Thursday, April 29, 2010

The Hackintosh Dilemma

So, I have a nifty little triple-boot machine with OS X, Linux Mint and Windows XP. I was lucky enough to receive a Gigabyte motherboard as a gift from a friend, and it happened to be one of the most compatible with OS X available. I've been a big fan of Apple's OS for a while now, so naturally I took the plunge and made it my main OS again.

It works very well, and as good as Linux Mint and Ubuntu 10.04 are I still prefer to work in the Mac OS. However, I've come to realize that not only am I committing myself to a mostly closed, proprietary system from a corporation, I am doing so quasi-legally. As I work in law enforcement, this presents a conundrum for me both from a legal and a moral standpoint. How can I consider myself held to a higher standard -- as all law enforcement employees are, even non-sworn personnel like me -- yet I skirt the law on this issue? Granted, it's far from a decided issue; it is a matter of breaking Apple's user agreement which so far has not been validated in a court of law. The fact remains though, that I am constantly living on the edge of having to switch operating systems at the drop of a hat should either the law change, or Apple releases a patch that renders my installation unable to boot.

With all that in mind, I'm pondering a final move to open source. I'm going to wait and see what Linux Mint has to offer with the new version, as it has finally knocked Slackware off the top of my list of favorite Linux distributions. Sorry Pat, Slackware still has its place just not as my main OS.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

So it begins...

Such an ominous title for the first post of a mediocre blogging project. I'm nobody special, by the way; just a tech-oriented guy who has never (gasp!) had a personal blog before. I do maintain a local weather blog in my spare time, Paulding County Weather, but it is only one of many hobbies.

So anyway, I guess this will be a place for me to spew random thoughts and observations, and perhaps someone out there will benefit somehow. Or not.