[BC] {BC] Win7 and Vista

[Broadcast List USER]

Richard:

I realize cash is likely tight for you right now, but when things ease  
up, look for a Dell Mini 9.  New, on the Dell web site they were  
$249!  They are no longer available new, though mine came from an  
additional production run that Dell ran after it was discontinued,  
though only in black and white (snow).  Last I checked, they had  
refurbished machines HIDDEN on the web site for $199, and red is back.

It runs Mac OS X.5 (Leopard) without a single issue.  EVERYTHING  
works.  Of course, there is no guarantee that Apple won't break it in  
some future update.  The answer there is Apple's included Time Machine  
software.  Just back up to before the update until the Hackentosh  
community fixes the problem.  This machine and OS X.5 are unique  
because there are no patches or oddness required.

There are still some issues being worked out on OS X.6 (Snow Leopard),  
and it would be nicer to have that less than half as large OS on the  
Mini 9.

One cannot run OS X on the base machine.  It needs a SSD of at least  
16 GB.  I plan to put a 128 GB 70 MM Runcore SSD in mine (unless a 256  
GB becomes available soon), and modify the case so the drive fits.  It  
is supposed to only take the 60 MM drives, but the largest 60 that  
isn't a "T" drive is 32 GB.  32 GB is big enough, but I may want to  
have some extra stuff like some music, movies and other video on the  
machine.

Anyway, for $400 to $600 you can have a Mac.  I think it is great for  
playing with, learning the OS and the development tools, but I  
wouldn't use it as my only Mac in a real Production environment, as  
one could end up stuck at some point.  For me, if Apple breaks it, I  
will just put Ubuntu on it and be back where I started.  I happen to  
like Ubuntu.

--chip

On Oct 24, 2009, at 8:36 AM, broadcast-request at radiolists.net wrote:

> Message: 11
> From: RichardBJohnson at comcast.net
> [...]
> Yep! I've got most everything but Apple. I have nothing against
> Apple, but Steve promised me a laptop, but then he got sick. If I
> ever get one, it will probably look like this
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Apple_I.jpg .
>
> Cheers,
> Richard B. Johnson
> Book: http://www.AbominableFirebug.com/