Lenovo IdeaPad S10

[christurner]

Lenovo IdeaPad S10
(http://www.dpbolvw.net/click-2992108-10440897?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newegg.com%2FProduct %2FProduct.aspx%3FItem%3DN82E16834146495%26nm_mc%3 DAFC-C8Junction%26cm_mmc%3DAFC-C8Junction-_-Netbooks-_-Lenovo-_-34146495&cjsku=N82E16834146495)
I am thinking of getting one of these with my tax return ($349 on newegg), anyone else have one working with OS X? Is it easy to set up? Any other advise?

Thanks.

[lanceomni]

Most of these netbooks seem to use the same components. 1.6ghz Atom & Intel 950gma. Try to find out what kind of wifi card they used as with some netbooks you must replace it with one that is osx compatible. Paul's Wind Driver pack would be a start. the max screen hieght of 600 is cutting it close. My Aspire one has the same hieght and it does get a bit annoying when window are not adjustible. You wont have this problem with Windows or most other operating systems.... Just OSX. I wouldnt be too supprised if you were to get most of machines components up and running. These little guys all seem to have so much in common and there is so much focus on getting OSX running on them.

Personally I would try to find something with at least 1024x768. Also dual core Atoms should be avalable for netbooks shortly. The Atom 330 showed a big performance increase over the single core version.

[MoC]

I'm actually considering buying a Lenovo S10 instead of a MacBook Air. The MBA is too pricey although nice and it doesn't give me any extra functionality. The Lenovo S10 netbook is a very good laptop for students in need of taking notes on it etc. It runs well too, I tried it IRL and I was impressed. I also saw that it can run OSx86 with a little elbow grease.

[christurner]

thanks guys... i have been looking around a bit and now I am even more undecided... I have started thinking about getting a Samsung NC10 instead. It has a 6-cell battery and bluetooth. Reviewers say they can get about 6 hours of battery life out of it! My last laptop (2.8ghz p4) got maybe 2 hours. I have seen some youtube clips of people getting the Samsung working as well.

Will have to do a bit more research...

[MoC]

thanks guys... i have been looking around a bit and now I am even more undecided... I have started thinking about getting a Samsung NC10 instead. It has a 6-cell battery and bluetooth. Reviewers say they can get about 6 hours of battery life out of it! My last laptop (2.8ghz p4) got maybe 2 hours. I have seen some youtube clips of people getting the Samsung working as well.

Will have to do a bit more research...

You can get a Lenovo with a 6 cell battery I believe, but, the Samsung NC10 isn't as durable as you'd believe. And Bluetooth is a feature you'll barely use. It's up to you.

[ScottXK]

I've still got my eye on a 9" Acer Aspire One, the 120GB version. Seems very nice, and OSX would work on it, with a lot of effort.

[christurner]

well i decided to get the S10. I found that I can buy 2 gb ram, a 6 cell battery and a larger hard drive for less than the samsung, plus I will have a spare 3 cell battery as a backup too! there is also a bluetooth chip that is really easy to install inside of it.

The wifi works with OSX out of the box, so thats nice too!

got the $299 version (free shipping) 2gb of ram, and I will buy that battery off ebay before my trip in march.

i will let everyone know how osx works once i get it going.

[christurner]

I have gotten my S10 and I have loaded it up with OS X 10.5.6 using the msiwindosx.iso and i have it dual booting with XP.

The only thing that does not work in OS X is the built in microphone, kind of a bummer for skype, but thats alright.

Thanks for the help!

[MoC]

I have gotten my S10 and I have loaded it up with OS X 10.5.6 using the msiwindosx.iso and i have it dual booting with XP.

The only thing that does not work in OS X is the built in microphone, kind of a bummer for skype, but thats alright.

Thanks for the help!

Good choice mate. How does OS X run on it?

[christurner]

thanks, it runs great, I have not had any problems yet. like i said, in OS X everything but the mic & ethernet works.

the webcam, the wireless, speakers and headphone jacks. sleep is working and so is card reader. vga out is working too.

i am really happy with this choice and with the 6 cell battery i got off of ebay, it is going to last twice as long.

i like that netbook itself too, I have heard that it runs a little hotter than some of the others, but it does not seem to hot to me.

[MoC]

thanks, it runs great, I have not had any problems yet. like i said, in OS X everything but the mic & ethernet works.

the webcam, the wireless, speakers and headphone jacks. sleep is working and so is card reader. vga out is working too.

i am really happy with this choice and with the 6 cell battery i got off of ebay, it is going to last twice as long.

i like that netbook itself too, I have heard that it runs a little hotter than some of the others, but it does not seem to hot to me.

Does it support the native resolution or is it just 1024x768

[christurner]

i am at the native 1024x600 in OS X, Colors is Millions and Refresh is 56h

[MoC]

i am at the native 1024x600 in OS X, Colors is Millions and Refresh is 56h

I can't wait to get mine. Full QE/CI and everything works that I want (Wifi/webcam/everything else!)

[grc2nyc]

I came to same conclusion, I got a white s10 put in 2gb ram and 320 hd, bought a mac box set 10.5.6 with iLife & iWork. I used the dellminiboot dellefi with 2 USB drives method. It was all too beautiful... 200gb iphoto & itunes organizing, candybar'd my icons & did a time machine back up... All too beautiful I tell ya... Until this morning, after a month of perfect use, no glich, everything fine, sound, sleep, wifi, display, a 75 sec or less boot time (faster than a mb air) it won't boot... Stuck an the grey apple screen. I've given up on saving my 200gb and went to do over, now the dellmini boot I used is saying disk error. Does anyone really know about command lines and such in boot -s, -v , -f to explain what's going on to me?
Btw the last thing I did was change the finder icon, reboot, worked fine, to save my work I did a timemachine back up. It said it had an hr (@1am), so I scheduled a shut down for 3am since I didn't want it to make hourly back ups all night.

[archie79muc]

What exact model of Lenovo are we talking about here? Do I get it right, that ethernet is NOT working? This would be a knock-out criteria for me...

[archie79muc]

did you install chameleon to the hdd to boot from there or do you boot from boot123-CD?

If the system (OS X) has come as far as running fine, it should be possible to boot it at least from the hdd, too, if one supplies the right kexts in the correct folder and gives it chameleon. I can't be more precise, since I don't have access to the hardware as of yet.

[somedude]

I have Leopard 10.5.5 running on my S10. I replaced the memory with 2gb and the harddrive to a 500gb scorpio blue. So far it is running amazing. I have a windows 7/leopard dual boot and have no issues. Very quick startup and excellent stability on both (although win7 isnt as good with multitasking as Leopard). Everything worked out of the box with Win7. Leopard I had to work with for a bit, but now the only thing I dont have is the mic. For some reason when i tried to install the fan drivers the first time it killed the install but that was the only real setback. I have now created a .iso dvd and a full restore disk on a usb drive with all the drivers/updates to get the full install working (minus the mic). I think thats the best thing to do while we wait out the next few months to make sure the patched .iso's are stable.

[SomniusX]

I see success stories but not even one guide-link, come on guys we've got one too help us out! :D

[SomniusX]

I broke it, cause the s10-2 model with 1gb ram has a mobo-prob and if you upgrade the firmware of the bios it becomes a solid brick... like thin paper ! :D

i went back to the shop and exchanged it with ao531h