Hackintoshing: How To Be A Mac And A PC
by Kaomi Goetz
Can you be a Mac and a PC? It ______ _______ you can -- but it'll take a lot of work. Meet a couple of "hackintoshers" -- people who've worked out ways to get their PCs to _______an Apple operating system.
BLOCK: Anyone in the market for a computer has to answer the big question and I'm not talking about desktop versus _______, I'm talking about Mac or PC. But a __________ making the rounds on the Internet lets you have both. It's called Hackintoshing.
Kaomi Goetz explains.
KAOMI GOETZ: You've seen the Apple _____________, the smug Mac user reigns superior over his uptight PC counterpart.
(Soundbite of Apple commercial)
Mr. JUSTIN LONG (Actor): (As Mac) Hello, I'm a Mac.
Mr. JOHN HODGMAN (Actor): (As PC) And I'm a PC. You know, we use a lot of the same kinds of _______________.
Mr. LONG: Yeah, like Microsoft Office.
Mr. HODGMAN: But we _____________ a lot of what makes us...
Mr. LONG: You should see what this guy can do with a ____________, it's insane.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Mr. HODGMAN: Oh, shucks.
GOETZ: But if you could be both? Rob Kelly is. He ____________ Web projects in New York City. He's also a Hackintosher. Kelly has Apple software on his Dell PC laptop. He learned how from an ____________ tutorial. It wasn't easy.
Mr. ROB KELLY (Web Project Manager): If you make a mistake, you basically ________ over again. You know, so I was, like, oh, I made a mistake in this _________, I'd start over. I'll go get some coffee, come back in 20 minutes. Oh, I made a mistake, go get some coffee, come back in 20 minutes. It was a ______________.
GOETZ: He says it was worth it, ___________. His converted Dell laptop cost half as much as a MacBook. He also wanted the choice of being able to work in either a PC or Mac world to ___________his work and home lives better.
Mr. KELLY: And then it … You know, but you walk into a place and, you know, you're working on your _________ and people, like, stop, like, oh, it's a Dell. Oh, it's an Apple. Wait, what is that? That's a ________ feeling, you know, that's fun to talk about.
GOETZ: It's not for everyone. You have to like _______ things. Kelly says it's kind of like working on the car.
Mr. KELLY: It's a tinkerer's joy, you know. It's, like, okay, I'm going to actually make that Apple ________ or Apple screen show up on this non-Apple computer. I think I can do it. And sure enough, yeah, there's a great feeling of, like, I did it, when it finally _______ ________. And you're, like, oh my gosh. And the __________ works and the screen works. And people who love that feeling I think are the right type of people to try this out.
GOETZ: Most people listening to this story would probably rather go to their ____________ Apple store and buy the product they want. But that's ___________ why Hackintoshing really got going.
Two years ago, ____________ MacBook computers came out, but Apple didn't offer one. So tech ___________ decided to make their own. ___________ magazine writer Brian Chen was an early adopter. He posted a video on how to Hackintosh until Apple _________him to take it down because the demo used pirated software. Chen says Hackintoshing is just a natural response to __________DIY culture.
Mr. BRIAN CHEN (Writer, Wired): Like, say for example, it's more obvious with people with cars. They like to oftentimes buy different _______or speakers to get a better sound than with __________ equipment. But with computers, in particular, gets a little bit more interesting because people start doing things with computers that they couldn't normally do.
GOETZ: Apple wouldn't ___________for this story, but it clearly doesn't like Hackintoshing. For ____________, it violates Apple's end user license agreement, that _____________ using Apple software on non-Apple branded hardware. It isn't going after individuals, but has ________companies like Size-Star(ph) for not playing by its rules.
But now the battle's being _______ on smartphones. Manufacturers are trying to _________consumers down to one system. But Chen says the tech rebels are __________ phones like they did computers to create the mobile gadget of their dreams.
Mr. CHEN: It's like a resistance to ________. And it's kind of beautiful in a ____.
GOETZ: For NPR News, I'm Kaomi Goetz in New York.