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Comment by fractallyte | Hacker News Reader

Conversely, I'm using OS X Yosemite on a Dell laptop. (It started as an experiment: to see if I could get a working Hackintosh, solely for development. Now it's my go-to machine.)

I'm not getting any annoying notifications, or requests for upgrades (daily or otherwise). In fact, my experience is quite the opposite: this is one of the most pleasing computers I've ever used (having spent years on Linux).

Upgradeable RAM, SSD, wireless; real page up/down keys, matte screen. Most of the benefits of Linux, and even WINE works, for Windows software!

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I started using OS X in 2007 as a semi-successful attempt to run an HP laptop as a Hackintosh (can't remember most of the details). Jumped to Apple hardware because the experience was so much better back then.

I can't really identify with the writer of the article either. Sure, there are some annoyances here and there. But if simple things like 802.11n (we are on ac at home), sleep when you close the lid, etc. don't work, it's a no-go for me (I use my laptop for everything: programming, research, teaching, travel to conferences).

OS X has the virtue of having a good GUI, reasonable desktop security (app sandboxing, GUI isolation, etc.), good support for 3rd party applications, while I am still able to open a terminal.

How much effort was it to get it to work? Can you install xcode? I'd really like to play with swift and playground.

I have a Hackintosh and it's just like a real mac. Sometimes there are compromises that you have to make (like some hardware just doesn't work and it's easier to just buy a USB equivalent). I installed XCode and it works great!

It was pretty easy for me to set it up, some great people over at http://insanelymac.com/ helped me.

I selected the laptop very carefully: it's a Dell Latitude E6220, refurbished. With all the upgrades (SSD, wifi, even a new keyboard and case), it came to around $300 - laughably cheap!

It took a week to get it working. (All instructions at http://www.osxlatitude.com/) A physical copy of Snow Leopard is required. I encountered problems downloading Yosemite in VirtualBox, so access to a real Mac may be necessary. My local Apple Store had everything locked down, but a nearby PC store (also selling Apple) didn't! Initiating a download on the App Store added Yosemite to my account, and made it possible to continue the process back home in VirtualBox. Once I had a bootable USB flash drive, the installation was a breeze.

After that, just fiddling with drivers ('Kexts') and bootloaders - not too intimidating for Linux users.

Most importantly for the experiment: XCode works perfectly! I have a full dev environment, and I love it!

> A physical copy of Snow Leopard is required.

It happens that I have a 2006 Macbook (x86, not x86-64) running snow leopard. I used to have the disk but I don't know if I still do. I'll look in the process more. Thank you.

What model Dell laptop are you using?

Dell Latitude E6220 - more details in my other reply!

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