“Hackintosh is (almost) dead,” – declares a new blog post by Alexander Vacic – and the transition to Apple Silicon is partly to blame. As Vacic writes, Apple has “completely removed all traces of driver support”; for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth cards is the key to the Hackintosh world.
In the blog post, Vacich provides some technical details and a potential explanation of what this means:
In Sonoma Apple has completely removed all traces of driver support for its oldest WiFi/BT cards, namely the various Broadcom cards they last used in 2012. /13 iMac/MacBook models. These Mac models have not been supported by macOS for several years now, so it is not surprising to see drivers being removed. The most likely reason is that Apple is moving drivers from .kext (kernel extensions) to .dext (DriverKit), thus cleaning up legacy and unused code from macOS. They did the same thing with Ventura's Ethernet drivers.
These cards were “a key component in many full-featured Hackintosh builds,” he says. Vacic continues. The reason of that? The cards worked out of the box; with things like iMessage, FaceTime, AirDrop, Continuity and more.
Ultimately this means that “Hackintosh is on its deathbed”; for many people:
Hence – Hackintosh is on his deathbed. Some things will last for months or even years, depending on what you use them for and whether the lack of Wi-Fi bothers you or not. But not for me. I can live without AirDrop, Continuity and Handoff, but Messages and FaceTime should work. There are also some other things that Sonoma brings that are important to me, so I want to update them. Combined with the described lack of reliability and the worry that the next minor or major update will leave me high and dry – no, it's not worth it.
Vacic's full blog post is worth a read. This is a good look at the bigger picture of the Hackintosh community as it exists today.
9to5Mac's Opinion
It's the end of an era. I tried to create my own Hackintosh back in 2013. Even if the final product wasn't perfect, it was a lot of fun and a learning experience. I remember being in awe of the Hackintosh community, which created a robust set of tools and tutorials to help newbies like me get the job done.
Although it is sad, there is also good news. The Mac lineup is stronger, more powerful, and more versatile than ever. You can get a truly reliable Mac mini powered by Apple Silicon for just $599. Of course, there's also the $699 M1 MacBook Air, which is available from various retailers.
Have you ever dived into the world of creating a Hackintosh? Share your stories with me in the comments.
Subscribe to Chance: Threads, Twitter, Instagram and Mastodon.
