only 1024 x 600. Most web pages look fine, and you kinda get used to it. It does have a VGA port if so you can hook up an external monitor. I got it to play relatively smooth streaming video from Hulu at 1280 x 1024 full screen. The biggest issue I have with the computer is the keyboard layout. The quote ( ‘ ) is not in the normal place by your right pinky, but down below the period next to the spacebar. So I hit enter instead of ‘, which is really annoying when you are IMing.

Most of the time I use it at work, I have Synergy installed on my work Windows XP machine, and SynergyKM installed on the Mac Vostro. Mich is great for testing websites. Just copy the URL and move my mouse down to the Mac Vostro and paste it in and see how it looks! Aside from that, everything works, runs quite smooth, and quiet. Overall, I am really happy with it.

I have a Windows XP Media Center 2005 computer, a MacBook Pro and a few other Windows and Mac computers stroll through my network from time to time. I have my Media Center PC streaming media to the XBOX 360, file server, printer etc. I had the Media Center machine before the MacBook Pro. So when I got my MacBook Pro, and hooked it into my network I was suprised that all my file shares were automatically picked up and I could read my movies and print, all as a Guest. Which is exactly how I wanted it. Login to change, but anyone can view a movie, listen to music, and print.

Then the Media Center PC mother board failed! So I got a new AMD Athlon 64 LE (45w cool-and-quiet, and yeah, it runs very cool and very quiet) and reinstalled. I setup my shares again, but this time I turned OFF simple file sharing.

I go to my MBP and connect to the MC PC. I try as guest. But I got this message:

“The file server does not allow Guest access.”

Huh? So I enable the guest account, which I do not remember having to enable before. Reboot. Try to connect again. Same error message: “The file server does not allow Guest access.” WTF?! And the other Windows machine (Windows Vista) could not print without loging in. Gah!

So I googled around, played with my Mac samba settings. Deleted my networking settings on my Mac. Tripple checked my shared settings on my PC. So I went back to the basics. Reading one Microsoft KB how to setup Windows XP file sharing. There it was, simple file sharing. A light bulb came on. So I re-enabled simple file sharing (My Computer->Tools->Folder Options…->View->Advanced settings:->User simple file sharing (Recommended)).

And it all worked!  Reading my media shares, printing as guest! Even from the Vista machine! I know there is some security risks leaving it so open, but I keep my private data separate.

Hopefully this little rant, which I will turn into a blog post, will help me figure out how much a MacBook Pro is worth to me. First things first: A computer, in its simplest form, is a tool. A very modular tool.  This isn’t a Mac vs PC (really, Mac vs Windows since PC is a Personal Computer) but rather an inner discussion on if I want to spend the extra cash just to get a Mac. Lets be real, a Windows machine with nearly identical hardware (Intel Core 2 Due, 2 GB RAM, NVIDIA Graphics, 200GB HD, etc) is less expensive than the Mac. So does the Mac merit the extra cash, to me? O and Linux is not in the discussion because Adobe Suite doesn’t run on it.

My laptops:

• MacBook Pro 15, 2.3 Intel Core 2, 2 GB Ram, NVIDIA 256, 250 GB HD, with the LED screen (Work Laptop, could buy it from them for $1400, ebay for less, but had to give it back)
• HP Pavillion dv6587se, 1.8 Intel Core 2, 3 GB Ram, NVIDIA 256, 300 GB HD. (Personal, got it slightly used for $500)

First, a program breakdown.  What programs I use that are Mac or Windows exclusive, what are both, and what I prefer on one or the other. And I avoid using Microsoft Office, so that is just off the list, else I would put it on the “runs better on Windows” side.

How valuable are the programs that are only available on one OS too me?  Does it improve productivity? Easier to use? More stable? Give me less aggravation? Will it help me earn more money?In most cases, it’s more a matter of usability. For instance, Trillian and Adium are nearly the same, but I prefer Adium’s look and feel to Trillian’s. The harder case is Notepad++ or TextMate. Both are excellent apps. Excellent plugins, easy to use, stable.  But TextMate has better keyboard shortcuts for auto complete and directory reading.  But Notepad++ also has nice auto complete, can read directories (via exploer plugin), and a built in FTP (but not sync). If I had to pick, I would pick TextMate, but am perfectly happy with either one. Really, the best text editor would be the light weight of Notepad++, the text manipulation power of TextMate, and the parsing and sync ability of Eclipse.

I don’t use Unity or XNA enough right now to merit one over the other. I hope to get more into game development, for serious games or not serious games, soon, but until then those will be a straight wash. Same with XSI (there’s Modo for both), and I don’t do much modeling. And also with Visual Studio. I don’t use VS enough right now, but have in the past and will in the future, so that’s like half a point. Man, I should put point score.

So the software pretty much comes down to what I am working on. Now, mostly web, PHP, so its a wash.  If I needed to do .NET, Windows would win. If I needed to do Unity3D, Mac would win. Next is hardware interface. The construction, feel, and ease of the basic hardware for an average Windows laptop and a MacBook.

I would have to pick the MacBook on design. Smooth curves, simplest shape, sturdy feel.  When you close a MacBook it just feels closed. The HP I have, has bumps and uneven surfaces. Mostly aesthetics. Usability: There’s the 2 finger scroll on the Mac. So much better than the side of the damn track pack that sort of works, and always seems to be too sensitive or not sensitive enough. Two fingers, up down, or left right.  Beautiful.  But the real kicker. What I think makes Mac so great to use:

The Apple (Command) key.  And this, to be honest, is what I enjoy the most about working on a Mac. One modifier key. Apple + … On Windows is Alt + Tab, or Ctrl + C, or Windows Key + R, etc. And the placement of the Apple. Right on your thumb. Perfect. I barely have to move my hands on the keyboard or use the mouse.  This does improve my productivity.  Makes me move faster, quicker. Seems kinda stupid, but when your typing away at code, and you need to quickly move around the computer nothing is worse than missing the control key or hitting alt and accessing the file menu.

And the kicker, you can run Windows on a Mac (Virtual or Boot), without having to pull and iHackintosh. If money was not an issue, I would love to get a MacBook Pro. So, if I had the money, it would most likely be worth it. Till then, I will have to keep trying to get Mac to work on a PC.