Apple’s new Mac Mini is killing my Hackintosh

One of my favorite nerdy hobbies is the end, whether I like it or not. And it is Apple’s fault.

In 2016, I was frustrated that Apple hadn’t updated its Mac Mini, iMac or Mac Pro computers in at least a year. The company pumped out new iPhones, iPads, AirPods, and MacBooks at a steady rate, and I had at least one of each. But desktop Macs weren’t getting the same attention.

I wanted a low cost, versatile machine that I could rely on to work and play for years to come. But if I reduced the starting price of $ 499 that Apple wanted for its Mac Mini computers at the time, I would pay the full amount for a machine whose innards were over two years old. Disagree.

So I decided to do one of the nerdiest things a tech-savvy Apple user can do: I build a pc.

I bought all the parts I needed, including a storage drive, system memory, and a Graphic card. Then I put them together in a rather generic case. Then I tricked Apple’s macOS software into powering it.

The project took around $ 800, many nights squinting at computer code, and a few frustrated bangs on my keyboard, but in the end I did.

I had turned my DIY computer into a Hackintosh.

This is not something that Apple supports and it may violate the license terms of the macOS software. (Apple declined to comment for this article.) But the result was that I had a desktop Mac computer on my terms. I had fought against Apple.

Plus, I felt like a winner. During the day, I moved between my MacBook Air and my Hackintosh for work, using all the specialized Mac software I relied on to keep track of my to-do lists, manage my calendars, and find smart GIFs to use in idle jokes. .

At night, I switched the Hackintosh to Microsoft’s Windows, which powers over 73% of the world’s computers. It’s one of the only ways to play well considered virtual reality games like Valve’s sci-fi shooter Half-Life: Alyx, which CNET’s sister site GameSpot just named Game of the Year for 2020.

And if some components like the video card don’t do enough, I can upgrade the machine without hassle. Nerd paradise.

Sadly, that all changed last summer when Apple CEO Tim Cook walked into his company’s live virtual stage and said Macs were forever changing. Their microprocessor brains, formerly made by chipmaker Intel, have been replaced by Apple’s custom M1 chips. Apple said it does this because the technology behind its iPhones and iPads is better suited to Mac computers than the Intel processors that Apple has been using to power Macs since 2006.

“Progress of this magnitude comes only from bold changes,” Cook said when Announces Apple’s First M1 Powered Devices Go On Sale In November.

Those early Mac M1s were the MacBook Air, a 13-inch MacBook Pro, and a Mac Mini, and each of them received good ratings from reviewers. CNET critic Dan Ackerman says they perform much better than their predecessors, even outperforming Intel Macs released earlier in 2020.

Unfortunately for me and many other hackintoshers, you cannot buy Apple’s M1 chips on your own. Which means I can’t squeeze them into my computer and trick Apple’s macOS software to run on them.

Apple said its transition away from Intel would take around two years. A few years later, the company is expected to stop upgrading software for Macs with Intel.

At this point, my Hackintosh dream will be officially over.

Apple is renowned for its control over its devices. You cannot download apps for iPhone or iPad unless you go through the Apple App Store, where every program is reviewed by the company before being released for download.

It’s no surprise that Apple is also putting an even tighter grip on its computers. But I’m still sad to see Hackintoshes go.

So I decided to build one last hurray. The brightest fake apple I can find.

A hobby and a workaholic

It has become much easier to create a Hackintosh over the past few years. This is mainly thanks to better hacking tools and active communities filled with people who love to help. Some of them even write step-by-step guides with lists of what parts you can buy, how to set them up, and what to do when they don’t work.

Mykola Grymalyuk, a 20-year-old student studying computer science (what else?) In Canada, is one of the people I rely on for publications. He had launched into Hackintoshing thanks to his stepfather, who had one of his own. At one point, Grymalyuk found himself recovering from a medical episode, with plenty of free time.

“I was constantly in a hospital bed, I couldn’t really walk a lot, I couldn’t really do much, and I felt a little worthless,” Grymalyuk said. “But the Hackintosh community gave me something to do.”

He noticed that there weren’t a lot of up-to-date or complete guides to help people build Hackintoshs, so he decided to write a few. At first, he created a list of video cards that worked best with Apple’s software. Then he wrote about how to modify songs on your computer to make everything work better. And most helpful for me, he created step-by-step guides to help you understand the applications and processes you need to go through to initially set up a Hackintosh.

“It’s just a spiral from there,” he says.

Earlier this year, he collected his work in a website he co-founded called Dortania. It is named after a flower so obscure that he was hoping that would mean the website could easily pull up Google’s top link (it does). The site has no ads and it is not asking for money. He encourages people to donate to Crohn’s and Colitis Canada.

As much as Grymalyuk likes plugging in his Hackintosh instruction guides, he knows Apple’s M1 chips mean everything will end in about five years. By then, he expects all Macs and Mac apps to have gone to Apple’s chips. At this point, Apple will likely start phasing out software updates for Intel computers, as it will no longer sell them anyway.

As a self-proclaimed fan of Apple products, Grymalyuk said he recently took to helping people run older Mac software on new computers and helping other people run new Apple software on new computers. older Mac computers.

His dream is to channel all this knowledge into writing documentation for other technology products. He wants to help people understand the details of what makes their computers work, whether they were made by Apple or not.

“I want to teach, not just get to the end result,” he said. “I want people to maintain their machines. When you know what breaks, how it breaks and what to fix, you feel like, ‘Wow, I can take care of this machine on my own. I don’t need outside help. “”

My last Hackintosh

I was inspired to build my latest Hackintosh because of the M1 Macs. I decided to create a machine with the latest microprocessor brains and more than twice as much storage as the 1 terabyte I use it today. I also chose an AMD graphics card similar to the one on the latest Mac Pro computers, to make sure it will run more smoothly with MacOS. I wanted to make sure that this machine will meet my needs for at least the next few years.

If I get stuck I am grateful to have the Hackintoshers community to help me fix any bugs I encounter. Websites like Grymalyuk’s Dortania, Reddit’s Hackintosh Community, and tonymacx86 are still popular. The same goes for YouTube channels like Snazzy Labs, which occasionally discuss Hackintoshes. Some of these communities even saw spikes in interest when Apple released its first M1 computers in November – in part because people are curious about how hackintoshers prepare when MacOS no longer runs on Intel chips.

“There is still a global community of active hackers,” Tonymacx86 said. The person behind the username and website prefers to remain anonymous to avoid overzealous fans and detractors.

Tonymacx86 says that after Apple does away with Hackintoshes completely, websites and guides will likely be reshaped in homage to the more than a decade people spent building these Frankenstein-esque machines. They will also likely become support communities for people who keep their PCs past the time they can get software updates from Apple.

I’ll probably be done Hackintoshing by this point. I know that someday I won’t be able to keep the machine I just built to run properly under MacOS. When that time comes, I’ll either have to rely more on the Mac laptops I own or buy a new desktop from Apple.

Hopefully by then Apple’s computers won’t be as outdated as when I started.