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In a bold move, Dan Frakes over at MacWorld has decided to see what all the fuss is about, and bought himself a Netbook (A Dell Vostro A90 to be exact, one of the most hackinsoshable of the current Netbook crop) in order to see what running Mac OS X on a device that small would be like. For Frakes, it was clearly and somewhat predictably a mixed bag.

Regarding software he had this to say…

I’m able to use most of my favorite Mac programs on the HackBook, although some apps, such as GarageBand, won’t launch because the laptop’s screen is too small (not that you’d ever want to run GarageBand on the A90). I didn’t test Microsoft Office; in fact, I didn’t even install it, knowing how much memory Office apps use. Apple’s iWork, on the other hand, works just fine. In other words, when I use the HackBook as a netbook—for Web browsing, e-mail, word processing, and other basic tasks—it works well. I’ve been especially impressed by the performance of Safari 4.

He was less pleased with the hardware side of things however, and came to the following conclusion, along with some insights into Apple’s strategy…

On the other hand, a tiny laptop like this isn’t for everyone. In fact, for many people, a netbook—even one running Mac OS X—is an exercise in frustration. It’s just not what most people expect from a "laptop." (This is why I don’t see Apple ever making a netbook in the current sense of the word. Indeed, Apple continues to denigrate the idea of a small, low-cost Mac laptop, specifically citing small screens, cramped keyboards, and poor performance. We’re more likely to see a device closer to an oversized iPod touch.)

I have run Mac OS X on my Gigabyte M912M with some success (though now I restrict it to Vista and XP Dual boot) and I am actively considering buying a second Netbook, maybe an HP 2140, just for hackintoshing. However, it would be as much a mistake for someone to expect a hackinstoshed Netbook to give them the full Apple experience as it would be for them to expect a Netbook running XP to give them the full Windows experience.

Netbooks do what they do extremely well, as Frakes said, light office work, email, net browsing, chatting. If you prefer that sort of machine to run OS X, then have at it, but don’t expect it to become a miniature MacBook…it won’t. You shouldn’t expect at Netbook to replace your main PC full time, no matter what OS you are running on it. Choose the right tool for the task.

Read all of Frakes’ interesting views on the subject HERE

Zealot (445 Posts) - Website | Twitter | Facebook

By day a department manager and writer for a major network device vendor...by night Zealot stalks the mean magnetic streets, striking fear into the hearts of bandwidth abusers and theme park mascots. Zealot has been involved with mobile devices for more than a decade now, starting off with dumb phones, moving to PDAs and then to smartphones, notebooks and netbooks with the odd PMP thrown in. Most of his mobile time currently is spent on a Treo Pro, Zune HD, Thinkpad T61, Gigabyte M912M or a Hackintoshed Compaq Mini 704. He proudly groks the Geek community and considers himself a Neo Maxi Zune Dweebie (thanks Will Wheaton!).