Comments on: Mac OS X on MSI Wind: sleep and restore is like instant on

By: Russell

Russell — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 00:46:28 +0000

Actually, I’ve been playing with Windows 7 on the MSI, and while it’s slower, it does go into a real power off. It’s so fast that visually it looks identical to OS X, but I see the hard drive light going for an extra second. Turning on takes about 1.5 seconds. It’s slower, admittedly, but a slowness that really makes no difference

By: Kevin C. Tofel

Kevin C. Tofel — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 11:47:17 +0000

Derek, I used a build customized for the MSI Wind. If you Google around I'm sure you'll find it. I don't share the specifics due to Apple's licensing agreement which is effectively (and sadly) broken if you go this route.

There are nuances and minor issues to contend with for anyone that installs OS X on any non-Apple hardware. In the case of the Wind, WiFi will not work with the supplied card nor does the headphone jack, for example. In terms of fixes, you end up relying on the community (not Apple) to address and fix issues through driver patches. For that reason, I don't recommend that someone take this path if they want a 100% working and supported Apple device.

For me, it was a fun experiment and gave me experience using OS X on a smaller device.

By: Derek

Derek — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 10:29:27 +0000

Hey Kevin,

I was wondeing what process you used to install OS X on your wind. Was is difficult?How's it working out for you? Is the system trust worthy or buggy, and if you heard any news on when the other issues will be fixed (headphone, native wifi, etc.)

I'm thinking about purchasing a wind but I'm a little hesitant about installing OS X on it.

thanks.

By: nk

nk — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 10:58:32 +0000

Have you tried using the iLife suite on Wind? I built a hackint0sh desktop machine but had to abandon it when iMovie refused to run. I know Wind isn't powerful enough to be a full-on video editor, but for simple iMovie edits in the field it could be awesome - so much smaller and lighter than my MacBook.

By: James Arendt

James Arendt — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 09:40:33 +0000

Kevin, I have long hated how long it takes to go into and out of sleep on Windows. But, I love Vista on my MSI Wind. It goes to sleep and wakes up just as fast as your Mac OS X demo. It may likely be a fraction to a second slower, but I'm not going to care about that. It beats the sleep/wake up times I've seen on every other laptop or tablet I've used with Windows. More importantly I don't seem to have to sit there and wonder, "When is my WiFi or bluetooth coming back up?" like I do for a few of my other devices. :)

I'm glad I got a Wind. Much thanks to your and Chippy's postings!

By: Ocred

Ocred — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 03:53:37 +0000

OS X does not go into as low of a power-state as Windows (yes there are various "states" of sleep). MS could do the samething but they prefer to make you wait a couple more seconds & go into true sleep.

By: tino

tino — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 02:47:17 +0000

I find the trackpad is not as good under OSX compare to XP on my Wind. And OSX rely on more mouse movement than XP. Anyone has suggestion on a small bluetooth mouse?

@partners: you need MSIWindOSX86.iso, google it.

By: Walter Wise

Walter Wise — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 22:10:15 +0000

Can one just buy a Wind and then go buy OS X, install and computer? Is it really that easy? Does one miss by not using a MacBook - other than the high price tag?

By: Partners in Grime

Partners in Grime — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 21:05:31 +0000

Impressive!

By: Andrew / acetuk

Andrew / acetuk — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 12:46:20 +0000

I only have experience of my Macbook on OSX and I love it. I havelots of experience with XP and it was ok - not much 'fun' to use but fine for work. I have quite a bit of experience with Vista but on P1610 with 1gb of ram it was a constant fight, tweak, challenge, crash etc.

OSX on both my Wind and Macbook doesn't crash, runs very quick and is good fun to use. The Wind has helped me fully switch from Windows - having only one Mac didn't give me enough back up.