Macbook? Or Tablet PC with hacked Mac OSX?

[FrEEz902]

HERE'S THE DEAL,

Next year, i'm going to university (hopefully xP). I'm gonna enter the Applied Arts and Sciences Faculty. Basically, i'm gonna be doing graphics design. Now... I need a laptop for university, and for graphics design, it needs to be a CrapMacbook. Heres the catch. I want to get a tablet PC, because i'm thinking of starting my own webcomic, or just for random doodles etc. (Fujitsu Siemens Lifebook T4220), But currently there is no Mac-enabled tablet PC :/.
Here are my options:

1. Buy a CrapMacbook, and then buy an external tablet, although this will be more expensive, and will be a bit less user-friendly than a tablet PC.

Pros: I will have a laptop which i can play games onto it (with bootcamp, i.e. installing windows alongside mac), and will be used for university.
Cons: As i said, if i want a tablet, i'll have to buy an external one, which will increase the total cost, and won't be as user friendly (e.g. chatting with it on MSN and such)

2. Buy a TabletPC, then HaXX a leapoard OSX onto it. I would LOVE to do this, the problem is, i don't know if this will cause problems in the functioning of the OS, I don't really know how it would be emulated, basically i don't know how to do it, or if it will be possible :/.

Pros: EXACTLY what i want, it's PERFECT.
Cons: I can't play any games on it, due to onboard Intel graphics (Intel GM965). Also, as i said, i have no idea how to emulate mac, and i don't know if it's possible.

3.Buy an Apple Desktop, and replace this one (Goodbye 2GB Rams, Goodbye C2D E6600, Goodbye 8500GT), then at university, i use one of their apple computers, and then get a tablet PC for myself.

Pros: I'll still have apple to use at home for graphic design etc., and i'll get the tablet PC i wanted.
Cons: I don't think the Apple desktops have good graphics, and even if they do, it will be pretty expensive getting a new tabletPC and desktop >.<

4. Not buy anything mac-enabled, and face the differences and poorer performance of Windows (in graphics design) rather than a mac.

So, what do I do??? Personally i prefer option 2, but I need help doing this if it's possible.
I'm gonna work, and check back here in a few, every half-hour or so.

 

[kikuchiyo]

Wait til Macworld at least. There are plenty of rumors about something new coming out then (and the update to the Mac Pros a week before the event seem to substantiate those rumors) and the new product may change your decision.

I was thinking about buying a tablet to hook up to my MBP and while tablets are a little more common here than they are in the States, from my research it doesn't seem like a bad solution.

 

[FrEEz902]

Wait til Macworld at least. There are plenty of rumors about something new coming out then (and the update to the Mac Pros a week before the event seem to substantiate those rumors) and the new product may change your decision.Â

I was thinking about buying a tablet to hook up to my MBP and while tablets are a little more common here than they are in the States, from my research it doesn't seem like a bad solution.

Macworld is a convention?

Anyways, if a new mac product comes out, it's gonna be EXPENSIVE, maybe $2500+? Other than that, I live in egypt :|, but my dad's gonna buy the tabletPC or Macbook from Dubai. They don't ship to either of those places, so if i buy it, it will be *MORE* expensive either way due to tax and shipping etc. So if i buy a MBP, it will probably cost about $2500+. Add a tablet to it, and it will cost about $3000. For a 'good' laptop. I would take those $3000 and buy an alienware anyday >_>;. The tablet PC however, would probably cost about $2000 USD, and i would pirate 'download' the Mac OSX, and emulate it.

 

[kikuchiyo]

Macworld is a convention and keynote. New stuff tends to get announced there.

I haven't been to Dubai in about 4 years, but you can get a A6 sized graphics tablet here for about 8000 yen.

But I didn't notice you were in Egypt. I'd really check before you do it, but search around and see if there are any PC tablets that are pretty OS X compatible before you try Hackintosh. If there are, I'd give it a shot.

 

[nando]

i personally don't find tablet pcs that desirable, their sensitivity and functionality is nowhere as good as an external tablet. also being able to draw without your hand getting in the way is a big plus and it does kinda improve your drawing skills to not pay attention to your hand while drawing. specially if you are using photoshop a lot, it's easier and quicker to use key-shortcuts instead of clicking on a button with your stylus.

i use key shortcuts a ton while painting and tho there are stylus focused apps like sketchup, i still end up going back to photoshop and switching brushes, textures, tapering, color on the fly without menus is a big deal.

you also don't need a mac for graphic design, your school may say they require it etc but all the standard graphic design apps are interchangeable between macs and pcs without any issues unless you are also going to get into motion media and they'll be heavy use of final cut pro i would worry about pc versus mac.

when i was in school, they required us to have mac lap tops for the architecture and graphic design departments but i never got a laptop and some people used windows and there were no issues.

regardless, once you start working in your field chances are you will be using a mac and you'll realize they are not crappy. i personally love them.

finally you don't need to decide between tablet pc and macbook, you can compromise

http://www.axiotron.com/

 

[FrEEz902]

Macworld is a convention and keynote. New stuff tends to get announced there.

I haven't been to Dubai in about 4 years, but you can get a A6 sized graphics tablet here for about 8000 yen.

But I didn't notice you were in Egypt. I'd really check before you do it, but search around and see if there are any PC tablets that are pretty OS X compatible before you try Hackintosh. If there are, I'd give it a shot.

I thought anything mac-enabled are made by mac, i.e. first party o.O. Anyways, I will search, but i have a bit of a doubt that i will find something which is as good as the Fujitsu Lifebook T4220, or the Lenovo Thinkpad X61. Btw, i have no idea how much yen are worth, but an A6 tablet is pretty small :/, whereas in a tablet PC, you get a 12.1 inch tablet

, which is pretty good.

 

[FrEEz902]

i personally don't find tablet pcs that desirable, their sensitivity and functionality is nowhere as good as an external tablet. also being able to draw without your hand getting in the way is a big plus and it does kinda improve your drawing skills to not pay attention to your hand while drawing. specially if you are using photoshop a lot, it's easier and quicker to use key-shortcuts instead of clicking on a button with your stylus.

i use key shortcuts a ton while painting and tho there are stylus focused apps like sketchup, i still end up going back to photoshop and switching brushes, textures, tapering, color on the fly without menus is a big deal.

you also don't need a mac for graphic design, your school may say they require it etc but all the standard graphic design apps are interchangeable between macs and pcs without any issues unless you are also going to get into motion media and they'll be heavy use of final cut pro i would worry about pc versus mac.

when i was in school, they required us to have mac lap tops for the architecture and graphic design departments but i never got a laptop and some people used windows and there were no issues.

regardless, once you start working in your field chances are you will be using a mac and you'll realize they are not crappy. i personally love them.

finally you don't need to decide between tablet pc and macbook, you can compromise

http://www.axiotron.com/

Yes i know Macs aren't bad, i think they might be pretty good. They just need getting used to. Also, the tabletPC i wanna get has a digitized tablet screen, meaning it doesn't work with your hand, only the pen, and you can flip the pen over and rub out etc. Y'see my dad has a tabletPC, and i mess around with it time to time. Heh, i even play DS on it with No$gba xD.

Edit: Modbook O.O, thanks for that. Only problem is, it only ships to US and Canada i.i. However i have some friends in canada, so i might make some kind of arrangement with them. Also, are the specs like the 80GB 2.0Ghz C2D macbook? or something else :S

 

[nando]

Yes i know Macs aren't bad, i think they might be pretty good. They just need getting used to. Also, the tabletPC i wanna get has a digitized tablet screen, meaning it doesn't work with your hand, only the pen, and you can flip the pen over and rub out etc. Y'see my dad has a tabletPC, and i mess around with it time to time. Heh, i even play DS on it with No$gba xD.

i know what kind of tablet you mean, the link i gave you is a mac modded with wacom digitizer technology with 512 levels of pressure. i use a wacom intuos tablet myself and the difference between 512 and 1024 is noticeable.

 

[FrEEz902]

Yes i know Macs aren't bad, i think they might be pretty good. They just need getting used to. Also, the tabletPC i wanna get has a digitized tablet screen, meaning it doesn't work with your hand, only the pen, and you can flip the pen over and rub out etc. Y'see my dad has a tabletPC, and i mess around with it time to time. Heh, i even play DS on it with No$gba xD.



i know what kind of tablet you mean, the link i gave you is a mac modded with wacom digitizer technology with 512 levels of pressure. i use a wacom intuos tablet myself and the difference between 512 and 1024 is noticeable.

Say wha o.O? *shrugs* I dunno, but i didn't really notice any responsive problems with my dad's tabletPC. But does the difference matter?

Edit: I'm guessing it matters when you're 'drawing' things which need high pressure sensitivity. E.G. Brush strokes or pen strokes, which you can make darker or lighter depending on the amount of pressure you write/draw with.

 

[nando]

Say wha o.O? *shrugs* I dunno, but i didn't really notice any responsive problems with my dad's tabletPC. But does the difference matter?

the more levels of pressure feels more natural and realistic. i had the graphire 3 which is 512 and it felt great. i could do everything i needed and more, but with the 1024 it just felt more natural and you have micro control in making a prefect gradient or line weight. it was a long time ago but after trying the intuos, i was willing to throw in and extra 150 and get an intuos.

technically you can accomplish the same things, they just feel different.

 

[FrEEz902]

Say wha o.O? *shrugs* I dunno, but i didn't really notice any responsive problems with my dad's tabletPC. But does the difference matter?



the more levels of pressure feels more natural and realistic. i had the graphire 3 which is 512 and it felt great. i could do everything i needed and more, but with the 1024 it just felt more natural and you have micro control in making a prefect gradient or line weight. it was a long time ago but after trying the intuos, i was willing to throw in and extra 150 and get an intuos.

technically you can accomplish the same things, they just feel different.

I see. But i really prefer to work on the screen, and the only Wacom tablets which do that are the Cintiq and the PL series, which are OMFGWTFBBQZOMGAD expensive, it would cost more than half the price of the laptop itself, for a decent size that is.

 

[nando]

wait, i hadn't catch this before "(e.g. chatting with it on MSN and such)"

what do you mean?

i'd say get what you feel most comfortable with. in your case that would be a tablet pc. if by any chance you have a project that definitely requires a mac, you might have to spend more time in school using theirs which at my school it was encouraged and sometimes demanded that we never went home since most of what you'll learn will be from other classmates. isolation won't teach you anything.

 

[FrEEz902]

wait, i hadn't catch this before "(e.g. chatting with it on MSN and such)"

what do you mean?

i'd say get what you feel most comfortable with. in your case that would be a tablet pc. if by any chance you have a project that definitely requires a mac, you might have to spend more time in school using theirs which at my school it was encouraged and sometimes demanded that we never went home since most of what you'll learn will be from other classmates. isolation won't teach you anything.

Hmm, thanks for that, but i would feel happy having my own PC, which i can do whatever i want to on it, e.g. while working, i take a break and show a friend a video for example etc.

What i mean by chatting on MSN, is with handwriting. You can chat on MSN *MESSENGER* with the pen, and 'draw' whatever you want to your friends. It has a pretty good response too. You can also write, and it will automatically recognize your handwriting, and send it as text. 'So download MSN messenger now' [ /advertising]

Edit: It will also feel a bit awkward to draw on the tablet and look at the screen >_

 

[nando]

wait, i hadn't catch this before "(e.g. chatting with it on MSN and such)"

what do you mean?

i'd say get what you feel most comfortable with. in your case that would be a tablet pc. if by any chance you have a project that definitely requires a mac, you might have to spend more time in school using theirs which at my school it was encouraged and sometimes demanded that we never went home since most of what you'll learn will be from other classmates. isolation won't teach you anything.


Hmm, thanks for that, but i would feel happy having my own PC, which i can do whatever i want to on it, e.g. while working, i take a break and show a friend a video for example etc.

What i mean by chatting on MSN, is with handwriting. You can chat on MSN *MESSENGER* with the pen, and 'draw' whatever you want to your friends. It has a pretty good response too. You can also write, and it will automatically recognize your handwriting, and send it as text. 'So download MSN messenger now' [ /advertising]

Edit: It will also feel a bit awkward to draw on the tablet and look at the screen >_

 

[FrEEz902]

wait, i hadn't catch this before "(e.g. chatting with it on MSN and such)"

what do you mean?

i'd say get what you feel most comfortable with. in your case that would be a tablet pc. if by any chance you have a project that definitely requires a mac, you might have to spend more time in school using theirs which at my school it was encouraged and sometimes demanded that we never went home since most of what you'll learn will be from other classmates. isolation won't teach you anything.


Hmm, thanks for that, but i would feel happy having my own PC, which i can do whatever i want to on it, e.g. while working, i take a break and show a friend a video for example etc.

What i mean by chatting on MSN, is with handwriting. You can chat on MSN *MESSENGER* with the pen, and 'draw' whatever you want to your friends. It has a pretty good response too. You can also write, and it will automatically recognize your handwriting, and send it as text. 'So download MSN messenger now' [ /advertising]

Edit: It will also feel a bit awkward to draw on the tablet and look at the screen >_

 

[nando]

leopard works about the same except it has a lot more features. the modbook comes with leopard.


edit: one huge downside to the modbook is that it has no keyboard

 

[FrEEz902]

So far, nobody, really, answered my question xP. Is Hackintosh a good idea or not? If it is (and you know how) please help me :/. HOWEVER, i won't be needing this laptop until next year really, so i'll probably start buying in July or something.

 

[CYatta]

From what I understand, it's not a good idea. Very unstable, and you really gotta know what you're doing to keep it going. Don't even bother with 2.

 

[Beware]

Wait until Macworld on the 14. Maybe you'll get your tablet Mac.

EDIT:BTW, OSX86 isn't a very good idea. It takes a lot to keep them up, and you NEED to be ABSOLUTELY sure you're PC will support it. I would, personally, get a Windows or Linux (with Windows Dual-booted) tablet. Everything Mac can do PC can do. Don't buy into all that hype. The only difference is you don't get everything out of the box and you don't pay hundreds of extra dollars for a fancy label.

 

[rcxAsh]

wait, i hadn't catch this before "(e.g. chatting with it on MSN and such)"

what do you mean?

i'd say get what you feel most comfortable with. in your case that would be a tablet pc. if by any chance you have a project that definitely requires a mac, you might have to spend more time in school using theirs which at my school it was encouraged and sometimes demanded that we never went home since most of what you'll learn will be from other classmates. isolation won't teach you anything.


Hmm, thanks for that, but i would feel happy having my own PC, which i can do whatever i want to on it, e.g. while working, i take a break and show a friend a video for example etc.

What i mean by chatting on MSN, is with handwriting. You can chat on MSN *MESSENGER* with the pen, and 'draw' whatever you want to your friends. It has a pretty good response too. You can also write, and it will automatically recognize your handwriting, and send it as text. 'So download MSN messenger now' [ /advertising]

Edit: It will also feel a bit awkward to draw on the tablet and look at the screen >_