7 Reasons for Mini Owners to Switch to Mac OSX

[intel9295]

For a few months, I have been watching the Mac forum carefully. I promised myself that, after sound was working, I would go to Mac. Well, that time came, and so I began preparing myself for the installation. I was frightened that I would ruin my Mini (something I REALLY couldn't do). So I downloaded the iDeneb image, and forum user bobbypotluck started saying he was writing a complete guide (easier to understand), so I figured I would wait for his guide to install OSX on my mini. I waited, and his guide was made. I followed it step-by-step, and, after a few hours, I had a fully functional Macbook Mini. This post is to describe to anyone who doesn't wan't to break their mini, but want's OSX, why they should go ahead and do it.

1. It is Mac OSX, so it is beautiful. It really looks good on the HP mini. Colors pop out, Mac just looks good, and it all blends. The black mini, and the white, light colors of OSX are a perfect blend.

2. Battery life. Battery life is significantly better under OSX than Windows XP (and slightly better than Windows 7). Also, when in sleep, the battery is ridiculously long. I left it in sleep for a night and half a day, and lost only about 20% of the battery.

3. Stability. Before I installed OSX, this was my biggest qualm; stability wouldn't be great. I have been using this for about half a week, and have had no (I repeat NO) problems with kernel panics, it freezing up, anything. OSX on the Mini is very stable (with normal A.K.A web browsing, some gaming, music-listening, Netbook stuff. I haven't tried anything crazy/ for Mac geniuses)

4. Installing really is pretty easy. The iDeneb installer works well, and it is GUI (A.K.A not text). The seemingly scary 'loop fix' is fairly simple.

5. Support. Probably, if you have a problem with anything, by now somebody has most likely had it, and there is a fix. And, on the off chance that you encounter a strange problem, someone will help.

6. Everything works. On my Mini, with OSX installed, everything that I know of works, and I use my machine to its fullest extent.

7. Guides. There are a couple of guides on here, but I do think that bobbypotluck has written the best so far. His guide is the most detailed (even though it is still being tweaked some) and I can testify that it works. I followed it to a T, and my mini is working perfectly. So here is the link...http://myhpmini.com/forum/tentative-...ons-t1187.html

8. Speed. OSX is wayyy faster than XP, and fairly faster than Windows 7 (it blows Vista out of the water).

So, overall, I highly recommend going to OSX, no matter what OS you are using. I have used XP, Vista, Windows 7, MIE, Ubuntu (Jaunty, Intrepid, Netbook Remix, you name it), Linux Mint, PCLinux OS, Puppy Linux. Pretty much, you name it, I have used it. And I like Mac OSX the most. 8-)

Also, I am not an Apple-Fanboy. I promise. In fact, the last MacBook I owned went back after about 2 weeks of use. I then bought a Windows XP machine, which was replaced by this. But I do give credit where credit is due, and OSX has made HUGE improvements. And I like it.

[Richboy455]

I used OS X for about a week and a half on my mini. It was good, but I feel that Windows 7 is still better suited for the mini. I don't know what you did during the install, but the main reason dumped OS X to go back to 7 was speed. OS X wasn't slow, but by no means was it a speed demon. 7 blows it out of the water on this hardware. Battery life was on par with 7 as well. While I liked the OS X experience (which I use on my hackintosh desktop everyday), I feel that this install is still just too hacked together. On my desktop, I didn't have to alter anything in the OS, just installed it and it was good to go and update. With OS X on the mini, I feel almost afraid to change anything in fear that I will break the install. I know that it is stable and works well, but I feel it still needs work. Once the retail boot method id figured out I think I will hold off on going back to OS X.

I think you give great reasons to switch to OS X in your statement, and I highly encourage people to try it, because it is a great OS. But for me, I'm going to stick with Windows 7 for now. Who knows, maybe I will setup a dual-boot with 7 and OS X 10.5.7 in the near future when 10.5.7 is released. Keep up the good work!

[intel9295]

Well, I had Windows 7 on it mini for about a month. My build was 7000, but as far as I've heard, all of the other builds are slower than 7000. Anyhow, when did you install OSX? I think that, right now, it is very stable, and it doesn't feelhacked together for me. But still, I did like Windows 7. I may dual-boot it later, but right now I'm happy.

[Richboy455]

I used OS X when sound became available. As for 7, all of the builds after 7000 were slower, but now the RC1 (build 7100) is just as fast as 7000 and even better.

[intel9295]

Well, I'll look into the RC. I did like Windows 7 when I tried it, it is shaping up to be am awesome OS. But, on the mini I felt like it was too much. I have an extremely powerful Dell for hardcore stuff, so I wanted my mini to be Internet/music stuff. Nothing too much. With Mac, it is as powerful as I need it to be, or as simple as I need it. I guess that's why I really like OSX. But still, I may go the Windows 7 route when it is released later.

[Richboy455]

Thats actually the reason I got rid of OS X. I felt that it was too big for the mini. It's a great OS and I use it everyday, but I just wasn't feeling it on the mini.

[intel9295]

Well, I can understand why you would he feeling that. That's how I felt the first day, but it has some awesome features that make it great for the mini. Also, I swear that the web browser is faster in osx, but I can't be sure. But anyways, Apple did a good job hiding all of the power, and putting it when and where it is needed.

[Mobi]

I tried to use Seven, XP and Ubuntu on my Compaq Mini 700. But then I installed iDeneb 10.5.5 on it, tried it and I liked it. Then I installed Mac OS 10.5.6 Retail (it wasn't very difficult) and I think it's way better than other OSes. It beats iDeneb too. So I recommend everyone to install the Retail version of OS X.

Now everything runs very quick on my OS X and I am very happy with my Macbook Mini. 8-)

[LeMaurien19]

I've never had a real Mac and if not for hackintoshing, I'd never have a taste of Apple's operating system. Coming from a predominantly Windows background with a bit of Linux on the side, I can say that Mac OS X offers a far more cohesive experience than the two - the OS, along with its built in tools/apps feel well integrated into one whole.
The experience may well be totally better with a real Apple hardware but it's already great with just a hackintosh. Of course there are a lot of hurdles to get through but once they're overcome, all the effort is totally worth it.

[dornadeluxe]

@Mobi: Can you tell me if the retail install of OS X is supporting hyperthreading of the atom? You might check by watching if OS X shows you two processors under activity monitor.
I hate it that iDeneb just shows up one CPU, if retail OS X recognizes both, I think I'd give it a try.