Mac OS X on PC?

Question

I bought an HP Laptop recently, and found it is the perfect computer for me. I love everything about it and have had no troubles with the hardware. HP offered me more hard drive space, RAM, everything than Apple. However, I hate windows and think it is the worst operating system out there. Its too confusing and not at all user friendly. I dont want a Mac for a number of reasons, but when will apple make it simple and easy to run Man OS X on a pc, I know they made an HP iPod, so why not an HP Mac?


By the way, what is an emulator, because ive heard that is the only way, but is it legal, and is it a replacement for windows or just to run both OS on the same computer. I want to wipe the computer clean and install all new operating system.

Answer 1

YOU CAN USE AN EMULATOR

THIS ALLOWS YOU TO RUN MAC OS X
AND WIN XP ON THE SAME PC

YOU CANNOT USE ONLY MAC OS ON A PC
BUT ,YOU MAY USE BOTH

IF YOU WANT ONLY A MAC OS
BUY A NEW MACBOOK PRO......ONLY OPTION

IF YOU WANT TO USE BOTH WIN XP AND MAC OS X
ON THE SAME PC

DO THE FOLLOWING--
1. Download the PearPC PowerPC Architecture Emulator.
2. Obtain hard disk images for use with PearPC.
3. Obtain images of your client OS installation disk.
4. Configure PearPC to use the hard disk image and the OS images.

DETAILS--

Download the PearPC PowerPC Architecture Emulator. Once it's downloaded, extract its content to a folder, say, [Desktop]:\PearPC. This is the folder that is going to contain all of the files you'll see in the next couple of sections.

Hard disk images

To install Mac OS X on the emulator, you need a hard disk image. You can download preformatted hard disk images from http://pearpc.net/downloads.php. Two disk sizes are available: 3GB and 6GB. If you plan to install the full Mac OS X, then use the 6GB image. If you have limited disk space on your hard drive, use the smaller, 3GB image. Be aware that the default install of Mac OS X takes up a little more than 3GB, and so you need to unselect certain components during installation if you use the 3GB image.

The disk images come in two formats: BZ2 and RAR. use the 6GB RAR disk images. You need to uncompress the disk image before you can use it. To uncompress the RAR image, use WinRAR from http://www.rarlab.com/download.htm. Uncompress the image and save it in the [Desktop]:\PearPC folder.\

Making images of your client OS

To install Mac OS X on your hard disk image, you need to make copies of your Mac OS X installation disk in ISO format. You can use Nero or any other disk utility to save CDs or DVDs in ISO format. In my case, save the images in the C:\PearPC folder. name the first disk Panther1.iso.

Note: You need to purchase Mac OS X in order to run Mac OS X in PearPC.
Configuring PearPC

Once you've taken the previous steps, you're ready for the final step: configuring PearPC to use the all the relevant disk images. To do it, you need to create a configuration file. You can find the instructions on how to create one manually at http://pearpc.net/guides.php?guides_id=2. Or you can download a Windows application that does all the hard work for you. In case, used the PearPC Control Panel to help manage Mac OS X emulation.

Launch PearPC Control Panel and click on the Create New Configuration File icon. You will see the first screen
1. Click on Continue to proceed to the next step.

in the next screen, you have to supply a few pieces of information (). First, specify the location of the PearPC emulator. In case, it is [Desktop]:\PearPC\ppc.exe.

Next, specify the location of the hard disk image; that is, [Desktop]:\PearPC\macosx_6gb.img.

Note: Be sure to replace [Desktop] with your own desktop path.

Also, set the amount of memory you want to set aside for Mac OS X. ( allocated 255MB.) Click on Continue.



In the next screen, you have the option to specify the screen resolution and color depth to use. Click on Finish when done ( .

Note: . Also, use G3 and not G4 CPU emulation.




Give a name to the configuration file and save the file in the location specified (. Name it Mac OS X Panther and save it in the location [Desktop]:\PearPC\macosxpanther.cfg. Click on Finish.\

You should now see the icon for your Mac OS X Panther in the PearPC Control Panel (. You need to complete one final step before you start installing Mac OS X on your PC--check the "CD-ROM device is installed" option and specify the location of the Mac OS install disk image. In this case, it is [Desktop]:\Panther1.iso. This is the image that will be used to boot up the emulator.


That's it! Double-click on the Mac OS X Panther icon and you should see the PearPC 0.3.0 window pop up .. Your Mac OS X installation should start soon afterward.

Note: It takes quite a while to get Mac OS X to install. you may encounter a number of failed attempts--when booted into Mac OS X, it prompts to restart the machine. But after several attempts, it will work.


When the OS is installed, you will be asked to restart the machine. For subsequent attempts to run Mac OS X on your emulator, you should uncheck the "CD-ROM device is installed" option so that it can boot directly from the hard disk image. If the installation is performed correctly, you should see something like when Mac OS X boots up.


caution--
Before installing PearPC and using Mac OS X, you need to keep several things in mind:

1. You need a license to run Mac OS X. That is, you need to buy a copy of Mac OS X.
2. The installation process takes time. Don't install Mac OS X on a slow machine;. The 3.0GHz machine installed significantly faster compared with the rest, but it still takes several hours to get all of the installation done. Also, make sure you have lots of free hard disk space. The hard disk image itself takes up 6GB, and the additional installation disk images are going to take up a few more gigabytes.
3. Even though the installation process is painfully slow, once the system is installed it is actually quite responsive. While you won't be able to fully experience Mac OS X as if you were using a real Mac, the emulation provides a good way for you to try out Mac OS X before you head to the nearest Apple shop to get the latest iMac.

Answer 2

Yes, it will void warranty because if anything goes wrong with your laptop, even NOT connected to this, the manufacturer will say it did happen because of this installation. Also, any CRACKED program and especially a cracked OS, is a potential disaster. What programs work ONLY on Mac? Except of some toys they have, all real programs have a version for Windows. Unless your company wrote a proprietary program for Mac only...

Answer 3

you can get the darwin operating system for a pc... but running the gui would be impossible... but there are efforts to make a similarly running gui (as mentioned in the previous answer)

emulators are programs that make a machine look like another machine. there are no os/x emulator.

bootcamp / parallels / vmware allow you to run multiple operating systems at the same time. but all on apple hardware! vmware runs windows next to linux next to bsd on a non-apple 'puter, though!

Answer 4

It is possible to run mac OSX on a pc. It's a lot of work though and probably won't run the best. You can always wait for Windows Vista, I tested the beta and Release Canidate 1 for it. It's kind of like mac OSX as long as you have a decen amount of ram.

Answer 5

The OSX86 project is a bunch of people who do what you want to do: run OS X on x86 compatible (PC) hardware. They have a wiki which has all the info you'll need, like compatible devices. Have fun!