OSX on a PC Curiosity

kingmetal · November 2006

please lock this if I'm not allowed to discuss this hypothetically, but I was wondering what hardware differences between a PC running an Intel 945 chipset and a Mac (say a Macbook) would be that could cause Mac OS X to not run on the PC. I've heard murmurs of a TPM module that disables some functionality of the operating system, but other than that not much. this is not to say I am advocating doing this, since it is illegal, but I am curious as to the differences, since it would appear on paper that you can buy a PC that is nearly identical in hardware spec to a Mac. can anyone point me to a resource about this subject? I've located the official Wiki already, but some kind of article explaining the performance/experience would be interesting (note: I am not looking for a how-to guide of any kind).

Brodo Faggins · November 2006

I saw a video on engadget where OS X was running on an IBM thinkpad. They didn't run any programs, but Dashboard, ExposÃ© and the F11 function worked well.

Axim · November 2006

945 is better than the new 965 i'm getting and still it runs like a breeze. once you have hacked the shit out of it of course. really it all depends on your components. you need an ati card for 3d acceleration (thought osx runs amazing even without an accelerated gui), sse2 at least to run up to 10.4.7 and 10.4.8 you need sse3 right now. which if you're doing the 945 should be fine as you're going with a D or C2D anyhow..

tpm has nothing to do with your board it's all bypassed anyways with the current hacks.

in theory right now i am running 10.4.7 on a p4 2.4, have my guitarport hooked up running garageband, while browsing firefox and playing video in vlc in the background and running corel painter ix in rosetta emulation mode and still im at maybe 70% cpu usage only.

browse the insanelymac.com forums and its got everything you need there, depending on your luck you might barely need to replace drives/edit config (kext) files or it might take alot but i'll tell you i've been running it as my primary os for about half a year now and when i have to boot back into vista i can't handle it for more than a few hours..

for dual boot you really want to have seperate drives for both os to, but with macdrive you can use the mac partition in windows and in osx you can read not write windows drives so its pretty alright

good luck

kingmetal · November 2006

axiumxp wrote:

945 is better than the new 965 i'm getting and still it runs like a breeze. once you have hacked the shit out of it of course. really it all depends on your components. you need an ati card for 3d acceleration (thought osx runs amazing even without an accelerated gui), sse2 at least to run up to 10.4.7 and 10.4.8 you need sse3 right now. which if you're doing the 945 should be fine as you're going with a D or C2D anyhow..

tpm has nothing to do with your board it's all bypassed anyways with the current hacks.

in theory right now i am running 10.4.7 on a p4 2.4, have my guitarport hooked up running garageband, while browsing firefox and playing video in vlc in the background and running corel painter ix in rosetta emulation mode and still im at maybe 70% cpu usage only.

browse the insanelymac.com forums and its got everything you need there, depending on your luck you might barely need to replace drives/edit config (kext) files or it might take alot but i'll tell you i've been running it as my primary os for about half a year now and when i have to boot back into vista i can't handle it for more than a few hours..

for dual boot you really want to have seperate drives for both os to, but with macdrive you can use the mac partition in windows and in osx you can read not write windows drives so its pretty alright

good luck

awesome! thanks for the reply! I'll check the forums out. great to hear that this is working.

Joseph Stalin · November 2006

axiumxp wrote:

for dual boot you really want to have seperate drives for both os to, but with macdrive you can use the mac partition in windows and in osx you can read not write windows drives so its pretty alright

Are you sure about this? I would be really suprised if Windows can read/write to your OS X drive. I know when you use BootCamp, Windows is unable to read your Mac partition, but you can read the Windows partition from OS X. Additionally, if you use FAT32, OS X can write to it as well, otherwise NTFS just lets you read it.

stilist · November 2006

As far as I am aware, OS X will run on a regular PC. However, it is quite illegal to do so if you haven't bought the copy of OS X, and Apple have sent numerous cease and desist notices to various sites that help users along with this cross-platform process (see the OSx86 project for more details). This seems to be following along the line of "is it possible to run NES games on a PC?" as far as legality goes.

It's worth mentioning that if you want to run OS X, you'll be much better off just buying a Macintosh to run itâ€”you'll save yourself a lot of trouble with getting things to work, you aren't doing anything illegal, and you get official support. Also, BootCamp will basically eliminate the need to have the PC.

kingmetal · November 2006

stilist wrote:

As far as I am aware, OS X will run on a regular PC. However, it is quite illegal to do so if you haven't bought the copy of OS X, and Apple have sent numerous cease and desist notices to various sites that help users along with this cross-platform process (see the OSx86 project for more details). This seems to be following along the line of "is it possible to run NES games on a PC?" as far as legality goes.

It's worth mentioning that if you want to run OS X, you'll be much better off just buying a Macintosh to run itâ€”you'll save yourself a lot of trouble with getting things to work, you aren't doing anything illegal, and you get official support. Also, BootCamp will basically eliminate the need to have the PC.

I totally agree with you about just buying a Mac to run OS X except for one glaring exception: tablet PCs. if a user were to need a tablet PC, then they would invariably have to buy a PC. if that user wanted to run OS X for certain applications, OS X would have to be run on PC hardware.

now, does anyone know if just buying OS X eliminates the legal 'difficulties' of running this software on a PC or does it go further than that?

Anime Owns · November 2006

I think the legal complications come from that hacks that go into getting OS X on a PC. Browsing the InsanelyMac website is a really good source for information on all of this.

edit - The OP here has a good run down of the "Great Debate".

vonPoonBurGer · November 2006

Joseph Stalin wrote:

axiumxp wrote:

for dual boot you really want to have seperate drives for both os to, but with macdrive you can use the mac partition in windows and in osx you can read not write windows drives so its pretty alright

Are you sure about this? I would be really suprised if Windows can read/write to your OS X drive.

MacDrive is a Windows utility specifically created to allow Windows system to read and write Mac-formatted media. Without it, you're right, Windows can't interpret Mac formats. With MacDrive installed, they're accessible for both read and write.

sark · November 2006

stilist wrote:

However, it is quite illegal to do so if you haven't bought the copy of OS X

Even if you have bought the copy of OS X, it's still illegal.

Permitted License Use and Restrictions

This License allows you to install, use and run one (1) copy of the Apple Software on a single Apple-labeled computer at a time. You agree not to install, use or run the Apple Software on any non-Apple-labeled computer, or to enable others to do so.

http://www.apple.com/legal/sla/

Penny Arcade

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