My luvverly Dell Mini 9 running OS X. Click pic for more images in the gallery
I’m snatching a quick ten minutes during a busy weekend to start writing this week’s column.
The sunny weather and Mother’s Day have collaborated to ensure I’m getting less desk time than I could normally rely on but thanks to my latest acquisition that doesn’t mean I have to be away from a computer.
I’ve been a serious laptop user for over a decade now. iMac aside, all my computers are portable, although I admit to buying laptops primarily for their smaller footprint. My endless quest to maintain a clutter free home office means I have neither the floor or desk space for desktop machines. My work laptop goes to and from the office and my bulky Alienware gaming laptop is just about luggable to friends’ houses but I’ve never had a truly portable machine that I could be comfortable carrying around with me.
Actually, that’s not strictly true as I bought into the mini ‘netbook’ trend with the first model Asus EeePC which made headline news for being the smallest, cheapest computer on the market, but found its build quality and stripped down operating system made it feel like something manfactured by Fisher-Price toys. The tiny keyboard necessitated an index finger ‘pecking’ style of typing that I found too slow and uncomfortable so it’s now on permanent loan with my sister-in-law and her far more dainty digits.
For months I’ve been coveting the Dell Mini 9, a dinky little netbook with a larger keyboard than the EeePC. A few weeks ago two things happened simultaneously that were to seal its fate and ensure I would end up owning one. Firstly I actually tried one out in PC World and secondly I read an article about how to turn one into a ‘Hackintosh’ by installing Apple’s Mac OS X on it.
Adopting my general principal of using PC World to look at stuff and then buying it 25% cheaper online, I ordered a Mini 9 from Dell which turned up at the weekend. A couple of hours later it was sporting a fully fledged Mac OS X in all its glory.
There are a number of online guides about how to install OS X on a Dell Mini 9. Be advised that the Mini 9 is apparently particularly straightforward for this process and that other laptops and netbooks are different and require a difference procedure (even the Dell Mini 10 and 12). I followed the guide I found at Gizmodo which was easy to follow, although I did have to go through every stage as the external DVD drive I borrowed for the purpose wouldn’t boot OS X and so I had to go the whole way and make a bootable installation on a USB Flash drive. This wasn’t tricky (if you follow the guide) but you do need a) a decent size flash drive (mine is 8GB which is the minimum) and b) plenty of patience because it takes more than an hour just for the one copying stage.
Another great source for all things Dell Mini (including the 9) – http://mydellmini.com/.
I’ve taken a few more snaps of the Mini 9 which you can see on my gallery.
I absolutely love this thing and at barely 7 x 9 inches, I can take it with me wherever I go. Apple’s apparent reluctance to bring out an affordable mini netbook running OS X has cost them dear.
2 comments
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April 2, 2009 at 2:36 am
Sqidge
Excellent!
A friend and I have been looking for something that might be a replacement for her magic Pismo if it finally dies, (was there ever a more flexible laptop?)
We’ve been trailing your research by a few months, not really impressed by what we’ve seen but enticed by the practicality – now you have shown us what looks like a gorgeous solution.
And judging by your rave, a functional one too. A few reports lately in other places suggest that Dell’s build quality has improved, so . . . .
Thank you for finding the time to write these notes.
April 5, 2009 at 9:05 am
David
I’ve now had the machine for about three weeks and I’ve just taken it away as my sole computer for a week’s holiday. I really am impressed with it.
Two exceptionally minor ‘issues’ (which actually seems too strong a word for what they really are but for the sake of balance I should report them):
1. The trackpad and buttons are a little too small for my liking and I can sometimes have a second finger hovering over the pad sending the cursor shooting madly around the screen. With careful finger placement I can overcome this but I never seem to remember between sessions. You can’t really blame Dell and call this a design fault as the pad could only be made bigger at the expense of the keyboard size so they spent the available real estate on the correct place.
To combat this I’ve invested in a mini Bluetooth mouse which, yes, is something else to carry around but it’s worth it for prolonged periods of use.
2. Occasionally OS X won’t boot. The screen goes grey, the Apple logo appears and then… nothing. I’ve read about this on other Mini 9 Hackintosh reviews and it’s possibly something that can be fixed at some point. My estimate is that it happens maybe once in ever 10 boots and is easily combatted with a power-off and power-on.
Other than that I could not find fault with anything about this device and OS combination. I’ve grown perfectly used to the keyboard which, although small, is ‘large’ enough for almost full-size touch typing speeds. Mac OS X works flawlessly and all in all I’m extremely happy.