Hey guys,
Not sure how many of you are aware of this, but according to a variety of sources, (e.g. gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/12/1 … patib.html ) the MSI Wind 10 inch netbooks can have Mac OS X installed on them and work fully (if you install an updated Wifi driver).
Anyone here tried this? I assume Taiwan should be the cheapest place to get the Wind (i.e. Cheaper than HK) right? Any recommendations for the cheapest MSI Wind shops in Taipei?
Alex
Search here for ways to install pcwizcomputer.com/osx86search/
Its generally not the case that electronics made here are cheaper here.
not sure about where to get the cheapest msi wind in taiwan since i am not there anymore. i bought mine in china for 2700 yuan. be aware that there are some cheap clones. by that i mean the exact same machine under a different brand name. mine is a "haier’ for instance. i heard of some “advent” clones as well.
osx runs great great on this thing. i was able to clone my entire macbook onto it. in other words i am running my macbook osx system on a msi wind. besides microphone not working, everything is great. for office work, i dont see any difference but of course playing hd movies or encoding video isnt really an option… coreavc works wonder under windows xp so you might want to keep dual booting.
i recommend you do the boot123 install as i did. only requires a leopard dvd and a linux boot cd. big advantage is that you can update to any newer version of leopard directly without waiting for any patch…
check this:
google.com/url?sa=t&source=w … 3LhqqrkpaA
Thanks for the tips, very useful.
I imagine HK is probably the cheapest place to get one. I’m currently on a black Macbook so what I’ve got now is a little bit faster, but I think I could give up some of that speed for the size…
Cheers,
Alex
ALT83,
Nice post, I’m interested on how you get on with this. I’ve been reading more about this lately and it definitely makes sense. My 15" MBP can no longer be considered a laptop because #1 it’s just too heavy to be considered portable these days and #2 the battery life is completely shot. I think I might be able to bet 30 minutes out of it these days.
In addition to the MSI Wind, people have been successful in using the Dell Mini9 for running Leopard.
And it seems there’s less work to do with patches and almost all of the functions are working. Either way, it sounds like this is a good way to go until Apple comes out with their own netbook. Even then I imagine the price will be through the roof in comparison.
Yeah there are definitely a few netbooks getting support for this, the only reason I didn’t mention the Dell is I assumed that the Wind would be the cheapest here… It was mentioned that there are some other vendors rebranding it, it would be good to know the full range of names it goes under (especially for those available in TW).
I’m still thinking about it overall… a bit on the fence as it’s not one of those mission critical things yet… I might wait for a Wind with slightly more power, but who knows… I guess I gotta get out to the shops and actually have a close look at one 
[quote=“ALT83”]Yeah there are definitely a few netbooks getting support for this, the only reason I didn’t mention the Dell is I assumed that the Wind would be the cheapest here… It was mentioned that there are some other vendors rebranding it, it would be good to know the full range of names it goes under (especially for those available in TW).
I’m still thinking about it overall… a bit on the fence as it’s not one of those mission critical things yet… I might wait for a Wind with slightly more power, but who knows… I guess I gotta get out to the shops and actually have a close look at one [/quote]
Ha, I just realized that the chart you posted links to the same article that I posted about the Dell machine. Good info in the comments over there as the trackpad functionality would important for me to use.
Also, if you go for the MSI Wind, you can get extra battery packs for extended use on long flights. forums.msiwind.net/hacks-and-mod … 5-220.html
I saw an MSI wind today at the computer market. NT$15,000. 160GB HD, 2GB RAM, 10" screen. These things still seem pricey to me.
Yeah a little bit cheaper would be nice, on top of that need to buy a Mac OS X / iLife bundle. I am pretty tired of lugging around my Macbook though… so maybe that’s where my next paycheck will go…
I had a look around Zhongxiao Xinsheng today and found a place that sells Winds for 14,700 TWD (although I think that’s just the 1GB model, so a bit of cash to upgrade to 2GB) and then an additional 2,000 TWD for a USB DVD drive…
Still really thinking about it… but the U100 is due for an upgrade, so probably better to wait for the next rendition…
Alex
[quote=“ALT83”]I had a look around Zhongxiao Xinsheng today and found a place that sells Winds for 14,700 TWD (although I think that’s just the 1GB model, so a bit of cash to upgrade to 2GB) and then an additional 2,000 TWD for a USB DVD drive…
Still really thinking about it… but the U100 is due for an upgrade, so probably better to wait for the next rendition…
Alex[/quote]
Hey mate, what do you think about the Dell Inspiron 10"? It’s not out yet but since the 9" version was easy to mod into a hackintosh, I imagine that one wouldn’t be too difficult either.
That looks really slick! But that is the same size as the current MSI Wind U100 right?
If the guts are the same as the old 9 inch then could work. Will be interesting to see how much it is as well as when it will be out in Taiwan.
Alex
I read that the Dell 10 and 12 are a no go for OS X. In USA, if you watch the dell site for about a month, you can generally find a new on sale or refurb mini 9 for $199 plus a little tax and shipping. I bought a Dell Mini 9 for $212 shipped to California and a friend brought it in for me. This is a decent guide on how to install OS X on the Dell Mini 9
mydellmini.com/forum/how-to-inst … t3925.html I followed those steps and it works great. I got the Ubuntu 8GB SSD 512MB RAM version. I bought a 2GB SoDIMM for it at Guanghua for NT$550. Though that makes the RAM too big to hibernate onto the 8GB SSD, also the 8GB SSD is tight for the OS X install.