So Much for the Atom Hackintosh

Earlier this week, we released the TechStuff podcast Jonathan and I recorded about the hackintosh. As you already know, Apple’s Macintosh is a closed system — they produce the hardware and the software both. It makes for an elegant solution, because in general the machines and operating system are tailored to each other and work well together.

One downside of this is that Apple charges a premium for its computers. So if you like OS X and want to run it on your desktop, you have to buy a Macintosh computer. If you don’t mind, it works out; Apple hasn’t released a lot of underpowered machines lately. But if you’re on a budget, you just might be buying a PC. Also, if you prefer netbooks, you’re out of luck, since Apple’s stance on the issue is that the company can’t make a netbook of the quality that Apple can get behind. So if you want to run a netbook with OS X, what do you do then?

Some people on a budget, or who want to use a netbook, like building their own computers or like to hack the operating system create hackintoshes. They find ways to run the Macintosh operating system on non-Apple hardware. There are several solutions, some more elegant than others, and in general they seem to work OK, based on what I’ve read. But if you’re using a hackintosh netbook with an Intel Atom processor and you have Apple’s OS 10.6 OS, aka Snow Leopard, read this:

Upgrading to 10.6.2 will break your hackintosh.

I read this today(after I updated my iMac at home) on ZDNet, where Jason O’Grady wrote about it. He’s an avowed hackintosh fan. Apple’s none too thrilled with the hackintosh crowd, and the latest operating system update ends support for the Atom processor. If you try it, your computer will hang during the bootup process.

It looks like this:

So that’s it for now. Until someone finds a way around the problem, of course. I think something this deeply embedded may prove to be a stumper for most casual hackintosh owners, though. Funny that this happened the week that podcast was released, too. Ah, technology, will you never stop moving?

For more on mobile technology and hackers, take a look at these articles:

How Hackers Work
What’s the difference between notebooks, netbooks and ultra-mobile PCs?
How to Build a Computer