Video: Sony’s Svelte Vaio P Runs OS X

Installing OS X on a commodity PC box is, to paraphrase a simian, sweating Microsoft executive, all about “drivers, drivers, drivers!” The underlying architecture of any current Intel chip is more or less the same as that of a Mac. The trick lies in getting the OS to talk to the non-standard displays, sound hardware, Wi-Fi cards and the like.

Ryuu123 of the InsanelyMac forums has managed to work this driver and kernel extension magic with the Sony Vaio P, which is extra impressive for a couple of reasons. First, this is a rather more expensive piece of hardware than the typical hackintosh-box, the MSI Wind — almost as much as a real Mac, in fact. Second is that the Vaio P has some very odd hardware. The screen resolution is rather long and thing (1600 x 768) and the graphics “card” decidedly underpowered.

That said, quite a lot is working. There is no Quartz-anything hardware acceleration for graphics, so the fancy OS X 3D effects are out, and you’ll not be getting online via either the Ethernet nor the Wi-Fi (ryuu123 is planning on adding in a Dell 1510 wireless card) but USB networking works, as does the internal 3G modem. Ironically enough, the MemoryStick slot also works.

Not a bad first effort. We look forward to seeing it fixed up properly: If there is any netbook that should be running OS X, its the Vaio P.

Leopard on VAIO P(VGN-P90HS) working! [InsanelyMac via BBG]

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