Intro 1: Mac OS X on the Dell Mini
The Dell Mini 9 is practically the best netbook when it comes to compatibility with Mac OS X Leopard. While there are no computers completely compatible with Mac OS except the Macs made by Apple, the Dell Mini has almost everything working properly, or at least in a functional manner.
For hardware, everything works except the following:
- Microphone input (this can be bypassed with a USB headset or USB soundcard)
- SDHC works, but can be slightly buggy. (I've had no issues yet.) Also, no Memory Stick support.
- Mirroring on VGA port (This can be solved within DellEFI, although with a buggy driver)
- Touchpad scrolling (multi-touch will never happen, do not use the setting in DellEFI either.) Currently meklort has a driver in development, almost complete.
Software-wise, if it runs on a Mac, it will run on a Mini with OS X. There are bound to be exceptions of course, and there are definitely programs that are just too resource hungry. Two programs in particular that need to be mentioned as being incompatible:
- Silverlight - This is a web player from Microsoft. It will actually work, it's just that the installer check thinks that it's not compatible and thus won't install. You'll need to modify it to get it to work:
Open the disk image you downloaded, copy the installer package to your desktop or some other folder (you have to do this or else you can't delete a file like you will need to later on). Then right click and select "Show Package Contents". Open "Contents" then "Resources" and finally delete the "InstallationCheck" file. Close all of those windows and then double click the installer package as usual. Install goes as normal. No sketchy "patched" version required. - Parallels Desktop 4 - It requires a CPU feature that the Atom processor in the Mini does not have. But Parallels 3 still works just fine.