Hacked Macs More Popular than Linux, iPhone?
9 to 5 Mac: A dubious claim that ‘Hackintoshes,’ or non-Apple made computers that have been hacked to run OS X, have become more popular than machines running Linux. The claim is based on info provided by Net Applications which places Mac OS’s that didn’t register version numbers ahead of Linux machines in total online market share.
There are a few problems with this claim. The first is that such mis-reporting of OS version numbering is very often the result of people running older but legitimate versions of OS X which themselves don’t report version numbers (a known bug in Safari 3.1 – as pointed out commenter by Tom). However, a second and bigger problem with the claim is that the data points to non-versioned copies of OS X being not only more popular than Linux, but more popular than the iPhone. Apple sold over 13 million iPhones in 2008 alone and who knows how many iPod Touches. If Hackintoshes are more popular than iPhones, then there must be well over 20 million people running them. I don’t believe that.
I would love a real, Apple-made sub-notebook. For those who would point to the MacBook Air, I am weary of tossing a 2000 dollar computer into my backpack before heading out on my bike. Certainly it’s a capable and very portable machine. But it’s not a netbook.
On the other hand, I have an MSI Wind with 10.5.6 running on it, so…
