Sonoma is the dawn of Hackintosh
Apple killing the remainder of its Intel past, one feature at a time
The Cupertino company recently completed its transition to Apple Silicon at the WWDC 2023. There are some criticisms of how it panned out, mostly due to the Mac Pro processor being the same as the Mac Studio, but for a 2 year plan with a greater ecosystem than the change from PowerPC, it has been really well executed.
The ones that are not well with the transition are the Hackintosh users, to certain extent.
It was due time
The moment Apple announced they would transition to their custom in-house processors, as they called “Apple Silicon”, the Hackintosh scene had its days counted.
As you may know, ARM64 is an entirely different computer architecture compared to the old X86–64, what Intel-based Mac machines are running. The only way software written for ARM64 can run on X86–64, and viceversa, is by recompiling to the other platform. In other words, you need the source code, compiler, and tool chain, to be compatible with the architecture and OS you want your software to run. Rosetta 2 skips these steps by translating X86–64 code into ARM64 code on the fly, but with some loss on performance.
Hackintosh on X86–64 works by making macOS to think it’s running on legit hardware, by patching some files and overriding some pieces on a normal consumer PC or Laptop. OpenCore raised the bar by doing this at boot time and without modifying the core of macOS. Obviously, the more “near Mac” the hardware is, the better the results.
This will only last until Apple announces that the next version of macOS will no longer support Intel-Mac, time in which the road will become a dead end.
That was the news on June 2022. Hackintosh had its days counted.
Sonoma is the end
Let’s be clear about Apple Silicon: the transition will be fully complete once Apple ditches support for all Intel-based Mac.
This would mean the last Intel Mac released by Apple, the 2019 Mac Pro with a Cascade Lake processor, would be stuck with the next major version of macOS that Apple decides to forget. Until then, is expected that Apple will remove old references in codebase, one feature disabled at a time, until there are no more left.
My guts tell me 2025, as macOS Sonoma still supports the 2017 iMac Pro, a six-year-old machine. Professional or high-end products tend to have larger lifetimes partially because the companies that buy that stuff in bulk have larger upgrade cycles, which is not the case with consumer products.
For Hackintosh desktops, there are not major problems as long you keep using Ethernet and your processor is not pre-Haswell, like Core i5 3000 and below. The OpenCore guide shows you’re may still be on the green, and as always, you will need to keep special eye on graphics, motherboard and Bluetooth.
Laptops, on the other hand, may become useless sooner than desktops. Sonoma brings an axe on all wireless cards. A laptop without Wi-Fi defeats the purpose of a portable computer, and patching back the support will take a lot of time. Until then, laptops are stuck with macOS Ventura.
There is little hope for this to be fixed by Apple, let alone by the community. I’ll pass through Ivan Cafiero’s thoughts on this matter:
This OS seems quite similar to Ventura despite completely creating problems for Broadcom users. While waiting, a possible solution could be among the following:
- don’t use Wi-Fi (Continuity should work as far as I’m aware, but needs confirmation)
- use an external USB Wi-Fi dongle (aka abandoning Apple Wi-Fi services)
- use an Intel Wi-Fi card supported byitlwmpaired with Heliport app
- hope some chinese mofo creates an external PCIe device based on M1 Wi-Fi/BT chip
Wireless support for older macs that use a compatible Broadcom Wireless card, or even a genuine Airport card with an adaptor, is gone. Notice that macOS Sonoma only supports the latest Intel-based Macs with a Broadcom chipset soldered to the mainboard.
Hackintosh users will have to keep an eye on this post on OpenCore’s Legacy Patcher about macOS Sonoma compatibility on older macs, and the ongoing work to make it happen.
Even if this stays as it is, I totally expect that Hackintosh laptops will be the first to bite the dust, compared to desktops, for one reason or another. Today is Wi-Fi, next year could be Bluetooth, GPU, etc.
It’s not that these will die one day to the other, but you will miss all the features until you get a real MacBook.
OpenCore team efforts are still green given macOS Sonoma is still on beta at time of writing, and patches don’t come as fast as just flipping some switches.
Until they’re done, remember: the death of Hackintosh is near. Laptops will die first; desktops will do later.
Prepare your wallet to decide if a Mac is worth your money in the coming months. If you have decided it’s not, then today is a good time to prepare your workload and leave for Windows and/or Linux.
It’s a given that every developer will start moving their macOS apps entirely to Apple Silicon as soon Apple forgets the Intel-era of their computer lineup. You better not be caught with your pants down.
