Software for a Hackintosh

Since the Netbook has lightweight tech specs, I’m not expecting it to outperform a laptop or desktop machine. Accordingly, I’m not going to load it up with a bunch of intensive software. Instead, I’m keeping it simple.

Installation

Before getting to the apps though is the hurdle of installing applications. With no optical (CD or DVD) drive, installing software distributed on discs takes an additional step. I had to disk image the iLife ’09 DVD then copy the software image to the Netbook for installation. Another option which I forgot about was using CD Sharing, now built into Snow Leopard. On a Mac with an optical drive, you can enable CD Sharing then access that disc on another Mac over the network. Mostly all the other software I installed is available online or transferred via a flash drive.

Software

Here’s the list of software I installed on my Hackintosh:

• Acorn – basic image editing
• Adium – instant messaging
• Awaken – great alarm clock (especially while on travel)
• Chrome – Google’s speedy browser
• Dropbox – to store stuff in the cloud
• ecto – blogging client
• Fetch – classic FTP and file transfer client
• Firefox – a solid, compatible web browser
• iLife ’09 – a must
• Imagewell – simple image editor
• LittleSnapper – screen shot app
• Onyx – Mac system maintenance tool
• Picasa – just to try Google’s image gallery app
• Pixelmator – another great image editor
• Quicksilver – venerable but aging app launcher
• Textmate – for editing text files and configuration files
• Tweetie – my Twitter client of choice
• Yojimbo – where I collect my notes

Most of these apps were from previous MacHeist or MacUpdate bundles, and I had extra or unused licenses. Again, the primary purpose of this machine is geared for use on travel:

• Accessing the Internet
• Communicating (email, IM, tweeting)
• Offloading and sharing digital camera pictures
• Blogging

And my current suite of software has my needs covered.