HacBook Elite – A Fully-functional Mac for $329 | Hacker News Reader

HacBook Elite – A Fully-functional Mac for $329

hacbook.com

63 pointsmoonstruck55 comments

So how are they handling the fact that their business is violating Apples OSX terms and can be taken down at any time ? Also wondering how the $329 price works, as this seems to be based on HPs Elitebook which are more expensive.

They are using the 2009-2010 lower end EliteBooks which means that is also likely that they are using a refurbished stock.

I'm pretty sure this is going to piss off both HP (for showing their logo clearly) and Apple and this is probably not going to last.

There are plenty of "hackintosh" guides out there, anyone who's capable of installing OSX on a non-Apple device has probably better hardware options out there.

And considering that this will never come with a pre-installed OS you aren't saving yourself any trouble buy buying it from them rather than buying the same hardware or newer from any other source.

They claim to be using Sandy Bridge chips so wouldn't they have to be using at least the 2011's?

Then it's the 8460p which you can find for 100-200$ on ebay.

The 2560p also has Sandy Bridge. I believe that's the model shown.

My wife and I both use OSX, Clover 2560ps. I wouldn't claim they're "fully functional" - The video on them is not the best. Lots of bugs in iMovie and sometimes when running 1080p video you get vertical lines on screen, and not contained to the video itself.

Perhaps the guy running this site has solved that issue, but AFAIK I have the best running methods I could find from various Hackintosh communities and guides for the model I use.

This is not the 2560p it doesn't match the images at all. The 2560p was a 12" model with a black plastic under belly, the location and type of ports also matches the 8460p and not the 2560p.

https://www.amazon.com/HP-EliteBook-8460p-XU057UT-Notebook/d...

https://www.amazon.com/HP-Elitebook-2560P-Notebook-Refurbish...

But overall it doesn't matter they are selling 100-200$ refurbished parts for 100% or higher markup with no OSX installed, so overall it's a pretty scam ;)

Although I agree that they will probably be taken down very soon, I don't think the reason is as simple as "violating OS X terms". Assuming they really do provide preinstalled OS X, violating a contract still isn't (necessarily) illegal, it's a matter of civil/common law.

If you sold me a hat with the agreement that I can only wear it on weekends, could you request a takedown of my website with a video of me wearing it on a Tuesday?

>If you sold me a hat with the agreement that I can only wear it on weekends, could you request a takedown of my website with a video of me wearing it on a Tuesday?

Don't think I've seen a funnier analogy for EULAs

"ships everything needed to start running the latest version of OS X"

So I guess it doesn't come with the actual OS, you'll have to download and install it separately.

They are using a 4 year old model (it has a sandybridge processor in it).

Exactly.

Case in point: Psystar [0]

[0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psystar_Corporation

This is nearly the opposite of what I think most people would want. Apple makes amazing hardware, but it doesn't usually support non-OSX operating systems very well. The only reason I can think of for anyone wanting this is for iOS development.

Yeah, the reason I bought a macbook pro was because it didn't flex, creak or wiggle when I use it.

Well, Elitebooks are solid. It's crossed my mind a few times since I started using them that they are the perfect bludgeoning tool for the office, maximum damage to the colleague, minimum damage to the PC. Seriously though, they are hard as nails.

I couldn't get my hands on every type of laptop during my search, so I could only judge by what I could. Unfortunately that left some models out of the running. Mine is not a criticism of _all_ non Apple machines, just the ones I could physically assess.

>but it doesn't usually support non-OSX operating systems very well

What do you mean? It supports Windows quite well, making dual booting super easy with boot camp.

For Linux I never had much problem, but that's been quite a while since I felt like using Linux as desktop OS and not just server OS.

FYI: Getting iMessage to work in a Hackintosh as advertised on the HackBook page is not trivial, it requires faking serial numbers which Apple could theoretically ban anytime...

http://www.fitzweekly.com/2016/02/hackintosh-imessage-tutori...

WARNING - This will get taken down as it's already happened with OpenMac, a mac clone for $399 using MAC OS on their own hardware flavor.]

link: http://www.computerworld.com/article/2536592/apple-mac/miami...

This was posted last week: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12384050

"Looks like a Mac. Feels like a Mac."

Ehhh, that is a bit too blatantly dishonest for my taste.

Both have silver colour on them. Both are made of solid materials, not liquid or gas.

To some it may look and feel like a Mac.

Wow, and from there it's only a small stretch to make my mountain bike look and feel like a BMW! If I had only known it was that easy! ;)

Apple is usually very aggressive about shutting down people who do this.

As I discovered when I spent a bunch of time hunting around for someone competent to sell me a pre-assembled very high end Mac Pro type rig, which I can't seem to find.

I still think that would be a much better business if one wants to sell their hackintosh skills. I would gladly pay a couple grand or more for a genuine top of the line Mac Pro equivalent, since the official ones are not so outdated and overpriced.

And PS if anyone knows how to do that I am definitely interested.

Is this groundhog day? :)

The same page was linked last week with very similar comments:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12384050

I do agree with the sentiment that they can't get away with this for long.

I've got a similar Elitebook myself, though a i5 Ivy Bridge with 16GB RAM, and it is a nice machine albeit chunky and heavy.

I also run OS X on it, and it copes very well for a machine that cost ~£200 refurbed - I do sometimes find myself wanting a proper MacBook, but I really find it difficult to justify the cost of them, even used.

Oh wow. That laptop. Those little die cut latch holes cut your wrists. The fan placement blows hot air on your right hand constantly when you use an external mouse. Your now sweaty bleeding hand.

Missing from the FAQs:

    How long before Apple gets you shut down?

and "what about security updates?"

Can a company do much business selling hackintoshes? In general isn't Apple pretty aggressive about this sort of thing?

They've been aggressive about going after companies attempting to resell OS X. I doubt they could legally challenge building and selling hardware capable of running OS X. I don't see anything indicating that they're providing Apple's OS with these computers.

IIRC there was anther company doing this a few years back. Think they got shutdown by apple, but I cant remember the name. I think the company name started with P and was based in South America.

Psystar? (North America) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psystar_Corporation

They weren't just making hardware. Psystar was pre-installing OS X. That's what got them into trouble.

Psystar

Maybe they just have a few refurbished HP laptops and hope to sell them before Apple will notice a thing.

> "Looks like a Mac. Feels like a Mac."

It looks like an old clamshell style macbook. At best. Which are what? 8 years old now?

I doubt that either HP or Apple will be very happy with this webpage. I expect HP's lawyers to pounce on it first for selling products under HP's brand without being HP. Unless they're an authorized reseller, which I doubt because then HP would be in a lot of trouble from Apple.

No mention of the trackpad on that page (unless I missed it) and for me that's one of the best things about Mac hardware. Anytime I jump on another laptop the trackpad is shockingly bad. Scrolling/zooming/gestures work so smoothly and accurately on the Mac hardware.

The trackpad is one two things I miss after testing a macbook for a week. The other thing is battery life.

This is the second hackintosh ive seen for sale in as many days, the previous a high end workstation.

Are these refurbished HP laptops?

The FAQ says:

What's the actual laptop being used for HacBook Elite? It's a like-new refurbished HP EliteBook, the business class version of the HP ProBook.

Does anyone know what exact HP EliteBook model they plan to use for this offer?

I happen to have one Elitebook 8470p sitting on my desk and the specs seem to match with that. But I would expect them not to fix themselves to specific model but just sell whatever used equipment they can get their hands on and then re-configure those according to customer requirements.

The idea of putting up nice package for used corporate hardware is nice, but would be more acceptable if they used Linux as operating system. My view is that many home users would be better off buying the this kind of machines than the cheap consumer models from Lenovo or HP.

Well this will be interesting.

C&D letter in 3, 2, 1...

For those asking: it is a HP EliteBook 8470p, released in mid-2012

Can you install standard OSX on it?

That is what they seem to be doing, so yes. Generally speaking, if it has a all-intel (CPU, GPU, WiFi) chipset, chances are it will work with OSX.

"Up to 8 GB RAM" ?

I had one of those HP Elitebooks. The trackpad is really really bad.

"HacBook Elite ships with everything needed to start running the latest version of OS X. Once installed, OS X cold boots in 15 seconds and boots from sleep in 1 second."

Looks like don't actually ship it with OS X. If that's the case, then perhaps Apple can't shut them down. Although, considering that APple hasn't sold hard copies of its OS in some time, how difficult would it be to get a new copy of OS X to install?

I suspect you're a Google search, a magnet link, and a blank DVDR away...

But my iMac has no disk drive so how will I burn it? /s

Provided you have an USB stick and an existing OS X, you can use an USB installer.

Years ago you could even rig up netbooting, but I haven't tried that for long times...

> Looks like a Mac. > Feels like a Mac.

Agreed. Sign me up, sincerely, Stevie Wonder.

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