Its been a while since I've done some serious fiddling with my laptop(s) so atleast a new OS install was due.But one of these is over 2 years old and even then, it was mediocre at best so clearly, it wouldnt run Vista, considering my mega powered desktop (C2D 6800, 88GTX SLI and 4gig RAM) sometimes croaks). The option ofcourse was to hack and install Apple's OSX - I'm not much for Linux. I think its pretty terrible as an OS.
I figured since Apple moved over to Intel, the OS should atleast in theory throw lesser tantrums while installing on an Intel notebook.
The spec:
Compaq Presario V4118AP (V4000 series)
Intel Pentium M 1.73 GHz
512 MB of DDR memory
Intel GMA 900 graphics (integrated)
60GB HDD
DVD burner
Broadcom Wireless 4318
Realtek Ethernet NIC
After all was said and done, my compaq laptop is now fully functional with Mac OSX except for a few minor irritants like inability to toggle bluetooth and wifi independently. Apparently in OSX there is no software switch to turn off bluetooth (unlike the airport switch which lets u switch off wifi)
Also, for some reason I wouldnt get any display as OSX thought my laptop display WAS the secondary display. A hardware trick of inserting paper clips in the VGA port sorted that and it now works like a charm!
What truly blows me away though is the speed of the OS. It takes like 40 seconds from cold boot to wireless connectivity!!
The same thing on my PC with Vista ultimate (and mind you, that's NOT a pirated edition) takes over a minute!
Another thing that amazed the hell out of me was just how EASY it is do things over the network with OSX. I just click on the network icon and in literally milliseconds it finds out ALL the other computers on the network so I don't have to search for IP addresses (since my home network is DHCP) I only wish they had this kind of network ability built into Vista. It is always SUCH a pain to transfer files between my PC and my notebooks. Now it takes milliseconds to connect and I have a feeling even the transfer rate is faster (but that could just be my imagination!)
2 days of running this OSX and I am beginning to see where the fanboyism is coming from.
However, if you are looking at making a switch, make sure you have about a week to use OSX before you go out on the road because the biggest issue I have had so far (since I am completely new to the Mac universe) is the lack of nifty tools I got so used to on Windows. It’s not that tools aren’t there, it’s just that experimenting to find out which is the one you REALLY like is time consuming.
If you want to find out how to put OSX on your non Mac notebook/PC head over to www.insanelymac.com. An awesome resource I discovered only after I spent the night banging my head trying to install this. It has so far been able to solve all the minor issues I have experienced.
If you need my help, you know where to reach me!
