Sales of netbooks suggest lots of consumers like the form factor, and demand for an Apple netbook is high enough that some users make their own so-called Hackintosh systems. Software makers, though, don't seem to be so fond of netbooks. Apple doesn't make one, and in fact it killed Atom-based Hackintoshes with an OS X update. Meanwhile, Microsoft gives netbooks its lamest version of Windows 7.
On Monday, Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) rolled out the 10.6.2 update to its Snow Leopard operating system, which concentrated mostly on general bug fixes and stability issues as well as some issues in Mail, MobileMe and Safari. In all, there are more than 100 improvements, and more than 40 security-related fixes.
However, the big talk today is that this update officially terminates support for Intel's (Nasdaq: INTC) Atom processor family. These low-cost, low-power processors have become the standard in many nettops, netbooks, MIDs, and ultraportables, and Apple has made a concerted effort to stay out of the way of most of these device categories.
Because Apple has not created a netbook, for example, OS X users could install the operating system on their unsupported netbooks and create what is affectionately referred to as a "Hackintosh." Atom-based machines from Asus, MSI, Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) and HP (NYSE: HPQ) have all been successfully converted into Hackintoshes with varying degrees of usability.
Atom Crasher
Users running Snow Leopard on their Atom-based netbooks, however, are now reporting widespread failure when attempting to install the 10.6.2 update. A development build of the update reportedly killed Atom support, but the blogger who discovered this fact later retracted his statement as speculation "until the final version of 10.6.2 is out."
Well, that blogger has declared Atom officially unsupported.
While only a small contingent of users have turned their devices into Hackintoshes, Apple's blockage of Intel's netbook-specific platform is symptomatic of a larger distaste for the form factor.
Love/Hate Relationship
Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT), for example, has gone back and forth with its promotion of netbooks, trying to keep on top of the category with "lite" or legacy versions of Windows while simultaneously preventing it from cannibalizing the market for the current, full versions of Windows.
According to online shopping site Retrevo, Windows 7 Starter Edition (which was found in 23 of 28 new netbooks) actually lacks many features standard in Windows XP. The site asked 1,100 of its users if they were aware that Windows 7 Starter Edition lacked multi-monitor support, desktop personalization, and DVD playback, and 61 percent said they were not. Unsurprisingly, this made those same users reconsider Windows 7 Starter Edition as a positive quality of a new netbook.
While the survey was more than a little loaded to generate a negative response, the point remains that our big OS makers still can't figure out how to deliver a product to the netbook market that won't be detrimental to their bottom line.
Has anyone tried installing Win7 Business Edition on their Atom netbook?
Next Article in OS X
Snow Leopard Smashes Atom November 10, 2009
Hackintosh users with Apple's OS X Snow Leopard running on Atom-powered netbooks will want to avoid the operating system's latest update. The final build of the 10.6.2 update apparently nixes support of the Intel Atom chip. That's not all the update does, of course -- it also addresses bugs in areas like mail, Safari and graphics.
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