Ben Meltcafe has been conducting some experiment running Mac OS X on a DELL Mini 9. He thinks this class of computer would fit in the Apple product line,
Because the iPhone doesn’t suit everyone as the truly portable Apple experience. Like many, I can’t stand typing anything longer than a twitter or SMS on the iPhone on-screen keyboard. It also still doesn’t give me multitasking of multiple applications nor true ‘full internet’ browser experience [...] In many ways, a Mac Netbook is what the Mac Book Air should have been – especially as for many it serves as a secondary Apple laptop to a primary MacBook Pro 15 or 17 machine.
I agree. I’ve been impressed by the performance and the design of this machine and despite it’s tiny size it is much more comfortable than an iPhone for typing and browsing the web.
I’ve started to experiment the system with the beta of Windows 7 and everything has been recognized and runs smoothly (e.g., Aero visual effects, playing 720p HD videos, 3D demos and 3Dmark03).
It’s a full-featured computer.
The most compelling thing of course, is the price. DELL started selling a small spec’ed unit for just $249, a special deal that expires on February 12.
CTO at 
Comments
I bought the Mini 9 online in the first week of January and my expected delivery date WAS January 19…..until they pushed it back to February 19. Sigh.
Mac is what I use at home and my comfort zone but the convenience of a purse sized PC was really attractive. I'm blessed with small hands so I don't see size holding me back at all. It comes pre-loaded with Windows XP and though I don't love Microsoft (unlike those armies of…..no wait….), my line of thinking was, “Yay! Not Vista!” And, yes, of course there's also Ubuntu but I'm just not there yet.
Robin9 February 09 at 11:13 pm
Hi Robin,
Don't worry mine too was delayed a bit. It seems they have a lot of success with those tiny things. At this price, I can't be a bad decision.
I'm also a Mac user for many years and actually haven't bought a PC in 8 years and never actually worked on Windows XP.
Windows 7 is pretty good actually, I think Microsoft finally got a decent replacement for Windows XP which runs well on those netbooks.
As usual Ubuntu is a great alternative if you can accept some flaws and a “slower” desktop (at least from the version I got from DELL).
Fred Brunel10 February 09 at 5:05 pm
I used to think about installing MacOSX on a Mini 9, but found a better solution : buy a PowerBook 12″ : it's about 350 € (a bit more expensive) but it rocks ! I did it, and I'm happy again !
I've seen OSX running on a EEEPC 901 and it's quite slow. Furthermore, the hardware is not fully supported, but I think that the situation is better on a Mini 9.
casa16 February 09 at 6:20 am
The PowerBook 12″ was an awesome machine, I remember seeing your first one. I don't know why Apple discontinued it.
OS X on netbooks is a hack but it's better than nothing I guess. I've been told that on the Mini 9 everything is recognized; but you have to install some drivers.
Regarding performances, I guess it's because you need 2GB at minimum for OS X, and most netbooks only ships with 1GB.
Fred Brunel16 February 09 at 8:21 pm
The PowerBook 12″ was an awesome machine, I remember your first one. I don't know why Apple discontinued it.
OS X on netbooks is a hack but it's better than nothing I guess. I've been told that on the Mini 9 everything is recognized; but you have to install some drivers.
Regarding performances, I guess it's because you need 2GB at minimum for OS X, and most netbooks only ships with 1GB.
Fred Brunel17 February 09 at 1:21 am
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