Someone I know asked me "Why are you posting all these things about your Mac?" , and it dawned on me that not all people know what it is that I, along with the rest of the OSX86 community, are doing or are showing (by means of this blog or by means of a few forums on the Internet). I realized that only a very few among the population probably know what the big deal is about why we get so giddy and euphoric when we get successful system updates, or when we finally have the sound card functioning, or when we attain full resolution with our graphics cards, when every one and their uncle can update their Macs with a few mouse clicks.
The fact of the matter is: I don't have a Mac. I have a Hac(k).
A Hac(k) is when you assemble your own system "almost entirely" (more on this later) out of non-Apple branded parts. You buy a regular motherboard (from Fry's or Newegg or wherever you get your electronic jollies) and buy a standard hard drive, and a standard DVD-RW drive, and a standard graphics card, and whatever else you need to assemble a functioning computer system. The one thing (not the only thing, though) that you should buy from Apple is Mac OSX. You should not download from some torrent site, nor should you get some copy from someone else. Once you get all these, that's when the magic begins. It is like putting a Maserati engine inside a Japanese car. You tweak it, you curse it, you love it, you spend too much time on it - until it works just like the way you want it to.
A little backgrounder: Mac OSX is designed and supposed to work only on things made by Apple. But.... when one can make it work without modifications (Vanilla install) on other systems, it makes for a very enjoyable hobby (if you are into this sort of thing, but if you're the type who thinks being a geek means just being able to play DoTA, or that you watch Anime, then save yourself from the headaches that follow).
Don't get me wrong, I do like Apple products, and I do own quite a few of them. But the thing is, an Apple product is like a steel vault - it functions the way it should almost without failing and will last for a long, long time, and it almost never fails you and your high expectations, but in the end, it is all it is, a steel vault. You can tweak it a little bit, and modify it here and there somewhat. But when it does fail, and you have to talk to some half-wit kid in a blue t-shirt who thinks he is your personal conduit to Palo Alto and who does not have any idea what a Boolean or an EFI string is and he tells you that you need to buy a $400 graphics processing card to replace the one that died on you (and you can only get it from Apple, of course), you might be happy accepting your fate in your little corner of the world.
This is the reason why there are OSX86 or Hackintosh forums. When you take a look at Hackintosh forums, you see all these people from every country in the world doing some kind of show-and-tell, doing whatever marvels or miracles they're accomplishing with their systems. And the best thing is, they are all excited to share their solutions (like this blog) to anyone and everyone in the Hackintosh community who might be interested, and help anyone who are in need of solutions in running their systems. Most, if not all, of these people own real Apple and Mac products, but they would like to go beyond the buying, the fad-surfing and the posing. They don't feel the need to be proud of what they can buy ready-made from a store (like some people you, or I, may know or are acquainted with). There's no fun in that, as anyone can buy anything these days no matter what, because this is the new way of the world. Buy now, think of the consequences tomorrow.
What most people in the OSX86 community like is the challenge, and the challenge is in the what-does-not-work, not in what works. "What works" is boring, you can buy "what works", and "what works" comes to you gift-wrapped in a box.
You have to realize that we do this because we are proud of the possibility to bend (not break) programming and system rules, to have fun, and to be involved in intellectual interaction along the process. So for those who did not know before, well, now you do. So now, how do you like them Apples?
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