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The Hackintosh movement is still going strong. One would think Apple would make their life difficult but quite the opposite appears to be the case: there are a

by sounds 12y ago

The Hackintosh movement is still going strong. One would think Apple would make their life difficult but quite the opposite appears to be the case: there are a few well-understood workarounds to get OS X working on an off-the-shelf PC, mostly just audio and networking. Be careful if you choose not to follow the guides, though! There's a reason most Hackintoshes use Gigabyte motherboards, Atheros wireless, etc. - Just another happy Hackintosh user.

jamescun 12y ago
By this point, Macs are only a notch away from a stock PC. Even the last vestige of difference, such as the use of EFI, are becoming common practice by other computer manufacturers. The time and effort required to introduce technical preventative measures far out-weigh the "loss" from the Hackintosh community (which is still a minuscule niche in comparison to their genuine markets).
- yuhong 12y ago
  I know. What is funny is that they made OS X free despite that.
  - kbar13 12y ago
    pretty sure the margins for the hardware is significantly higher than the margin for their OS, so it's much more valuable that Apple makes it as easy as possible for people to buy into their ecosystem.
  - pudquick 12y ago
    The point of giving the OS away was to encourage buying a new device. Especially when it sends you notifications/badges that the new OS is available - and then the new OS takes advantage of newer hardware features ... and for older hardware makes sure to let you know that your Mac/iOS device doesn't support this feature. The margins on selling the OS were never very good. Apple has always made the majority of their money from hardware sales.
    - seanmcdirmid 12y ago
      Windows used to make a good go at it (and still does in Enterprise). I think that this is changing very quickly, however.
    - orbitur 12y ago
      > and for older hardware makes sure to let you know that your Mac/iOS device doesn't support this feature. Where is this case? In my experience, something I saw online simply wasn't available to me, like AirDrop, for instance. I upgraded my mid-09 MBP to 10.7, looked for AirDrop and couldn't find it. Same for Handoff and the Bluetooth-required new features in Yosemite. Apple doesn't go out of its way to inform me my hardware is out of date; features talked about in the media are just missing. edit: Also, your post sounds dangerously close to the uninformed "Apple purposefully makes iOS n perform worse on device x", as if that's a smart business move.
      - FireBeyond 12y ago
        Re Handoff in Yosemite... there are hacked kexts that make it work just fine in older (non BT LE/4) Macs (with regular BT) making it fairly clear that an artificial limitation was introduced.
        orbitur 12y ago
        That's not quite the whole truth. There are two Mac models where you can simply enable it: the mid-2011 Mac mini, and the mid-2011 MBA. Every other model it could potentially work on, you literally need to upgrade the wireless card. Given that, it makes me wonder how the unmodified Mac mini and MBA perform.
        msh 12y ago
        Have you considered using non low energi BT might introduce a battery hit that apple dont like?
    - TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago
      I'd argue the point of giving the OS away for free was nothing to do with buying new devices. It was probably to make sure people upgraded sooner, rather than being put off by having to buy the new version. Better for the whole ecosystem.
presumeaway 12y ago
Once it's set up and working the way you want, how often do you find yourself dealing with small issues?
- honopu 12y ago
  I ran one for about 6 months, then finally gave up and bought a Mac Pro. I had a board that wasn't necessarily supported but through trial and error I was able to get it to work. I wanted to go to 3 monitors and my video card wouldn't support it, so I just went ahead and bought the Mac Pro. If you needed to build some machines that you don't necessarily care about updating (like some networked "macs" for compressor or rendering) then I think these would be great. I may end up building another one but I really can't justify it with a retina macbook pro. I don't game and that's the only reason I'd go back.
  - Zarel 12y ago
    I ran one for around three years before getting the Mac Pro, and it did everything I needed it to without problems. The only problem I was having was a hard drive corruption issue in OS X 10.8 and newer, which turned out to be a problem on my Mac Pro, too, until I finally realized the problem was with Apple's exFAT drivers and not with my hackintosh setup.
- adamors 12y ago
  Not the OP, but I built one based on one of these guides 2 years ago. The only problem I have is that once in a while (1-2 a month) the sound doesn't work after resuming from sleep. I have to reboot to get it back. Otherwise I don't have any issues. I'm running the latest Mavericks, could install updates etc.
  - vasac 12y ago
    I built a Yosemite based Hackintosh a few weeks ago and had a same problem except it occurred almost every time computer wakes up. Solution was to unload audio drivers before computer goes to sleep and then load them again when it wakes up. Somehow it works even when kext is in use and cannot be unloaded.
LarryMade2 12y ago
I think Apple doesn't worry too much, their best customers, aren't techies. They may get a hackintosh up, but if there’s any frustration they probably will just go and get an all-apple product, which will "just work". And that's the attraction of Macs.
- simonh 12y ago
  Quite. I seriously considered the Hackintosh route a few years ago and spent some time looking into what's involved, but in the end decided it wasn't worth it. One of the reasons I switched to the Mac was because I want something that just works - I was fed up with viruses and virus scanners, driver issues and such on windows. Linux wasn't an option for similar issues though I always have it handy in a VM. The problem for me is that while I think I'm perfectly capable of handling the technical issues with setting up a Hackintosh, the extra value of that customisability it's isn't there for me. I'd rather pay a few hundred quid more and have a solid, supported system than spend a few days of my time setting a machine up and then a few hours every few months fixing niggling issues. I fully understand why people with specific needs go the Hackintosh route, for them it's worth it. Maybe I'll be in that camp some day, but not for now. I suspect this is why Apple doesn't bother killing Hackintoshes. If people, are wiling to spend their own time and effort doing it, they're probably not going to instead spend the money with Apple. They are still paying a cost though, so that's the market in action. The alternative would be Apple spending Engineering effort fighting them. Again, that's not an efficient or economically useful way to spend that time and money.
sauce71 12y ago
Obviously Apple has outsmarted us again. I love my Hackintosh with the "free" OS X (That I have had the last year (Coming from MS). But ... I finally got a iPhone a few weeks ago and I have bought for me and my so and children in the last 3 years: 6 iPads, 4 iPhones, 1 MacBook Pro, 2 MacBook Airs and 2 Apple TV's. We are now totally entrenched in the Apple Ecosystem. I love how all my devices now play together. The next six months we will likely buy 1-2 new iPads, 1 iPhone 6, 2 iWatch, 1 Apple TV and possibly another MacBook. So ... As long as Apple do not have any reasonable priced / hackable desktop I think they will be very carefull to not make osX harder to run "unofficially" on Hackintoshes. I actually get a feeling they make it easier all the time ...
- jmnicolas 12y ago
  Wow you won the lottery ? I don't think I could ever afford these many devices in a lifetime !
analog31 12y ago
Apple may benefit from what amounts to a two tiered price structure. They make their money from their mainstream customers who pay full fare for Apple hardware and software. Meanwhile, giving OSX away for use on cheaper hardware supports their app developers while taking business away from potential competitors or innovators. To be fair, I also suspect that widespread piracy in the early days of personal computers actually contributed to Microsoft's monopoly by creating a price point that nobody could compete with.

by sounds 12y ago

jamescun 12y ago

By this point, Macs are only a notch away from a stock PC. Even the last vestige of difference, such as the use of EFI, are becoming common practice by other computer manufacturers. The time and effort required to introduce technical preventative measures far out-weigh the "loss" from the Hackintosh community (which is still a minuscule niche in comparison to their genuine markets).

yuhong 12y ago
I know. What is funny is that they made OS X free despite that.
- kbar13 12y ago
  pretty sure the margins for the hardware is significantly higher than the margin for their OS, so it's much more valuable that Apple makes it as easy as possible for people to buy into their ecosystem.
- pudquick 12y ago
  The point of giving the OS away was to encourage buying a new device. Especially when it sends you notifications/badges that the new OS is available - and then the new OS takes advantage of newer hardware features ... and for older hardware makes sure to let you know that your Mac/iOS device doesn't support this feature. The margins on selling the OS were never very good. Apple has always made the majority of their money from hardware sales.
  - seanmcdirmid 12y ago
    Windows used to make a good go at it (and still does in Enterprise). I think that this is changing very quickly, however.
  - orbitur 12y ago
    > and for older hardware makes sure to let you know that your Mac/iOS device doesn't support this feature. Where is this case? In my experience, something I saw online simply wasn't available to me, like AirDrop, for instance. I upgraded my mid-09 MBP to 10.7, looked for AirDrop and couldn't find it. Same for Handoff and the Bluetooth-required new features in Yosemite. Apple doesn't go out of its way to inform me my hardware is out of date; features talked about in the media are just missing. edit: Also, your post sounds dangerously close to the uninformed "Apple purposefully makes iOS n perform worse on device x", as if that's a smart business move.
    - FireBeyond 12y ago
      Re Handoff in Yosemite... there are hacked kexts that make it work just fine in older (non BT LE/4) Macs (with regular BT) making it fairly clear that an artificial limitation was introduced.
      - orbitur 12y ago
        That's not quite the whole truth. There are two Mac models where you can simply enable it: the mid-2011 Mac mini, and the mid-2011 MBA. Every other model it could potentially work on, you literally need to upgrade the wireless card. Given that, it makes me wonder how the unmodified Mac mini and MBA perform.
      - msh 12y ago
        Have you considered using non low energi BT might introduce a battery hit that apple dont like?
  - TazeTSchnitzel 12y ago
    I'd argue the point of giving the OS away for free was nothing to do with buying new devices. It was probably to make sure people upgraded sooner, rather than being put off by having to buy the new version. Better for the whole ecosystem.

presumeaway 12y ago

Once it's set up and working the way you want, how often do you find yourself dealing with small issues?

honopu 12y ago
I ran one for about 6 months, then finally gave up and bought a Mac Pro. I had a board that wasn't necessarily supported but through trial and error I was able to get it to work. I wanted to go to 3 monitors and my video card wouldn't support it, so I just went ahead and bought the Mac Pro. If you needed to build some machines that you don't necessarily care about updating (like some networked "macs" for compressor or rendering) then I think these would be great. I may end up building another one but I really can't justify it with a retina macbook pro. I don't game and that's the only reason I'd go back.
- Zarel 12y ago
  I ran one for around three years before getting the Mac Pro, and it did everything I needed it to without problems. The only problem I was having was a hard drive corruption issue in OS X 10.8 and newer, which turned out to be a problem on my Mac Pro, too, until I finally realized the problem was with Apple's exFAT drivers and not with my hackintosh setup.
adamors 12y ago
Not the OP, but I built one based on one of these guides 2 years ago. The only problem I have is that once in a while (1-2 a month) the sound doesn't work after resuming from sleep. I have to reboot to get it back. Otherwise I don't have any issues. I'm running the latest Mavericks, could install updates etc.
- vasac 12y ago
  I built a Yosemite based Hackintosh a few weeks ago and had a same problem except it occurred almost every time computer wakes up. Solution was to unload audio drivers before computer goes to sleep and then load them again when it wakes up. Somehow it works even when kext is in use and cannot be unloaded.

LarryMade2 12y ago

I think Apple doesn't worry too much, their best customers, aren't techies. They may get a hackintosh up, but if there’s any frustration they probably will just go and get an all-apple product, which will "just work". And that's the attraction of Macs.

simonh 12y ago
Quite. I seriously considered the Hackintosh route a few years ago and spent some time looking into what's involved, but in the end decided it wasn't worth it. One of the reasons I switched to the Mac was because I want something that just works - I was fed up with viruses and virus scanners, driver issues and such on windows. Linux wasn't an option for similar issues though I always have it handy in a VM. The problem for me is that while I think I'm perfectly capable of handling the technical issues with setting up a Hackintosh, the extra value of that customisability it's isn't there for me. I'd rather pay a few hundred quid more and have a solid, supported system than spend a few days of my time setting a machine up and then a few hours every few months fixing niggling issues. I fully understand why people with specific needs go the Hackintosh route, for them it's worth it. Maybe I'll be in that camp some day, but not for now. I suspect this is why Apple doesn't bother killing Hackintoshes. If people, are wiling to spend their own time and effort doing it, they're probably not going to instead spend the money with Apple. They are still paying a cost though, so that's the market in action. The alternative would be Apple spending Engineering effort fighting them. Again, that's not an efficient or economically useful way to spend that time and money.

sauce71 12y ago

Obviously Apple has outsmarted us again. I love my Hackintosh with the "free" OS X (That I have had the last year (Coming from MS). But ... I finally got a iPhone a few weeks ago and I have bought for me and my so and children in the last 3 years: 6 iPads, 4 iPhones, 1 MacBook Pro, 2 MacBook Airs and 2 Apple TV's. We are now totally entrenched in the Apple Ecosystem. I love how all my devices now play together. The next six months we will likely buy 1-2 new iPads, 1 iPhone 6, 2 iWatch, 1 Apple TV and possibly another MacBook. So ... As long as Apple do not have any reasonable priced / hackable desktop I think they will be very carefull to not make osX harder to run "unofficially" on Hackintoshes. I actually get a feeling they make it easier all the time ...

jmnicolas 12y ago
Wow you won the lottery ? I don't think I could ever afford these many devices in a lifetime !

analog31 12y ago

Apple may benefit from what amounts to a two tiered price structure. They make their money from their mainstream customers who pay full fare for Apple hardware and software. Meanwhile, giving OSX away for use on cheaper hardware supports their app developers while taking business away from potential competitors or innovators. To be fair, I also suspect that widespread piracy in the early days of personal computers actually contributed to Microsoft's monopoly by creating a price point that nobody could compete with.