Is this the real end of hackintosh? M1 Macs

[Anazlu]

It's the abrupt end of Intel Macs. Apple decimated their own lineup. Good thing they don't need to sell Macs to stay afloat.

I'm very impressed by my new M1 Mini. I'm blown away that a base model Mac is a capable desktop machine. I was initially annoyed that they came with 8GB of Ram and 256GB of storage. But it dawned on me that if Apple had followed their normal MO they would have started at 4GB RAM and 128GB of storage. That helped me pull the trigger.

Back when I saw the speculation about ARM Macs, I expected Pentium performance at an i7 price. When I saw the PR claims, I knew it was BS (and to some extent it was). I was skeptical of the benchmarks. Now the M1 Mini or MacBook Air will be my first recommendation for any non-power user. It does everything most people need, it comes with a full suite of useful software, and it does it at a fair price.

I never would have believed Apple would do this right off the bat, if I didn't experience it for myself. That's truly the only reason I bought the M1 Mini. I just had to know if it was for real. They went all in on creating positive word of mouth for the M1s.

My big question: Are these new base models a hint of things to come, or just loss-leaders? I hope it's the former but I'm prepared for the latter. Apple were already the kings of supersizing. Instead of 99 cents to upsize the fries, it's $200 to go from 128GB to 256GB of storage.

As for Hackintosh. I just bought the parts for an i7-9700K PC. The plan was for it to replace my current Windows gaming machine and it will do that very well. But I chose the Gigabyte Z390 M Gaming mobo so I could also follow pastrychef's Golden Build. I wanted to check out OpenCore and have a Hackintosh that would outperform and outlast my Optiplex Hacks. That project has been moved down on the to-do list.

 

[manolo2001]

for anyone interested:

AWS engineer puts Windows 10 on Arm on Apple Mac M1 – and it thrashes Surface Pro X

A virtualized Windows 10 on Arm runs faster on Apple's M1 hardware than on Microsoft's own Arm-based Surface Pro X.

www.zdnet.com

That was a very interesting link, thanks. I actually think the future will probably look like that, say an Apple desktop, running two or three monitors, where at least one is another virtualized OS. Just drag and drop your file from Mac OS and work on it in Windows or Linux, or maybe have all three up and running. Considering how powerful this first M1 chip is, I don't think this should be much of an issue going forward.

Actually that could be a good next move for the hackintosh community, create seamless virtualization apps for the new Arm Macs. Instead of hacking Mac OS on to other hardware, hack other OSs on to Mac hardware.

I know there are a few virtualization apps out there, but I find them non trivial to use, and would definitely like to see something more of the sort double click and work kind of thing, to virtualize windows and linux.

Anyway, just some thoughts.

 

[andrelabbe]

That project has been moved down on the to-do list

OSX on x86/64 is not dead yet therefore it is still worth carrying on hackintoshing.
In 2 years time may be this will be different but for now it is a bit early.

I know there are a few virtualization apps out there, but I find them non trivial to use, and would definitely like to see something more of the sort double click and work kind of thing, to virtualize windows and linux.

they are all based on Apple/osx offering via Hypervisor
see https://developer.apple.com/documentation/hypervisor

At the base they all involve setting up a 'new' windows pc from start to finish. The end result is... All depend what you want/hope from them and what you really get.

Now with some various success is 'Crossover' I do own it and if the Apps works with it it is pretty good and it might save you a full VM setup. It does for me.

Considering how powerful this first M1 chip is

Yep... it is all built in therefore not much room for 'expansion'.
This is why (I believe) Apple only supplied the base models. A bit like a show case for what's to come.
What will be he M1+ or M2 is anyone guess?
More IO, Memory, faster graphic, etc...

 

[manolo2001]

OSX on x86/64 is not dead yet therefore it is still worth carrying on hackintoshing.
In 2 years time may be this will be different but for now it is a bit early.


they are all based on Apple/osx offering via Hypervisor
see https://developer.apple.com/documentation/hypervisor

At the base they all involve setting up a 'new' windows pc from start to finish. The end result is... All depend what you want/hope from them and what you really get.

Now with some various success is 'Crossover' I do own it and if the Apps works with it it is pretty good and it might save you a full VM setup. It does for me.



Yep... it is all built in therefore not much room for 'expansion'.
This is why (I believe) Apple only supplied the base models. A bit like a show case for what's to come.
What will be he M1+ or M2 is anyone guess?
More IO, Memory, faster graphic, eI

I'll give crossover a try, I basically just run Power BI and Access on Windows and pretty much nothing else, if it does work it will be a great solution. Thanks.

BTW anyone know a good Access replacement app for Mac OS ??

Still wouldn't it be great if you could just type your windows license, allocate disk space and run the installation in the background, while you work on something else, and after that just double click the app to enter a windows window, and just wake from sleep ?? No need for a fancy or complicated hardware setup, anyway wish it were that simple.

If cell phone processor are anything to go by in terms of the possible evolution of the M1, in a few years they'll be incredibly powerful.

 

[andrelabbe]

Sorry to 'everyone' for this since it is not really 'Hackintoshing'

I'll give crossover a try

The full version is free for a period of time. This will let you try before you buy. If you have more questions about it shout, I'll try to help.
If this work it will save you the cost of a Windows license.

good Access replacement

I guess you mean MS Access....
Now do you want Access for the DB only or for the GUI and all the trimming?

if you have time to spare to learn then FileMaker Pro would be the nearest in term of GUI, etc... but the learning curve is... You can have standalone or cloud flavour. the full product is for you to try for 30+ days.
I had a project for a mate on Mac but he wanted 'FileMaker' I told him 'no chance' since I do not have time to learn it and get productive on it.
But I have to admin it looks good.

Db on Mac choice is yours but then you have to code the Frontend 'GUI' and my guess Xcode here we go. Of course you can use Py or anything else available.

Now another route is these modern days of openness which works quite well and since you seem to use VBA (?)
is to run MSSQL on the Mac and via visual Studio get the GUI (executable frontend) sorted.

Before going I am Mad hear me out.

on M$ run VS community and MSSQL for free.
you can write all your code and make it compatible to run on Mac
I.e. if you want the code to run on Mac make sure you do not use Windows/M$ specific only and I would use Dotnet Core (<3.x) or Dotnet (>= 5.x)
You really need to get the GUI done on M$. The code... you can change/recompile within OSX by running VS for Mac (not as good as M$ flavour by a mile).
You can do GUI via VS on Mac but it is like going back 20 years...
Granted the Apps might not be the full OSX look and fell but it is up to you...

MSSQL... you can run it on Mac via 'Docker' and 'et voila' MSSQL 2017 running on Mac. It is pretty impressive
if you need a GUI to manage MSSQL you can even use 'Azure Data Studio' (Free) on the Mac or any other 3rd party Apps or of course connect onto it from a PC. Choice is yours.

Here one link if you ever wanted to try.

https://database.guide/how-to-install-sql-server-on-a-mac/

Again the beauty of this... not VM 'windows' to setup, etc... And your Apps run on M$ or OSX

 

[manolo2001]

Sorry to 'everyone' for this since it is not really 'Hackintoshing'

The full version is free for a period of time. This will let you try before you buy. If you have more questions about it shout, I'll try to help.
If this work it will save you the cost of a Windows license.

I guess you mean MS Access....
Now do you want Access for the DB only or for the GUI and all the trimming?

if you have time to spare to learn then FileMaker Pro would be the nearest in term of GUI, etc... but the learning curve is... You can have standalone or cloud flavour. the full product is for you to try for 30+ days.
I had a project for a mate on Mac but he wanted 'FileMaker' I told him 'no chance' since I do not have time to learn it and get productive on it.
But I have to admin it looks good.

Db on Mac choice is yours but then you have to code the Frontend 'GUI' and my guess Xcode here we go. Of course you can use Py or anything else available.

Now another route is these modern days of openness which works quite well and since you seem to use VBA (?)
is to run MSSQL on the Mac and via visual Studio get the GUI (executable frontend) sorted.

Before going I am Mad hear me out.

on M$ run VS community and MSSQL for free.
you can write all your code and make it compatible to run on Mac
I.e. if you want the code to run on Mac make sure you do not use Windows/M$ specific only and I would use Dotnet Core (<3.x) or Dotnet (>= 5.x)
You really need to get the GUI done on M$. The code... you can change/recompile within OSX by running VS for Mac (not as good as M$ flavour by a mile).
You can do GUI via VS on Mac but it is like going back 20 years...
Granted the Apps might not be the full OSX look and fell but it is up to you...

MSSQL... you can run it on Mac via 'Docker' and 'et voila' MSSQL 2017 running on Mac. It is pretty impressive
if you need a GUI to manage MSSQL you can even use 'Azure Data Studio' (Free) on the Mac or any other 3rd party Apps or of course connect onto it from a PC. Choice is yours.

Here one link if you ever wanted to try.

https://database.guide/how-to-install-sql-server-on-a-mac/

Again the beauty of this... not VM 'windows' to setup, etc... And your Apps run on M$ or OSX

Thanks that is a very comprehensive answer !!!!!

 

[e-troc]

To me the more interesting question is how long it will be until they cease support. I’d be inclined to upgrade from my z370 Gaming 7 / 8700K / RX570 build one more time if it’s going to be more than five years. It’s a great music production machine today, but in three years I might want more processing power. Obviously, we can only guess.

 

[Glaswegian]

Here's why I'll keep using my hacks for many years to come. The new Macs are fast but I don't really need to open 50 apps all at once. The new Macs have no user upgradeable parts and if they do need to be fixed you can only take them to certified Apple repair specialists. I hate paying extra for extended Apple care. I like to fix and upgrade my own computers. Will I potentially buy an Apple Silicon laptop ? Probably at some point but for desktop computing I'm going with what I'm doing now for a long time.

It will only be "the end" when people give up and quit trying and spend all their money buying Apple Hardware. I don't see that happening in the next 4-5 years.

Here's why I'll keep using my hacks for many years to come. The new Macs are fast but I don't really need to open 50 apps all at once. The new Macs have no user upgradeable parts and if they do need to be fixed you can only take them to certified Apple repair specialists. I hate paying extra for extended Apple care. I like to fix and upgrade my own computers. Will I potentially buy an Apple Silicon laptop ? Probably at some point but for desktop computing I'm going with what I'm doing now for a long time.

It will only be "the end" when people give up and quit trying and spend all their money buying Apple Hardware. I don't see that happening in the next 4-5 years.

Amen. My (now old) Hack is still fast enough for what I use it for and I'm not tempted to get a new mac (though I did lust after the new M1 Mac mini for a brief moment. For the moment, fast enough is good enough, though I would like to get a M.2 drive (see separate thread for a DA question).

 

[hkfan45]

Will the developers of Opencore jump ship now that the hackintosh has a limited lifespan?

 

[agrafuese]

Sorry for the ignorance here, but what if Microsoft continues their own development toward more ARM-based hardware? Wouldn't that be a potential situation for hackintoshing to continue to exist? Hacking Apple software to run on (hypothetical) MS ARM-based hardware seems logical, if things line up that way, right? They already have ARM-based hardware for the Surface Pro, so it's not entirely impossible (I'm not saying it's the same, either... just holding on to some optimism).