Hackintosh is (almost) dead

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(* So are jailbroken iPhones)

https://aplus.rs/2024/hackintosh-almost-dead/

It was a good run, though.

While I knew about and even tried various very early attempts to run macOS on non-Apple hardware, it wasn’t until early 2020 that I’ve built my first proper one. Then I built several more which are still seeing daily use…

Many will tell you that buying Intel-based hardware from Apple is buying obsolete models. I don’t really agree with that since it’s a given that those Intel-based Macs will be supported for 7-10 years of future macOS updates.

It’s true that latest macOS 14 (Sonoma) still supports the latest generations of Intel Macs and it’s very likely that at least one or two major versions will still be compatible. But there’s one particular development that is de-facto killing off the Hackintosh scene.

In Sonoma, Apple has completely removed all traces of driver support for their oldest WiFi/Bt cards, namely various Broadcom cards that they last used in 2012/13 iMac / MacBook models. Those Mac models are not supported by macOS for few years now thus it’s not surprising the drivers are being removed…

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BobbyB

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Hence — Hackintosh is on its death bed. Some things will work for few more months or maybe even years, depending on what you use it for and whether lack of WiFi bothers you or not.

Since I don’t use any of the “useful” features of MacOS that requires WiFi (iMessage / FaceTime / Continuity / HandOff / AirDrop), and actually I disable the WiFi on the motherboard in the UEFI, I expect to run and use my own hackintosh (based on Intel 9th generation CPU and a 300 series motherboard) for quite a few more years, as long as the hardware works. I also don’t plan to run MacOS Sonoma (I run Sierra / High Sierra / Mojave / Catalina / Monterey / Ventura on my hackintosh.) at this time because as far as I can see Sonoma 14.4 causes too many problems.

I can understand the point of the article if you need to use those features as Sonoma removes most WiFi drivers for the old Macs. But for me my hackintosh will continue to be used like normal for years as long as the hardware does not fail.

And personally I believe the end of Intel MacOS is coming fast. Since Apple no longer sells Intel Macs, it is quite possible that the current MacOS Sonoma is the last version to support Intel Macs (and hence run on a hackintosh) or failing that the next MacOS 15 will be the last.

Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst.

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Alex5723

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