OS X 10.6.2 – the end of the line for Hackintoshes?

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OS X 10.6.2 – the end of the line for Hackintoshes?

Posted on 02 November 2009 by Jessica Fritsche

Rumor has it that the upcoming 10.6.2 build of Mac OS X has removed support for the Intel Atom CPU, which is the processor under the hood of many netbooks on the market today, including my beloved Dell Mini 9. This isn’t an issue for most Mac users, but if you’re like me and you’ve Hackintoshed your way to super-portable bliss, you might be a little worried. See, Apple…this is why I wish you had your own official netbook!

Currently no one has been able to substantiate the rumor 100%, and it may be less that they’re specifically blocking Atom support and more that new features introduced into Snow Leopard just aren’t going to be compatible with the Atom. I suspect that if things DO break down for netbooks in 10.6.2, the Hackintosh community will be working on a solution to keep things going!

Either way, I’m pretty glad that I’m still running 10.5.8 on my Hackintosh Mini 9! I’ll be talking more about my Mini 9 in an upcoming post, where I wax poetic about the software I run on my Mac netbook.

This post was written by:

Jessica Fritsche - who has written 33 posts on Gear Diary.

Jessica Fritsche is a writer, editor and marketing manager hailing from Dallas, TX. Jessica's first computer was an Apple ][ C, and despite a brief flirtation with Windows in her youth, she's a Mac girl through and through. She also loves mobile technology like netbooks, the iPhone, and the iPad, and she's a certified ebook junkie. In addition to blogging about her favorite gadgets on Gear Diary, she is the associate editor for So New Publishing and assistant fiction editor for 42opus.

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Joel McLaughlin
This doesn’t make sense unless they are just scanning for a processor id. They CAN do that. However, the Atom is a Intel based platform and capable of running operating systems programmed to the x86 architecture. If Apple limits this, it’s only for their bottom line. Apple needs to wake up and realize their value isn’t in the hardware any more (except the HIGH end). Most people don’t need the power of even the iMac!
dstrauss
Just discovered the wonders of the MacMini 9 (I mean “Dell Mini 9 running what appears to be OS X”). My OS X mini has a Runcore 64gb SSD and my Win 7 mini has a Super Talent 128gb SSD. What I’ve learned from both is that SSD is the future of all computing. Nothing, including my HP uber notebook boots, loads programs, sleeps, and shuts down as fast as either of these minimalist SSD based netbooks.
Since Apple has not only rejected, but expressed pure disdain for an Apple netbook (Tim Cook, are you listening?) it has been the netbook Hackintosh community that has filled the big void in Apple’s product line. I don’t have access to the newer 13″ MBPro, but I can confirm that the Mini 9 runs every bit as well as my daughter’s 2008 Black MacBook.
And Jessica, you are right, even moving up to the Dell 10v defeats the purpose of this ultra-portable system. It’s not just about pure thiness (are you listing Air and Adamo), it is total volume and compactness that count.