My MacBook Wind

Whenever I install OS X on my netbooks, I would always stop with the Mac OS X Setup Assistant and not opt to register my "Macs". They weren't real Macs anyway plus I haven't installed the correct kexts to be able to connect to the internet. I'd end up having an alias file in my home directory; the one with the Tux.

With my LAN port working perfectly fine, I ventured to push it one step further; register with Apple:

Of course I didn't sign up for Mobile Me trial.

I'll definitely enjoy using my Apple computer ;)

Argh!!!

Why didn't I see this one first? I hate Quick Silver and I hate it still! I thought I had to marry the guy and so I did and had little non-descript scripts such as "HeadPhones" and "switch.sh" litter my Macintosh HD, thinking all the while that this was necessary!

But it turns out that I could've opted for Audieee on my wind as well :(

And I wouldn't have had to go through the longish process of setting up what I had now had I unearthed the thread sooner.

It turns out that all I needed in the first place was the Audieee version customized for the MSI Wind (it was originally it was meant for the Eee PC hence the 3 e's in the utility's name) and CHUD.

And two steps at that:
1) Download CHUD and audieee4wind
2) Install CHUD and audieee4wind. Forget about the switch.sh included in the package

Great....

Loved this weekend and as with any normal weekends, I spent it tinkering with my MacBook Wind.

As in the last post, I did a fresh installation of Leopard which left the system in the "bare" mode, no make-up whatsoever. And so it was high time for some customization, I decided.

On with the background picture. I chose my all time fave, a landscape pic featuring the Trianon (I already forgetten which, Grand or Petit) of Marie Antoinette which I shot myself during my oh too short stint in France.

And then it struck me that me that my screen was somehow different than the way I've always remembered it.

adobe - darker

Before I knew it, I was back in System Preference --> Display and boom!

regular - washed

I switched to Adobe RGB 1998 and the "washed" appearance was no more to be replaced with a more vivid rendering. My screen was a bit "darker" in a sense but the pics are crisper and much more alive than before. I'm not so sure the screenshots do justice to the change I'm blabbing about but the main point is that it's definitely different

Now I don't know if I even should be using this display setting in terms of hardware support --I'm running a mere netbook here which isn't exactly the epitome of "premium" components -- and there's always this worry of finding my measly 10" display bricked along the way. So, I tried reverting to the normal setting and as soon I saw my screen washed in unnecessary whiteness, I went back to the Adobe RGB 1998 setting.

Perhaps I'm willing to risk it and find peace for my eyes.

I'm used to having to face an installation program when getting a new application on my PC. It's one of those familiar landmarks that let me know I'm home or near home, if you will.

In hopes of getting a messenger app other iChat on my MacBook Wind, I got Yahoo Messenger from the DVD I got from a fellow forumer. So, being the PC user I normally am, I clicked on the smiling Yahoo Messenger file in Finder, expecting to see an installation pop up and bug me.

Instead, I saw Yahoo Messenger immediately open. "Wow, this is really fast!" I thought. I quit the program after using it for a while

And then the problem was that YM was no where to be found when, later, I wanted to use it again. Where did it go?

I checked my applications folder but didn't see it; only iChat as if beckoning me with an inaudible 'Use me instead!'. 

And then I thought of just popping in the DVD again and clicked on that smiling wide icon in an attempt to launch some installation action but to no avail.

I hit the forums and found out that that smiling icon on the DVD was the entire application itself and all I had to do was drag it to my applications folder. I could even drag it to somwhere in my Mac and it would run from there.

Really now. This exercise made me feel a lot stupid ;)

After two previous netbooks, the Eee PC 701 and the Eee PC 900, I finally got the MSI Wind U100.

It's supposed to be the Linux version that I got from E-hub, which didn't include any OS when I bought it, not even Ubuntu. Apparently, the label "Linux version" meant "without any OS installed" for MSI. I remember having Xandros when I got my Eee PC's. Weird.

Anyway, a rundown on the specs first:

1.6 GHz Atom N270
1 GB DDR2 RAM
160 GB WD SATA
802.11 b/g
10" LED wide screen LCD
Webcam
Mic
No internal bluetooth

Pretty much the generic netbook specification. The unit set me a comfortable 19,999 Php. I would've have wanted the XP Home version which had the internal bluetooth module but the hard drive for that model's only 80 GB and costed 24,950 Php.

I figured out I'd rather have the bigger cappacity hard drive 19,999 Php model and then add a separate bluetooth usb dongle for a better deal.

After two previous netbooks, the Eee PC 701 and the Eee PC 900, I finally got the MSI Wind U100.

It's supposed the Linux version that I got from E-hub, which didn't include any OS when I bought it, not even Ubuntu. Apparently, the label "Linux version" meant "without any OS installed" for MSI. I remember having Xandros when I got my Eee PC's. Weird.

Anyway, a rundown on the specs first:

1.6 GHz Atom N270
1 GB DDR2 RAM
160 GB WD SATA
802.11 b/g
10" LED wide screen LCD
Webcam
Mic
No internal bluetooth

Pretty much the generic netbook specification. The unit set me a comfortable 19,999 Php. I would've have wanted the XP Home version which had the internal bluetooth module but the hard drive for that model's only 80 GB and cost24,950 Php.

I figured out I'd rather have the bigger capacity hard drive 19,999 Php model and then add a separate blue tooth USB dongle for a better deal. I was even inspired to buy Windows XP Home separately from E-hub too and the total cost came at only 23,799 Php, still cheaper.

Next I got the msiwindosx86 DVD from a fellow forumer as  I didn't have decent broadband connection at home and proceeded with the experiment.

(You can google for the msiwindosx86 ISO on the net for download)

Installation:

I didn't want to erase Win XP entirely yet and opted to dual boot. So bearing in mind what I read on the forums that I would have to partition my drive to create space for my new kitty, I resorted to:

1. boot up with Mandriva live CD, pretend to install it. I was able to resize my Windows partition and create a new partition on the drive, giving me 80 GB for Windows and another 80 GB for OS X.

2. That done, I rebooted the machine, held down F11 to get to my boot options. Swapped the Mandriva live CD with the msiwindosx86 DVD and chose my external DVD drive to boot from.

3. Some text appeared and I waited for about a couple of minutes before the OS X Installer GUI appeared. I chose the language and ran Disk Utility to format the partition I'd just created: HFS+journaled.

[gallery]

4. I then chose the partition, or as indicated by the installer program, "Drive" where I wanted to put Leopard.

5. I cancelled installer verification because I was so excited and the installation went through quite smoothly.

6. After about an hour, I was greeted with the Leopard welcome screen--it was breathtaking to see the word "welcome" fly across outer space my LCD in different language and with that equally cool background music. I think that was the moment I officially became an Apple fan girl