I hope you're planning on using an external monitor because XCode is going to be almost unusable at 1024x600.
I have a 46" Sharp Aquos 1080p (using it right now to type this). Hopefully you can hook up the Dell without much problems. $614 out of pocket for the laptop, software, external burner, USB drives, and 2 highly rated books, one on learning Objective-C and another on the app-building process. I have a minor in computer science so I'm confident I'll learn Obj-C. I used to know Pascal, C++, and Assembly.
Eh, if I were going for a tiny computer, I'd probably go for a Linux based EEE (is that EEE (one syllable) or E-E-E (three syllables) ) The pre-installed software would probably tide me over. If I'm really desperate, I'd just get the XP version (hey, it's Windows, but it's XP! Vista... *shudders). Besides, somebody'll probably come up with a way of installing OSX in there. I had a Dell laptop. One of those discontinued Inspirons. Crappiest hardware on the face of the earth. The Commodore 64 was more functional than that. Hodapp, question regarding the pic. I dunno if I got the perspective screwed up or something, but is your hand covering over HALF of your keyboard? That little hunk of machinery looks like it could fit in my cargo shorts :/
Dude it's a netbook, they're tiny as hell. That's the gimmick. I love mine. I am almost constantly what you would refer to as "on call" with my day job, it's complicated. Previous to this I'd always carry my MacBook Pro around with me when I left my house for any more time than just walking down to Starbucks. That's a lot of computer to be hauling everywhere, and they really don't get the best battery life despite what Apple would like you to believe. So carrying a 15" laptop, cellular modem, power adapter, and some of the other crap I haul around always required a regular laptop bag. With the Mini 9, I can use just any old regular man purse messenger bag, everything fits, and the thing goes like a champion on battery so I've stopped worrying about hauling around my power cord. The way the Hackintosh crap currently works is either with hacked drivers or just using the drivers that OSX comes preloaded with on hardware that is similar enough. This is why a lot of the time you will see those Hackintosh buying guide which list specific motherboards to get. In the case of the EEE PC (and most other laptops) the included hardware doesn't match anything that Apple has... And there really doesn't seem to be anyone in the Hackintosh community who either has the technical know-how, time, or dedication to write OSX drivers from scratch to get the OS working on non-standard hardware when it's so much easier to select from the short list of laptops and motherboards that work flawlessly. As far as the Mini 9 build quality, the screen kind of blows. It has a really mediocre viewing angle, and the buttons on the trackpad were designed by some kind of idiot. Aside from that though, the thing is tip top. It's really small enough and light enough that it's not all wobbly like most Dell laptops. ...And running OSX, you completely leapfrog over dealing with the crappy Dell drivers and utilities required in any Windows install!
I'm going to have to get a Dell Mini 9. I have always wanted one, and I have always wanted something to run OS X. I think I found a winner. I can't afford a Mac at this point in time, so yea. But, I'll research and see if there is somehow I can get OS X working on my main machine.
Got mine today and I like it! Question: Is it prone to scratches? And do you baby it? I hear that they are meant to be bumped and shaken.
MSI Wind is another netbook that has been proven to run as a nice little hackintosh as well. And it has a better, spacier keyboard layout. However, the build quality is not as good as the Dell, and there are differing variations of the Wind. Plus the Wind (as the Medion Mini variation - MSI builds for other manufacturers as well) is the basis of this little ad:
For $300 How To: Hackintosh a Dell Mini 10v Into the Ultimate Snow Leopard Netbook http://gizmodo.com/5389166/how-to-hackintosh-a-dell-mini-10v-into-the-ultimate-os-x-netbook
I used to question the validity of Apple not getting into the whole netbook thing, but, y'know...not so much anymore. A lot of the stuff netbooks are used for is web oriented. Web surfing, really. Typing on those keyboards is a pain in the ass, so it isn't the "go to" laptop to take to a coffee shop and type up your latest novel. As it's mainly used for websurfing, and little odds and ends like that, honestly...my iPod touch does that same sort of stuff. That said, I'd love to see Apple return the old 12" form factor that they used to have on the G4 Powerbook. But...we all know they're working on that beefed up iPhone-esque tablet, which, in and of itself is not a bad idea...if they can get the price right. I think since it'll run on the iPhone OS flavor of OS X, they're most likely waiting for ARM's Cortex A9 multicores to come to market, to give it just that little extra "oomph". BTW, tried one of the Mini 10v's with that variant of Ubuntu they're using...niiice.
I've been looking for a netbook for a long long time. But it's the resolution which makes me stay away from them. Also my main purpose is to run OSX and use parallels or that other similar software(forgot the name) to run a couple of custom made softwares (the softwares aren't power hungry). I'm sure these netbooks will die with that much pressure. Just hoping the apple tablet will be powerful enough to run windows in virtualization. This Dell looks very tempting. Just wish it was a bit more powerful, with a little more resolution(my software won't run good enough in 1024x600) and a real hdd(16GB probably won't cut if if u install two OS on it). Please apple make your tablet atleast as powerful as my first gen MacBook. I'd kill to get that in ~10 inch size. Want OSX coz of no virus, trouble free experience and XP to run my stupid softwares
