Mac OS X on a Dell Inspiron 1100

This was originally written by me on January 2007 and the source is

http://lesid.blogs.friendster.com/my_blog/2006/12/mac_os_x_on_a_d.html

Has anyone every tried to run a Mac OS X on a regular PC like a Dell Inspiron 1100 laptop?

Just to make a long story short, I got this thing working. A Mac OS X (the Tiger version 10.4.5) on a Dell Inspiron 1100 notebook. All the drivers worked out for me, the video, sound, monitor resolution at 1024x768 (the best an Inspiron 1100 can do).

However, you need to get the usb 2.0 wireless adapter and the only one I got to work is the AeroLite 802.11g USB 2.0 adapter. It's both PC and Mac OS X compatible and you can get it from Fry's Electronics for $59.99. But I found something much better for the wireless support and it works on all Windows XP, Vista, Ubuntu 6.x, and the Mac OS X (Tiger). It's the Netgear 511GT and it's the PCMCIA version. For whatever reason, it's recognized as an Airport Card (that's what's used and supported by Apple for wireless).
It's been more than a year now and this thing is still running on the laptop. It stills shuts down in a snap unlike its Ubuntu Linux and Windows counterparts.

I just got hook with this thing last year and I'm still hooked with it. Soon I'll be buying either a Mac Mini (the $799 version) or a Powerbook, but will make sure I can get the new operating system on it. Will I do away with Ubuntu? Probably NOT. However, I can do a lot with the Dell-Mac OS if I want to. I got MS Office 2004 working on this machine, but can't play the EA's Madden 200x nor NHL 200x. I'm still stuck with that on the PC.

However, because these new Macs run on Intel Core 2 Due processors, the same processors that power up those PCs that you use, you should be able to run Windows XP or even Windows Vista, but why would you do that if you're running the more-stable Mac OS X? That's because you may still have some applications that are dependent on Windows.

For those of you Internet Explorer die hards that need it, your best bet is to download Codeweavers Crossover Office (http://www.codeweavers.com) and the version as of this writing for the Mac is equivalent to the Linux version 5.0.3, but there is a beta version already out, so you can try it out and also install Internet Explorer 6.0.
Or you can use it on your new Mac running the Windows Operating System. I personally prefer to use Firefox because of the use of Tabs.

Now going back to my Mac-In-Dell, let me say this...the interface is just as identical to the Mac OS X itself. It's pretty nice. What sucks is that you need to learn that the Ctrl key is equivalent to the MS Windows key in the new PC keyboard. For example, Ctrl+X will cut the highlighted text in Windows, but in the Mac, you use the Window+X to do the same job.

The drawback is applications that are compiled in the PowerPC-based Macs like Office 2004 will run reeeeaaallll slow. It really crawls. I recommend you run an office suite that is MacIntel (Macs with Intel processors) specific.

However, it's been fun playing with it. I had to go back to the Windows XP operating system because some applications I needed to gas up my business can only run on Windows and it's reliable enough for me.

Well that's all I have to say.