Thinkpads Forum

Could you point me at what I should read about this please?

I've been a mac user for more than 15 years now. Due to hardware starting to seriously fail, and an inability to afford another mac (even the used upgrades are out of budget), I thought I could buy a relatively inexpensive Thinkpad and smoothly switch to Linux.

I'm not enjoying my Linux experience. Am presently on my 5th distro - xubuntu - and am tired of all the difficulty each day. I feel like I fight my computer non-stop just to do things that came so easily on the Mac. Linux is great for those who are experienced in programming / coding and all that - but it is really just too hard for little ole' me! I appreciate that it is free. And I'm not bashing anyone. It just isn't right for me personally.

So I started wondering about whether I could run Mac OS X on this Thinkpad. That led me to this forum section. I already own Mac OS 10.4.11 and 10.3.9 - it is just that my old mac hardware is going kaput at a rapid rate.

-What should I know about running Mac on a thinkpad (R51 with Pentium M 1.6, 2GB RAM, 30 GB HD)
- I only want to run my old favorite apps again- ESPECIALLY a word processor called Bean and have access to the nifty thesaurus dictionary that is part of the OS. (Sounds small, but I've been going nuts trying to get used to the offerings on Linux and I can't get used to them.)
- Could I install my old copy of Adobe CS (1) again? (Not critical, but it would be nice.)
- Could I install my old web design software which is for mac, Freeway? (Only runs up to 10.4.11 I think)

I'm easily baffled by how all of this works, so if you would please point me at the right resources I would be most grateful. I feel like an idiot after my experience with Linux. I'm not nearly as savvy as I once believed myself to be re: computers!

Thank you.

I haven't tried installing any type of OSX on a R51, but knowing the palette in question reasonably well, I'd be willing to bet that your experience with that combination will leave a lot to be desired.

Hardware support for R51 is likely to be minimal. That will probably leave you with a sluggish and unresponsive machine, which R51 doesn't have to be. If you browse around this section of the forum, you'll find out that OSX of any kind requires *major* tweakings on just about every ThinkPad. There are many people who have the patience and/or the need to go down that route, I've never achieved anything that I'd consider a success, not by a long shot.

Running a virtual machine of some kind might be a solution for you.

My $0.02 only...

Good luck.

Although that might not be what I'd hope to hear, I'm glad you spelled it out clearly. I would have been more frustrated to spend weeks trying to make something else work. I've lost so much time and energy on this already. Thanks, seriously, for saving me from more of that.

I've read about virtual box, but their web site states that they don't even allow people to discuss installing OSX anymore due to issues with Apple. I haven't been able to discover any other options for running Mac software in some virtual environment.

It is seeming more and more that my only option is to sell the Thinkpad and use whatever money comes from that to buy the cheapest functional old Apple laptop I can find (newer than a g3).

Thanks for helping.

While I haven't tried it personally, several people around here have mentioned Macbuntu as a viable alternative to running OSX on a ThinkPad.

If running OSX of some kind is an absolute must for you, then nothing apart from a Mac is likely to work 100% as intended, to the best of my limited knowledge.

Good luck.

I have used MacBuntu, and can say that it looks and feels a whole lot like a Mac OS, but it is still Ubuntu through and through. So, the apps that writebunny is looking for would be missing. Looks like the only easy way to use Mac software is to just use a Mac computer. There are alternatives, some of which may even be better than what the Mac world offers, but they all come with a bit of a learning curve.

Then again, there are several people successfully using OSX Hackintosh on a Thinkpad here and other forums. Check them out and see the one which fits you best. I am sure it would be a good BUDGET hackintosh.