Learning about OSX

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Kaash

Limp Gawd
Joined
Aug 17, 2006
Messages
237
So atm I have nothing but lots of time on my hands. I was diagnosed with Leukemia last June and was told I can not work till Nov / Dec of this year. *Currently after transplant I have 0 Leukemia cells* So I wanted to do some education and found iTunes U which works semi okay on windows but heard to get the full experience you need to be on OSX. However as stated above I can not work so money is very tight. I decided to attempt to turn my old c2d laptop with 4GB ram and a 9800m GTS gpu into what is called an "Hackentosh". Would really like an official iMac or MBP but they are really expensive in my current situation. So hopefully my laptop will work. So onto the topic. Anyone recommend any sites or books to learn more about the OSX experience? all i know is Windows. Thanks in advance


v/r
Kaash
 
Macs for Dummies.

Hackintosh is extremely sensitive to the computer you have. It has to be close to what an actual Mac has for hardware. Every slight bit off greatly decreases the chance things will work. If your laptop has Intel wireless, you won't have wireless. End of story. That sort of thing.

There are no 'books' on Hackintosh since it's an unofficial, unsupported, very iffy thing. Since you effectively have to pirate OS X to do it, I don't know if you'll get much support here.
 
I didn't think those types of discussions were allowed here.
 
wasn't trying to discuss the hackentosh but learning OSX in general. Or how to enable a hackentosh. etc. But anyways, it did not work on my system as easy as I thought it would. So no apple osx for me =/.
 
A good MBA can easily be had for $600-$700 used. And that is with the criteria of 4GB of RAM, 256GB HD, and manufactured in 2012 so as to have USB 3.0. MBP's are around the same or less.

If your goal is truly learning, a Mac Mini can be had for even less. If you don't want a 2012 or after model, then it again gets much less expensive (for a laptop or otherwise).
 
virtualbox?

Do you know Unix or Linux commands yet? A good part of being a "power user" in OSX is being able to drop down to the command line aka Terminal and type out some commands. Having access to all the "Unix" stuff in the background is what makes OSX very powerful from a utility point of view.

I just put Mavericks on my Mac Pro 1,1 and it was super painless. The bugs have been worked out and process is almost 1 click. You can get those for pretty cheap now since most do not want them. I then added a $30 AMD HD5450 to get the video quality working (since the original video card has problems with Mavericks....but it is functional).
 
Yea problem is, when purchase something i ALWAYS want the best that I can have =/ great when i have the money saved not so great in my current situation.

@Westrock2000 I used to work on some linux machines at my old work force. However as the supervisor I did not get much hands on as I would have liked. We also had FSR's who did majority of the command lines in the system. We were only authorized to touch the system during certain situation. Backing up files, compressing them etc. Had our hands really tied and could not go beyond what most of us wanted too.
 
I picked up a used powerbook G4 on craigslist for $10 a few days ago. Its certainly far from the newest and it can't run the latest version of OSX, but it'll at least allow you to experience what a mac is like and tinker with it - for next to nothing.
 
Hey OP I have a an old 2009 Intel Penryn Macbook you can have if you pay for shipping ( you need to place the video card though) Best of luck to you I hope you get better.
 
Liekomg said:
I picked up a used powerbook G4 on craigslist for $10 a few days ago. Its certainly far from the newest and it can't run the latest version of OSX, but it'll at least allow you to experience what a mac is like and tinker with it - for next to nothing.
Click to expand...

This isn't a bad idea. Several years ago I picked up a G4 Power Mac dual 1GHz processor from my university for very little. Even then it could not run the latest version of OS X, but it was more than sufficient for learning and quite quick for its age.

I didn't pay much then, so I assume you could get them for next to nothing now.
 
Lowball everyone on ebay until someone takes your $350 offer on ebay. I do that all the time.
 
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