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What was your primary reason for building a hackintosh?

What was your primary reason for building a hackintosh?

  • Cost. Apple hardware is just too unaffordable.

    Votes: 334 26.2%
  • Apple does not sell systems with the specs I want.

    Votes: 509 39.9%
  • I already owned a PC and wanted to try macOS.

    Votes: 107 8.4%
  • I've been burned by Apple hardware failures and have no faith in their reliability.

    Votes: 20 1.6%
  • I like to tinker and learn.

    Votes: 261 20.4%
  • Other.

    Votes: 46 3.6%

  • Total voters
    1,277
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As an Amiga and Mac user circa the late 1980s, I was put off by the Windows experience through Windows 8; however back then Macs were expensive and applications somewhat limited. When I decided to have a custom desktop built with selected components in 2008, I thought it would be fun to try Hackintoshing (OS 10.4). The first time my Hack booted I felt a rush that hooked me for good, and I've learned a lot about hardware and systems that I never would have otherwise. Now using my third build. Updated Build 2 to 10.12.4 yesterday. (Also finally acquired the real thing: 2015 MacBook Pro "just because.")

I too started on the Amiga, only I moved to the Mac in '94 with a Macintosh LC II (used). I did in late '95 get a Windows 95 PC but it wasn't my main machine. As the '90s moved on, I used the Amiga less and less and used various used Macs until 2005 when I bought a new Aluminium PowerBook G4. In fact, I'd have to say that my very first hackintosh was running System 7.x on my Amiga via ShapeShifter.
 
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Price is always reason i think, answers would be not price or any other reason but, but price + other reason, because price is undisputing reason not only in my case i think. Other reason for me was, low cost upgrade after some time, just put another graphics card, put second, third HDD, etc ... so First reason price (build hackintosh), second reason price (upgrade in the future). Don't lie me boys we have other reason :)
 
Price was originally my reason, but over the years it has become a requirement due to Apple's lack of decent new hardware.
 
My primary reason is that I have a 2008 MBP that works fine w/ an SSD and maxed out memory... but the thing weighs a ton. Now that I'm freelance & commute by bicycle I needed something that was small, light, and could fit in a bike bar bag or my satchel. I love Macs, but used, newer MacBooks on EBay are above my current budget and the specs in used machines were lackluster given what I need for my job. A fellow developer recommended getting a Lenovo Thinkpad on eBay because they're cheap-cheap-cheap and rather decent machines for what they are. I really don't like Windows 10, and the applications I need to run don't work on Linux / don't feel like dealing with VM's / my co-workers don't use open source equivalents so files get messed up.

Apple has also been kind of stagnating on the desktop / laptop hardware front now, so, while I like being in their ecosystem, even if I had the money, I'm dubious of plunking down $2K for a theft-target notebook that is going to get banged around, that may not be supported in 5 years.
 
I got to a point I could not stand Windows anymore. To much work to keep the installs clean
at home for my rigs and for my family machines.

I spent a lot of time trying to make Linux work, but it is just not a good OS for home use.
I gave up on it years ago. Not sure if it changed much since than. Their UI based on X is just
too outdated and cumbersome.

I decided to try mac os about five years ago and got hooked. It is, in my opinion, a much better OS
for normal home users. I migrated everything in my house to Apple products, except for the computers.

I have always built my systems. I only bought 1 computer in my life, the very first one I got,
so building hackintoshes is just a continuation of that trend. Besides, I can customize them the way I
want and within my budget. I like the Apple products, but their computers are just too expensive for
what they offer.

Getting out of Windows was difficult because of a lot of games I play are not available for Mac OS.
Fortunately this is changing and it is becoming less of a problem now.
 
I built Hackintosh because I fell in love with Final Cut Pro.
I was using, selling, building and fixing PC systems for more than 20 years.I couldn't even imagine that one day I will use Apple OS. Of course after the Final Cut pro, I loved the Sophistication behind the OSX.That made me since then to mainly use and build Hackintoshes and to have on a 2nd SSD a Win10 installation for very limited things such as gaming when I have free time.I wish ofc and Im waiting one day for Apple to provide equal Graphics Acceleration like Windows machines ans start using GPUs at the limits no matter it is a video editing software or a game.
 
Years ago I bought an Apple G5 fully maxed out just to run Logic.
That was right after they acquired Emagic.
I was very much disappointed.
Logic was very unstable (theses days I was totally blind by apple users telling me OSX is rock solid) in the early time and it had a lot of bugs.... (Sudden Channel Death issue and more...)

Meanwhile I studied abroad and bought a iBook just to get around.
After exactly 1 Year (I had no apple f*** care)
the screen died and the iBook was useless.

Without the G5 it was as well a bad experience, Apple had to replace me the PSU of the G5 3 times, after that I got a totally new G5... this time with the same issues and even more.

So I decided to sell all Apple crap ad rather get Music hardware (Roland MV8000 + Sythns) as replacement which works for years without any hiccup yeah...

Some time later I needed a new Laptop, so I decided to give Apple another chance and bought an MacBook Pro.
Anything was nice for some time until its Logicbord died, and after that the Super Drive and than the original Apple RAMs. super.

After that, letters (they were just glued into the housing) of the MacBook Pro logo fall apart so that it said:
Macboo P o
Apple replaced me the whole MacBook Pro and I got an Unibody MBP yeah !
Thats was the first Mac which works for me since today, (beside the Battery is dying now and some parts s of the psu fall apart)

So thats why I am not that much in trust with Apple Hardware anymore.
 
I had a Mac Pro tower and the ethernet went out on it. Cost of Apple (or anyone) fixing it was prohibitive. My online searching for workarounds brought me to TonyMac and InsanelyMac. That was when I first realized Hackintosh was a thing - a wonderful thing! I built my first Hack built on one by @Stork and never looked back. I still buy Apple laptops because they're hard to hack, but as long as it's possible to make a Hackintosh I will probably always opt for that over a desktop Mac.
 
I got into Hackintoshes after building a Windows machine for work in 2011, to collect radar information. It contained a Super Micro motherboard and two Xeon processors and ran Windows 7. Since I had to do the research about which parts to select, I got the itch to replace my 2008 Mac Pro with a Gigabyte X58/i7-990X processor. I was hooked after that. I'm on my 4th Hackintosh now and my wife is still using the original one.
 
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