Best March Quarter Ever for Apple

I've been part of the OSx86 project from the Deadmoo days. I guess that I was fortunate enought to have pretty standard hardware, so I've been able to installed everything up & including 10.4.9. During that time, I've used my Hackintosh for just about everything - from Master's Thesis's to business presentations and it's never missed a beat. Needless to say, when Apple first came out with the Mac Pro I was bitten - BIG TIME.

So, last week my Mac Pro finally got here. I opted for the 3 Ghz Xeons, 4 Gb RAM and 4x500Gb drives. It is - far and away - the best computer I've ever owned. I never thought I'd see the day, but my Sun Blade 2000 is sitting here virtually unused since the Mac Pro got here. Apple may have a small market share right now - but I suspect that will change dramatically.

I had used old 'classic' macs as I've always been interested in vintage hardware, but I never felt the need nor felt that I could afford a current Mac as I would also require a PC for games (i hate consoles) and for some music software. I thought that if i had enough money I'd have both a Mac and PC, but if i could only have one, it would have to be a PC.

Then OSX improved, a lot... and it became 'snappy'; I remember early versions being slugish.

When the intel thing happened, I thought 'Great!' not because of being able to run windows on a Mac, but because I work with music software a lot I'd seen how for some things, macs were far more expensive than a similarly speedy PC. I'm mainly talking about how they still had to use G4 chips in notebooks, which were really well past their prime at the time.

Apple have made their systems more price compeditive, and people who are scared about dropping money on a system they've never used have the security of it being able to run windows if they require.

Anyway, I tried the OSX86 and it worked brilliantly on my P4 3.2ghz setup. But it wasn't the same... software updates didn't work, 3d functions worked but with a flakey mouse pointer, you couldn't do any of the handy boot off external firewire etc... and i had a noisey (fan wise) huge tower on my desk with a big 21" CRT monitor.

So i bought an iMac 20", loved it... wanted a Macbook Pro 17" so i sold the 20" iMac for almost what i paid for it (try doing that with a PC that is a few months old!) but just before I bought the Macbook Pro 17 the 24" iMac was released, so i bought that instead with a 12" powerbook g4 1.5ghz for basic portable web&email.

I was a PC technician for 4 years and now i don't own a single PC.

I just love that I can reload the OS in 'archive and install' mode and not loose any files. + 100,000 other things. Create your own keyboard shortcuts for menu items in any application. I just get a lot more work done on a Mac and can finally spend time using my computer instead of fixing it.

If I had the money I'd buy a Mac Pro, and if Apple offered a cheap single-socket desktop I might buy it. But OS x86 has served me just fine. I ran it on my Core 2 system with no issues for nearly 6 months until I got a Geforce 8 and was forced to abandon for lack of driver support. While I'm typing this my new Everex laptop is installing 10.4.6 (Vista what?). Were Apple to release a retail version of the OS that will install on any x86 hardware I'd buy it right away. I'm still holding out hope that the retail box of 10.5 will install on non-Apple hardware.

I was interested on Mac OS X way long before I came across the OSx86 dvd and also this awesome website. I used to try to emulate it on my previous crappy machine using the old Pearpc emulator and I even used SherryOS and also run OSX in windows using a Virtual Machine. But a dream came true when the first OSx86 was leaked into torrents and I got my hands on it and was able to finally run OSX at full speed on a PC. Since them I loved it. I was able to get most of my hardware working using the lastest version of Tiger, and thanks to this website I was able to find answers to many of my problems when trying to do so.

OSX inspired me to create several projects on the past that some of you may know about (Virtual Mac OS X Tiger 10.4, Tiger Calculator Clone, Tiger System Preferences (TSP), Tiger System Preferences v2, and my lastest OSx86 in a Tablet PC guide). I was able to get very good friends thanks to these projects and thanks to OSX, and I was also able to share my knowledge and help many people too from different online communities dedicated to the OSX emulation/talk (OSX-E, Aqua-Soft, MacThink and OSX86Project now known as Insanely Mac). For that I am gratefull, and I have become a Mac fan.

These are some of the reasons that inspired me to finally make the change I was somehow reluctant to do before. As some of you know I sold my Gateway Tablet PC, the one I used for my lastest project and thanks to that I was able to buy a MacBook Pro, which I am loving every single bit. And eventhough I am not running OSx86 any longer I still keep coming here because I like to read what progress is been done, I like to read the news my friends post here regarding OSX, and mainly because I feel like home every time I come here.

yea same as GmanBen i started off trying to get OSX on my pc with pearpc and in the course of downloading the images of a ppc version i came across this version called osx86 and i downloaded it and found out that hey i didnt need an emulator, a few months later after having osx installed and running on my laptop and desktop at home my laptop broke down and i got a full refund on my laptop. with that $1,000 i talked my dad in to getting a Macbook, when we arrived at bestbuy i was looking at the macbooks and i had remembered that week Apple had introduced their new Macbook Pros with Core 2 Duo's inside them so i decided to ask, after asking the apple representative told me that they had just got them in that day and they hadnt even put them out yet. so a little convincing and that night i walked home with a spankin' new Macbook Pro Core 2 Duo.

I am proud to say I was part of that quarter. Bought a mac mini 8 days after playing with osx86...then promptly (within 4 hours of getting the macmini home) cracked open the case and upgraded the CPU, RAM and HDD. I am extremely happy with the purchase and am saving up for a mac pro.

And I'm extremely happy with my MacBook Pro ^^

Though the fiddling with finding out where [] {} was located on my keyboard in Parallels was very tiresome at first (I have an azerty keyboard and there are no visual markers for those keys)

Well, as of yet, I have about $700 saved up to get myself a Mac of some kind. I haven't fully decided as of yet. However, I am currently running OSx86 on my Laptop and the OS X experience in the past month has led me to want a Mac. Just the thought at actually running the software full speed is amazing to me, and I can't wait until that baby is mine.

I discovered OSX86 probably a month before the release of Vista, which at that point in time I thought was a great OS. Always knew macs were great for photos, videos and sounds but I was not sure how it will fit into the business world that is mainly driven by Windows Servers and VPN's. I just purchased myself a nice 17" Dell Laptop a few months before that so I had this great new laptop and playing with the idea if Vista is worth the money for when it will be released. Then I found this forum and my life changed forever. Fortunatly my laptop components were also very compatible with OSX86 and I got most of it working 100% except for Core Due (only running 1 CPU) and sleep. But for the rest everything else worked.

I started testing it in my work situation, having dual boot setup on my machine just in case I had to switch back to windows for something. I felt safe. I was amazed how quickly I adjusted. Found a VPN client for the mac for my company VPN, which open the doors for me. Since I am a consultant and connecting to my emails mostly from remote areas, this was crucial that I get access to my emails, and other files. Got MS Office 2004 so I can open and create documents with people around me that works on Windows and Office and I found myself switching less and less to Windows until I was so comfortable with my OSX86 laptop that I finally decide to make a very BOLD move - I trash the Windows Vista Partiton. It's been 3 months now - never looked back and now when I have to do something on windows on someone elses computer, it feels so "restricted" and "cumbersome".

I installed OSX86 on my home desktop but hardware was not as compatible as my laptop, so it worked, but with issues. I really wanted the desktop for my photo editing in Photoshop, Home movies, etc... Debated if I should spent the money on building my own hackintosh or not. Can build it and it will work great with current 10.4.9 but what about 10.5 - Leopord - will I will able to install it once it comes out on my hackintosh, if not then I just spend all this money and now I can't upgrade.

I went out and got a Mac Pro Quad Core - Man I love it. Just the case it a work of art, beautiful design and by far the best computer I ever owned. No more problems installing patches or upgrades and everything works great and the speed is just incredible. Now I could start discovering applications like Final Cut Pro and Aperture and it runs with no problems and fast too. I can really start enjoying my mac.

So when I am at my home office, I work on my Mac Pro, when I am on the road, my Dell Hackintosh. What is next. I'll give my Dell laptop another 6-12 months, have it for about a year now and I am also waiting for Apple to make updates to the Mac Book Pro line and then I will trade my Dell for a MBP as well and I will be a proud owner of 2 macs.

Tried OS X on my desktop, and loved it (but man was it slow). Finally bought a MacBook pro back in April and haven't looked back since (well, I do have a 15GB Windows partition, for gaming). Still, Windows machines feel so clunky now. Finding Firefox for OS X just sweetened the deal.

I'm a Mac user since Quicksilver edition and now powered by a wonderful MBP but... I'm working to x86 Version for Sony's UX Series and... almost is done

Of course I'll pleased to share the guide here too, atm it will be posted over at micropctalk.

Here's a sneak peak (I grabbed them a few weeks ago due to... university ) :pirate2: