Bijan Sabet

Jailbreaking MacOS

I was at the local Apple store yesterday with a friend of mine.

We were looking at a bunch of stuff and my friend said that he was really impressed with the Dell Mini 9. I can see why. It’s 2.5lbs, battery life is 4 hours and its less than $250.

But the kicker? Users have figured out a way to install MacOS X on these low cost computers.

While we were at the store another Apple customer was checking out a Macbook. He had an iphone in his hand but said that he was happy with his netbook running MacOS. My brother also has MacOS working on his Lenovo.

It’s pretty clear what’s happening here.

The users are in taking over. They are essentially “jailbreaking” MacOS and getting it to run on their own hardware.

* * *

These low cost netbooks are popping up everywhere. I read on Techmeme this morning that Verizon is going to introduce a subsidized netbook with a bundled data service plan.

At some point I’m guessing we are going to see really low cost PCs designed to fit nicely in your living room. The MacMini is great but still too expensive for most folks.

But if Dell can make a netbook for $250 then I’m convinced they can build a MacMini equivalent for under $250.

Or someone else will.