[dreuge]

I own several macs, and I have used my macbookpro w/ GPSNavX and usb GPS on short sailing trips. I am disappointed with the lack of reasonable DC power options for macs, but I cannot come to grips with using a windows based system.

I have a friend who recently purchased a dell mini 10v for $270. I watched him installed Snow Leopard rather simply (just google hackentosh and dell mini 10v). I was extremely impressed, and I borrowed it for a day of sailing. To my surprise GPSNavX & my usb gps all worked fine.

Now I am tempted to purchase my own dell mini 10v mac system for the boat. The mini 10v with 6 hr battery & 12 VDC adapter is now going for under $300. This seems too practical to pass by. Has anyone had experience with the mini 10v or the likes?

[bobetter]

If you wanna backtrack and re-consider Macs, check out these:

http://mikegyver.com/

http://store.mp3car.com/Carnetix_CNX_P21...wr-026.htm

[trevc]

I agree with bobetter, the carnetix hardware seems pretty good (just bought one for the Mac mini).

I did run "hackintosh" systems for quite some time. Bottom line is: they'll usually take a bit longer (and more research) to get set-up and working if you put together your own system. Most netbooks will be a very easy install process, but do double-check compatibility before you buy a particular model.

Once you have Mac OS running and all the devices working, it's identical to a real Mac. The only difference is you can select any hardware you want, often for much less money. It's also worth noting that sometimes generic laptops even share the same hardware as Apple-branded computers.

Cheers

[macsolve]

I've installed 10.6.1 on a 10v for the kids and it works pretty good. The trackpad sucks but the rest is ok. An apple sticker to hide the Dell logo makes it feel a bit better.

But the screen is really small. Less than 600 pixels in height. Luckily some apps can be scaled down to 90% - system prefs for example.

Be prepared to do some low level work if you get into trouble with the setup - this is not for the regular user.

Pictures http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=12...790b564a79