What was your primary reason for building a hackintosh?

[bigjimmy]

because I can, LOL

 

[infraredmosquito]

I would like to know what your PRIMARY reason was to build a hackintosh.

I use computers mainly for graphics, specifically adobe creative suite, and can't seem to find my way around the computer without the column view in the finder. If windows added a nice column view i would probably be more ok with that operating system, but not enough to switch back.

 

[GhostRaiderMX]

I chose to Hackintosh primarily because Apple's desktop computers don't convince me for their value. For $1000 price tag I'd expect quality hardware not some gimped overpriced computer. For that same price you can build your own Hackintosh with better hardware that blows any Mac away.

 

[fboranek]

My primary reason was to try. I mean really to use it. That time, 7 years ago, I already had iMac at work but I used only Xcode and command line and didn't feel that OS is something special. You know, primary OS Windows or Linux and this one a bit weird. As soon as I installed first Hackintosh at home, the situation turned around. Primary OS is now MacOS. At work iMac and home PC. I can honestly say, that now the reason is hardware. On the same PC, I have also Windows 10 for gaming.

 

[mochemenagen]

Working on video editing, 6 years ago, I bought a MacBook Pro. It was a really bad experience. Too slowwwwwww! After that an iMac 27" with i7 and HDD, also bad, slow, and too much closed to evolution. After that, I found on Internet your site tonymacx86, build my first station with Intel 9550 processor, and it was a dream come true, speed, fast respond, and good video card (AMD 7950). I continue every year, with update, and built a computer editing station for lot of friend, photographer, and video artist. Everybody are on dream, and like the hackintosh world. Also, build a FaceBook group about news on hackintosh. Very Happy to share my experience.

 

[Vyzantion]

I came to respect Unix systems, especially Linux, for years, but I could not escape Windows yet. I appreciate Richard Stallman and his philosophy, behind Gnu and Gnu license in many of its parts, tested several Linux distros, although Windows was still the primary os. After browsing the online Apple services, I was disappointed that they were not available for Linux. Also there were some proprietary Apple software that were OS X only, like Logic Pro, that I may acquire someday, without paying the price of a full Mac, only of Logic Pro. Mac OS X is not Linux, but it is Unix, so, less then Linux, better then Windows. There were also open source components in it and I did no liked that Apple was using open source for their benefits. Also I had more available apps to install, so I decided to give it a try, for those reasons: 1) Unix system, with larger app quantity then Linux; 2) OS X exclusive availability for Garageband and Logic Pro; 3) Lack of money; 4) As a statement of freedom, since I consider that part from the Eula that forbids installing it on non-Apple labeled hardware abusive and illegal, especially using open source components; 5) Because it is harder then installing Windows or Linux, and the result is really satisfying, once achieved. There are some drawbacks, like the fact that advanced GPU features are not available due to the old Nvidia Graphics, and booting with npci=0x3000 makes some things to just do not work, like many iTunes visualisations and new Windows software on Wine, but I think it is worth it.

 

[GlennieM]

A mix of 1, 2 and 5. I have been an Apple product buyer since my first iMac 21.6 in 2008. Our whole family (bar one) are "born again, Apple product fans". I like both the effortless way that everything integrates software wise but like everyone else not a great fan of the way form over function has made Apple products increasingly hard to repair or improve by yourself over successive model runs.
I am now retired and I have found that my mix of self funding and part pension don't go as far as I expected. That has made me look more critically at the value of items I purchase. Here in Oz the cost of the iMac that l want to replace my 2011 iMac which has a faulty gpu, is close to $4,000 I don't think it is worthwhile replacing the card so I am going to build a Hackintosh. I have already built a Hackintosh for one of my daughters and it is working well so far except fo a few issues with gpu which I want to solve myself.
I enjoy tinkering with electronics and have done so for at least 60 years and now use that interest to keep my brain active, learning and enquiring still. I also enjoy photography and like everyone else have found I am able to build a far superior, upgradeable photo editing computer a lot cheaper than buying a Mac off the shelf. Plus it is a most rewarding, satisfying and enjoyable experience. An experience that I would not be able to have except with the knowledge and expertise of the generous people that populate this forum. Thank you everyone.

 

[RandomTech]

I want to say to all the majority who go with "Apple does not sell systems with the specs I want."

-Of course Apple can sell systems with the specs you want, But the question is:
Are you welling to sell two of your kids to buy an Apple product which has all the specs you want?
Don't tell me because I know the answer, You will stick to your Hackintosh..

So, one big thanks with a wide wet kiss to tonxmax86 and all those guys who work very hard to give us this OS X experience and let us sleep well at the night.

 

[pastrychef]

Are you welling to sell two of your kids to buy an Apple product which has all the specs you want?

I would. I've gone through many Power Macs and a few Mac Pros. The great thing about Macs is how well they hold their value. By selling my previous model, I was always able to greatly offset the cost of the new one. Even when I built my hackintosh, I was able to sell my 6 year old Mac Pro for $1000.

 

[threeddie]

I'm not surprised by the results of the poll. If it asked for my secondary reason it would most likely be Cost. Especially at the Pro end of the SKU spectrum; In 2013 I built a dual 6-core Xeon hackintosh for about half the price of what Apple was charging for the equivalent spec. Still have the machine but it is not my daily driver.

I first got introduced to hackintosh back in 2009 when I installed OS X on a Dell Inspiron 10 netbook. Then a colleague at work asked me if I could set one up with some old hardware he had left over from a recent upgrade. Until 2013 I would on occasion set one up here and there for other people, but I never did for myself as I used Apple hardware at the time. MacBook Air Late 2010 for on-the go work, 27" iMac as the home office desktop, Mac mini with TB RAID as the server.

Since 2013, I have replaced all Apple gear with hackintosh: My desktop was the dual Xeon but now a Skylake i7 6700K, my server is an i5 4460 in a Silverstone DS380 8-bay case with a HighPoint RAID card, and I am typing this on a HP ZBook 14 G2. 14" Touchscreen 1080p "MacBook Pro" with built in GbE and VGA sockets, really useful as where I work a lot of projectors use VGA. m.2 and SATA III drives so I have Windows 10 in the SATA SSD.