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Modern 'Hackintoshes' Show That Apple Should Probably Just Build a Mac Tower (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader shares an excerpt from a report written by Andrew Cunningham via Ars Technica: Apple is working on new desktop Macs, including a ground-up redesign of the tiny-but-controversial 2013 Mac Pro. We're also due for some new iMacs, which Apple says will include some features that will make less-demanding pro users happy. But we don't know when they're coming, and the Mac Pro in particular is going to take at least a year to get here. Apple's reassurances are nice, but it's a small comfort to anyone who wants high-end processing power in a Mac right now. Apple hasn't put out a new desktop since it refreshed the iMacs in October of 2015, and the older, slower components in these computers keeps Apple out of new high-end fields like VR. This is a problem for people who prefer or need macOS, since Apple's operating system is only really designed to work on Apple's hardware. But for the truly adventurous and desperate, there's another place to turn: fake Macs built with standard PC components, popularly known as "Hackintoshes." They've been around for a long time, but the state of Apple's desktop lineup is making them feel newly relevant these days. So we spoke with people who currently rely on Hackintoshes to see how the computers are being used -- and what they'd like to see from Apple.
For Hackintoshes to become popular, presumably, there is some software on a Mac that isn't available elsewhere. What is driving the Hackintosh need? Personally (note the qualifier), I totally fail to see the need for a Hackintosh - I think all operating systems are fairly advanced and usable now, and it doesn't take long to be proficient in Linux or Windows (or FreeBSD or whatever). Why push a path that isn't supported by Apple? Just use Linux (or Windows) instead - whatever alternate platform your preferred tools work on.
Hey, Apple! If you're really interested in maintaining control of the HW design -- and I mean in a meaningful way, not the cheeseball gee-whiz pretentious way where indicator LEDs are entirely absent because they disrupt the "line" of the machine -- then may I suggest you start selling... Motherboards. Yes, design a motherboard you're happy with, then stick it in an anti-static bag alongside an OS X DVD. The owner can then add their preferred CPU, RAM (quad-channel DDR4, natch), and GPU, and put the whole thing in a case that meets their needs. Hell, you'll probably be able to squeeze even higher margins out of the thing, since you won't have to design or build custom casework, which can get kinda spendy.
Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
I've probably owned almost every model of Macintosh that ever existed including the "pre-Mac"; a Lisa (1MB RAM, 5MB hd). A long(!) time ago I owned a computer graphics/media company and while it grew to include a lot of Windows (at first NT!) boxes and SGI machines, it was founded around Macs (and Quark Xpress, Cosa (Adobe) After Effects and Electric Image. Still love Macs (for the fit and finish and polish if not performance :).
However, my experience in using a "Hackintosh" is: don't do it unless you have no other option. I needed (okay wanted) my VR system (HTC Vive) to be portable but the new MBP didn't have nearly enough graphics power :(. So I got a Razer Blade Pro with 4K display, 32GB RAM and 2TB SSD and made a VirtualBox partition with MacOS. I realize it's not a "Hackintosh" but since I can use the native Windows environment to run my graphics heavy apps, I figured that the performance hit from running the OS in virtual mode would be acceptable. I also didn't want to spend (days? weeks?) trying to make the drivers and such working for a dual boot system. Basically I would just run my MS Office apps (ironic isn't it?) and mail on the Mac virtual machine and everything else under Windows. This would allow me to not have to move from my comfy Mac environment when I needed to go on the road with my VR setup (I got battery packs to power all the other components of the Vive like the headset and trackers).
It works but the experience is so clumsy that I only use it because I don't want to lug BOTH my Razer Blade Pro and MBP around. The user interface is okay but because it's in a window, you can't zip the cursor to the edge of the screen to hit the pull down menu (or Dock), you'll overshoot and end up in the native Windows environment. The software rendered graphics is slow (duh) in some cases to be annoying (forget video). What's worst is the fear that with every update you'll break something; this isn't helped by the fact that when the "App Store" app tries to update stuff, sometimes it says "Macintosh model not recognized" (duh) and doesn't update some of the Apple apps (I think FCP or Garage Band or iMovie, iForget).
Anyway, the only reasons why I still use it at all is because of First: iCloud now keeps all of your data on all of your Mac systems synchronized (if you purchased enough space). So if I create a document on my Mac Pro, it'll appear (relatively quickly) on my MBP and my Hackintosh. (You'll need a decent internet connection). So I can still (painfully) use my Hackintosh while on the road with my Razer Blade Pro and have access to all of my documents exactly as if I were using my Mac Pro or MBP. Secondly, because my Hackintosh is really just a virtual machine running in it's own little partition, a complete backup of the state of the machine is easy. I just shut it down and copy the virtualBox file.
This is the only way I've been able to figure out how to have a state-of-the-art machine while not completely abandoning the mac environment. Even then, I only use my Mac environment on the Windows machine when I don't have my other, "true" Macs around. So for almost all cases, it isn't worth it.
It's better now. Get a good EFI bootloader (Clover) going and you can run the Apple updates directly - all the major differences between your hardware and the Mac hardware are abstracted away by the bootloader. You have to do major release upgrades by building a thumb drive with some extra tools, but otherwise it just works. That is, at least if you're buying hardware that already has OS support.