Ooooooh! Everybody come look at what I did!

Are you like me – in love with the Mac OS but completely unwilling to shell out $2500+ on a new MacBook? Well, you might remember back in June when we brought you the exciting news of the “Hackintosh Netbook”, or as it has come to be known in some circles, the MacBook Nano. Well, after one failed attempt, yours truly here at TNMS has accomplished the feat on his own, and is copyrighting his own title for it – Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the MacNet. Stories and photos after the jump…

The computer and the external DVD drive

Let me start this by saying that although the most common way to create the MacNet is by downloading a hacked copy of the Macintosh OS X Operating System, I actually already owned a licensed copy of OS X. Just wanted to get that out of the way. Now, as for how it was done…

First things first, you’ll need an operating system. I’m not about to link you directly to the location of hundreds of pirated versions of Macintosh’s OS X Leopard system, but a well-worded Internet Search should provide you with a wealth of sites providing OS X Leopard for Netbooks, and even a handful that have already created the image specifically for an MSI Wind U100 (my Netbook of choice).

You’ll also need an external DVD Drive or DVD Burner if your netbook does not come with an internal optical drive (as most don’t). I had an HP DVD-RW drive that I hadn’t used in months, so I was happy to dust it off and plug it in. If nothing else, it was a good way to make sure the drive survived my recent cross-country move.

The Mac OS X Startup Screen

If you install based off of one of the pre-built images (highly recommended…) you should only have to make a few minor tweaks to the system after installation (video drivers, Wireless drivers. Be sure to get both the Realtek and RALink drivers, as the Wind uses both types of Wireless cards in their netbooks. I spent two hours messing with the Realtek drivers before realizing I had the RA Link card.

Once your drivers are updated… well, you’re good to go. It’s that simple. I’m actually typing this entire post from my new MacNet, and I couldn’t be happier with it. I expect roughly a 5-hour battery life on a full charge, and once I upgrade the RAM from 1GB to 2GB I plan to use this system for mobile work (web, e-mail, office functions and photo editing) on a daily basis. It’s under 3 pounds heavy – almost as light as my morning cup of coffee.

The Final Product

As for add-ons, I did take Kurt’s advice and pick up the Logitech VX Nano travel mouse (everything’s going “Nano” now, I love it), mostly because for people who grew up with a full size touchpad the Netbook mouse trackpad is kind of annoying. It was worth a little more to get the ease of having a real mouse at my side.

Obviously, we here at TNMS can’t endorse violating the Apple/Macintosh EULA, nor do we recommend breaking your computer’s warranty unless you really know what you’re doing. But I will say that this was a fun project, and something I look forward to being able to experiment with in the future.