[bmcclure937]

Man! These last two months have been awfully hectic and busy. Unfortunately I have not been able to spend as much time as I would like to on the MDM forums between juggling full-time classes and part-time work. To summarize, this semester has been one heck of a ride.

I have kept in contact with meklort but have just been unable to keep up with all of the craziness of the forums... meklort has also been busy with class and work, but has been able to squeeze in some time for NBI on the side.

Look forward to seeing an update some time within the next week that will provide support for OSX 10.6.3 and make some other improvements. More details will be given in an "official announcement thread" when the time comes.

I have also fixed the PayPal donations links, which seemed to break for no apparent reason. Sorry for any confusion this caused As always, donations are still welcomed for future expenses and development purchases. See the donations announcement for the official link

[bmcclure937]

Happy Holidays MyDellMini Members!!

I have not posted a "donations update" or news regarding NetbookInstaller for nearly 2 months... so I wanted to leave everyone a quick rundown of the current standing of NetbookInstaller, future plans and info on the donations!!

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Over the course of the past half year, Meklort has entered the Mini scene and completely surpassed any and all expectations. This is mainly due to his extremely high motivation level, high standards and big expectations for NetbookInstaller. Christmas Day marks the 6-month anniversary of NetbookInstaller and I think we can all agree that it has come a long way and has become the go-to solution for OSX on a Mini.

Congratulations Meklort on all that you have done, it is highly appreciated and extremely impressive. I know that every user with OSX running on their Mini appreciates all of the work you have done to make the process smooth and seamless. I, for one, understand all of the complex work that goes into the process that you make seem so simple and user-friendly.

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Meklort has stated that he plans to have NetbookInstaller .8.3 final ready by Christmas. A huge "thanks" is in order for Meklort along with the members that have been eagerly following along with the Release Candidates and who have been willing to do testing and submit bugs.

NetbookInstaller has really matured in the process of moving from .8.2 to .8.3 ... all of these changes are documented in the Change Logs on the Google Code Wiki pages for NetbookInstaller. I am sure everyone will welcome the additional support, aesthetic improvements, and myriad of other changes that significantly affect the users. For example, the Chameleon theme now looks like the native boot sequence on a "real Mac", OSX 10.6.2 is supported through a patch (which will also support future updates), BIOS A06 is supported, Mini 10 (and other netbook) graphics are supported.... etc etc the list goes on.

In the future (road map), NetbookInstaller .8.4 will add support to allow detection of hardware based on vendor and pci device IDs. This will provide better support for a wide range of different netbooks.

As for donations, every little bit is appreciated!! Show your gratitude and support for an amazing piece of software. The money is used directly for additional development expenses and research. If there is no immediate need, the money is saved for future needs (such as new hardware for testing or other various purposes).

In the past, we have funded the purchase of a Mini 10v for meklort... which allowed him to develop extremely improved trackpad drivers. Donations were also used in the purchase of an Apple ADC membership, which provides OSX updates before their public release (among other things) so that NetbookInstaller is prepared for any updates. This allows issues to be patched, if needed, before the update is available to the public.

Most recently, an Elantech trackpad was purchased so that Meklort could finalize the driver development for that specific platform and provide an improved user experience.

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Finally, thank you all for your support and great contributions to the community... the future of NBI looks promising and optimistic, as always

Please continue to show your love and support Donations are still greatly appreciated and will be used towards future development needs. If you are unable to make a donation at this time, contribute the best you can by sharing your knowledge on the forum and helping others!


Thanks for the continued support,

BMC

**Donation money does not go directly to an individual developer... donations are kept in a PayPal account and the money is only used on projects and expenses that would benefit the community. This money is not used as compensation or "pay" for the developers or for their time. The developers do have jobs, families, friends, girlfriends, school, play-time... etc. Development is done in their free time for personal enjoyment and satisfaction. Once again, all money that is donated will be dedicated for use on development and will not be handed out to developers for compensation or for personal use**

[bmcclure937]

It has been quite a while since I updated the community on the donations, so I decided I would take the time to create a new announcement and keep everyone informed.

Since the creation of the PayPal donations account we have been extremely successful. The loyal and grateful members on MDM have showed their appreciation and support to the developers by donating nearly $1500 to the cause.

This money has contributed to the purchase of a Mini 10v for meklort so he could develop the new trackpad driver, which is leaps and bounds ahead of what we had before. Also, meklort is now able to develop and test NetbookBootMaker and NetbookInstaller on both a Mini 9 and Mini 10v netbook, allowing for the best possible experience on both devices.

Since the purchase of the Mini 10v, the donations have been set aside and saved for future needs and projects. After discussing project plans, needs and future endeavors... meklort and I have decided that it would be extremely beneficial to purchase a 1yr membership to ADC (Apple Developer Connection). This membership offers many resources for developers that will be extremely beneficial for the continued development and support of the NBI family of applications (including NBI, NBM and NCD). Among many other things, this will specifically provide the developers with seeds of prerelease software... including OSX.

For example, this would allow development on prerelease versions of OSX so when they are made available to the public NBI will be compatible.

The ADC membership was just ordered today and should arrive by the end of the month. I feel that this is a great investment for the development efforts and we will continue to use the donation money wisely.

Once again, thank you all for your support and great contributions to the community... the future of NBI looks promising and optimistic, as always

Recent efforts have been focused on finalizing the NetbookCD portion of the project and unifying the "different" methods to use the same general procedure during installation. Future plans include audio drivers and general compatibility

Please continue to show your love and support Donations are still greatly appreciated and will be used towards future development needs. If you are unable to make a donation at this time, contribute the best you can by sharing your knowledge on the forum and helping others!


Until next time,

BMC

**Donation money does not go directly to an individual developer... donations are kept in a PayPal account and the money is only used on projects and expenses that would benefit the community. This money is not used as compensation or "pay" for the developers or for their time. The developers do have jobs, families, friends, girlfriends, school, play-time... etc. Development is done in their free time for personal enjoyment and satisfaction. Once again, all money that is donated will be dedicated for use on development and will not be handed out to developers for compensation or for personal use**

[bmcclure937]

RELEASE CANDIDATE 3 is NOW AVAILABLE!!

RELEASE ANNOUNCEMENT HERE


Hello Everyone,

This past month has been an extremely exciting time for the OSX community on MyDellMini. Within the past few weeks things have been hectic and development has been moving along at a fast pace

With Snow Leopard now on the forefront, the focus of NetbookBootMaker and NetbookInstaller has been drastically shifted to support the new operating system. Keep in mind, support has not been lost for OSX 10.5.x... but kinks have been worked out and improvements have been made for Snow Leopard.

As I am sure everyone is aware, meklort worked long and hard to release NBM/NBI .8.2a to the community (available from the NetbookInstaller Google Code page). This is the currently supported solution for installing OSX and is the best option to use.

Now, .8.3 RCs are available for testing and have made many great improvements and enhancements


Remember to support your developers for their hard work and time invested into the project

[bmcclure937]

Thanks to the great community of OSX users on MyDellMini the donations have been a great success!! In a mere 24 hours we were able to earn the money required to purchase a Dell Mini 10v for meklort to help with development on that platform.

A huge "THANKS" goes out to all of the generous donors, the donations are really appreciated!! I was thrilled to see the support of the community.


Meklort and I looked at various different purchasing options last evening... directly from Dell, Fast Track, and Dell Outlet. Meklort ended up picking out a 10v from the Outlet for just under $300. He should have this in his possession by the middle of next week!


We are going to leave donations open to support the ongoing development efforts. We will keep any additional donations for future projects/needs... so donations are still encouraged.

If you feel like donating to show your appreciation and support... feel free!! I guarantee that your money will not be put to waste.

I am impressed by the awesome support that our members have expressed and am very proud to be a part of such a supportive and helpful online community.

BMC

Please note, money donated view this button will only contribute to the Mac OS X community and NOT to the site costs in any way.

[bmcclure937]