To Hackintosh or Not to Hackintosh?

Should I make a HackBook to solve my Leopard jones?

I have a copy of Mac OS X 10.5"Leopard" just lying around, and the monkey on my back is somethingfierce. I just have to install this on a computer so I cancompare it with my faithful MacOS X 10.4 "Tiger", which is on my 10-year-old Pismo PowerBook.

Okay, there are some who would urge me to install a G4 processor onthe Pismo and "force" an install of Leopard on the old girl. I'm nottoo sure that the Pismo is the best choice for Leopard, given thePismo's primitive graphics capacity. Right now, I have to turn thedisplay down to "thousands of colors" to make CoverFlow work in iTunes.Leopard, I feel, might tax the Pismo even more.

I could be wrong, but Tiger seems to be a better fit on thePismo.

I could buy a new (or used) Intel-based iMac or MacBook. The problemhere is that this would cost money, money that the Secretary of theExchequer says we do not have. Christmas is coming, and even the dog isfurther up the Christmas list than I am.

I could see if we have an old G4 Mac desktop around the school thatmy boss is willing to retire to the "dustbin of history".

However, I am leaning towards making the jump to an Intel Max so Ican use Mac OS X 10.6 "SnowLeopard" in the future. This would bring me back to buying a new(or refurbished) MacBook.

Or...

(If you are Steve Jobs, please stop reading right now.)

Here's the thing - Dell makes a netbook that is mysteriouslysupported by OS X. I am referring to the Dell Mini 9 or it'sbusiness equivalent, the Dell Vostro A90. Iknow, that I missed my chance to pick up an A90 when Dell blew them outover the weekend, but they still have them in their refurbisheddepartment. That would be an outlay of $200 or so.

However, I would also need to pick up a larger solid state drive.Adding more RAM is something I could put off to the future.

Bottom line: I could probably do the hack for $450 or so, since Ialready own a copy of Tiger that I bought from Apple. But is it morallyright to put an Apple OS on a Dell? Can I live with the thought ofSteve Jobs' disappointment in a lifelong Apple user switching tohardware from the Dark Side? What will my children think?

Just imagine - I would have an OS X netbook. It would be cool toshow off at a Mac show, if I ever went to one.

Get thee behind me, Satan!