The Demise of Hackintosh Approaches
The Hackintosh era, a time when macOS was successfully installed and run on non-Apple hardware, has come to an end. This practice, born out of a desire for affordability and customisation, became popular due to the perceived limitations of Apple's Mac hardware.
The roots of Hackintosh can be traced back to 2005 when Apple announced its switch to x86 architecture, following the acquisition of NeXT in 1997. This move opened the door for Hackintosh, enabling macOS to run on PC parts. With the introduction of Intel processors in 2006, the underlying UNIX-like architecture of macOS and the alignment with common PC hardware, ambitious users were able to install and boot macOS on standard x86-64 PCs.
Communities of Hackintosh enthusiasts and developers thrived for years, developing tools, drivers, and custom bootloaders that allowed macOS to function on a wide range of hardware. However, the transition to Apple Silicon, announced at WWDC in June 2020, marked the beginning of the end for the Hackintosh scene.
Apple's introduction of its own ARM-based chips, starting with the M1 chip in November 2020, changed the Mac hardware platform away from Intel’s x86 architecture. This shift made running macOS on standard PC hardware largely infeasible because Apple Silicon uses a fundamentally different architecture and design.
Furthermore, Apple's tightened security measures and the architecture switch meant macOS started to rely heavily on Apple Silicon’s secure boot, custom hardware, and firmware features, which cannot be replicated on generic PC hardware. Apple also stopped producing new Macs based on Intel starting from 2021-2022, solidifying the transition and the incompatibility with Hackintosh efforts.
The last version of the modern MacOS to support x86-based computers will be macOS Tahoe, announced at the 2021 Worldwide Developers Conference. This operating system offers interface customization, improved search features, and a new 'Liquid Glass' design language. Beyond the release of Tahoe, Apple will stop releasing versions of its operating system for x86 systems.
With the end of the Hackintosh era, users who prefer the macOS interface but don't wish to pay for Apple hardware will have to reconsider their options. The transition to Apple Silicon means that macOS will now run exclusively on Apple's ARM-based chips with custom hardware integration and security features.
References: [1] NeXTSTEP, Wikipedia, 2022,
DIY enthusiasts may still be drawn towards technology, seeking to create their own Hackintosh systems using x86 hardware, as a tribute to the decade-long practice that thrived before Apple's transition to Apple Silicon. However, the last version of the modern macOS to support such systems, macOS Tahoe, will mark the end of this era, offering interface customization and improved features, but no longer compatible with non-Apple hardware.
