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Willravel · 09-04-2009, 10:17 AM

My first computer was a hand-me-down Powerbook 150 from my father. It had a blazing fast Motorola 33MHz processor, 4MB of RAM, and a 500MB hard drive. The display was a gorgeous 640x480 passive matrix. I could write my homework in WriteNow in my room, walk over to the printer, plug it in, and print out my homework. I'm not ashamed to admit I was the envy of my classmates.

Since then, I've had a stream of Apple computers, the Macintosh Color Classic, the first generation iMac, the eMac, and now the Mac mini. The loyalty to the brand came with simply knowing the system backwards and forwards ever since I can remember. Sure, I've used Windows machines before, for work, but at home was always a Mac, from Apple. I don't have a framed picture of Steve Jobs on my wall, but as I got older, I grew to be a bit of a fanboy. I've watched every WWDC and Macworld that's been available to stream online, eagerly awaiting news of new Apple products.

And yes, I even would defend Apple when criticisms came its way. I would argue that the G4 processor couldn't be compared to an Intel chip with the same processor speed, it was apples and oranges I'd say, thinking I was in the least bit clever. The only argument I could never really make was that Apples weren't overpriced. I tried, don't get me wrong, but I never felt honest defending Apple. Anyone with even a passing knowledge of the PC market knows that Apple is seriously overpriced. You get a better OS and clearly superior styling for that Apple tax, but it really doesn't excuse the insane price difference. The Mac mini I'm on right now retailed at $499 brand new in 2008 and came with a "combo drive", 80GB hard drive, 1GB RAM, 1.83GHz core 2 Duo, airport, and... well... it's quite small. For comparison, if I were willing to get something a bit bigger, I could have gotten a Gateway or HP at the same time with at least a 2.5GHz processor, 2GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive, and a decent video card for maybe $350. I knew that going in to purchasing the computer, but I was able to excuse it with the "well, I know Mac OS".

The situation really is different now, though. Building a Hackintosh from the ground up has become easy as pie, and not even OS updates phase it. I can build a desktop PC in maybe 4 or 5 hours, load Snow Leopard (the latest Apple operating system) on to a usb flash drive, and have the PC running Mac OS in no time. I could probably buy the stuff right now and have the thing up and running before I go to bed tonight. In other words, the incentive to buy Apple computers, the fact that you can get a clean and stable OS that doesn't ever require a bit of tweaking or virus sweeps, is now gone. The only thing that remains in my way is the TOS (Terms of Service, for Mac OS).

Ah, the TOS, Apple's brilliant way to keep people buying their computers despite their sizable price tags. Only with an iron-clad TOS can you excuse overpricing a Mac Pro by a good $2000. Or a MacBook Pro by a good $1000. Or even a Mac Mini by a good $200.

Apple is clearly ripping me off. Legal issues aside, would it be ethical for me to install Mac OS on a non-Apple computer? LifeHacker posted a great article about how to build an embarrassingly fast Hackintosh for about $900, a Hackintosh that's faster than the $2,500 Mac Pro. I'll admit that, despite my life-long brand loyalty, this is a very tempting offer. Imagine that someone could build you a Porsche for $30,000, would you turn that down?

I'm having a crisis of fanboyism.

09-04-2009, 10:17 AM	#1 (permalink)
Willravel ... a sort of licensed troubleshooter.	Tech Ethics: The Hackintosh My first computer was a hand-me-down Powerbook 150 from my father. It had a blazing fast Motorola 33MHz processor, 4MB of RAM, and a 500MB hard drive. The display was a gorgeous 640x480 passive matrix. I could write my homework in WriteNow in my room, walk over to the printer, plug it in, and print out my homework. I'm not ashamed to admit I was the envy of my classmates. Since then, I've had a stream of Apple computers, the Macintosh Color Classic, the first generation iMac, the eMac, and now the Mac mini. The loyalty to the brand came with simply knowing the system backwards and forwards ever since I can remember. Sure, I've used Windows machines before, for work, but at home was always a Mac, from Apple. I don't have a framed picture of Steve Jobs on my wall, but as I got older, I grew to be a bit of a fanboy. I've watched every WWDC and Macworld that's been available to stream online, eagerly awaiting news of new Apple products. And yes, I even would defend Apple when criticisms came its way. I would argue that the G4 processor couldn't be compared to an Intel chip with the same processor speed, it was apples and oranges I'd say, thinking I was in the least bit clever. The only argument I could never really make was that Apples weren't overpriced. I tried, don't get me wrong, but I never felt honest defending Apple. Anyone with even a passing knowledge of the PC market knows that Apple is seriously overpriced. You get a better OS and clearly superior styling for that Apple tax, but it really doesn't excuse the insane price difference. The Mac mini I'm on right now retailed at $499 brand new in 2008 and came with a "combo drive", 80GB hard drive, 1GB RAM, 1.83GHz core 2 Duo, airport, and... well... it's quite small. For comparison, if I were willing to get something a bit bigger, I could have gotten a Gateway or HP at the same time with at least a 2.5GHz processor, 2GB of RAM, a 250GB hard drive, and a decent video card for maybe $350. I knew that going in to purchasing the computer, but I was able to excuse it with the "well, I know Mac OS". The situation really is different now, though. Building a Hackintosh from the ground up has become easy as pie, and not even OS updates phase it. I can build a desktop PC in maybe 4 or 5 hours, load Snow Leopard (the latest Apple operating system) on to a usb flash drive, and have the PC running Mac OS in no time. I could probably buy the stuff right now and have the thing up and running before I go to bed tonight. In other words, the incentive to buy Apple computers, the fact that you can get a clean and stable OS that doesn't ever require a bit of tweaking or virus sweeps, is now gone. The only thing that remains in my way is the TOS (Terms of Service, for Mac OS). Ah, the TOS, Apple's brilliant way to keep people buying their computers despite their sizable price tags. Only with an iron-clad TOS can you excuse overpricing a Mac Pro by a good $2000. Or a MacBook Pro by a good $1000. Or even a Mac Mini by a good $200. Apple is clearly ripping me off. Legal issues aside, would it be ethical for me to install Mac OS on a non-Apple computer? LifeHacker posted a great article about how to build an embarrassingly fast Hackintosh for about $900, a Hackintosh that's faster than the $2,500 Mac Pro. I'll admit that, despite my life-long brand loyalty, this is a very tempting offer. Imagine that someone could build you a Porsche for $30,000, would you turn that down? I'm having a crisis of fanboyism.