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Comment by asadkn | Hacker News Reader

The last hackintosh I made was in 2017 and it's still a beast. Maintenance was relatively easy

However, the future of pain-free Hackintosh doesn't seem very likely. It's rumored (or confirmed?) Apple will do its proprietary ARM system as MacOS eventually moves onto that [1] (maybe not this year, but in the near future). And then there's the T2 chip.

I have been slowly moving away from Mac in general as I have no need for it (not a Mac/iOS developer). The alternatives are just as good or better for my taste.

[1] https://www.tomshardware.com/news/apple-mac-arm-cpus-2020-in...

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We know that Apple uses x86 macOS Servers internally on commodity hardware (from previous discussion on HN[0]). Presumably, they'll need to keep some way of booting on machines missing the special Apple security hardware while staying secure, so Hackintoshes will always be able to find a way, since macOS will have to be able to boot on non-T2 systems for quite a while [1] (some machines they sell don't even have them yet, and presuming they keep up the 8-10 years of software support, there's nothing to worry about).

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18114712 [1]: https://support.apple.com/guide/security/mac-computers-apple...

That thread mentions Apple using a combination of linux and macOS on commodity hardware for workloads that weren't suitable to their current hardware. If the Mac Pro satisfies those workloads now Apple is free to make the T2 chip mandatory.

Their own security makes a mandatory T2 chip inevitable imho - there were dubious allegations they were using compromised motherboards in servers last year, it wasn't true but they'll want to make it impossible.

If the Mac Pro satisfies those workloads now Apple is free to make the T2 chip mandatory.

I don't think even Apple can afford to buy too many of the Mac Pro. :)

In all seriousness, the Mac Pro doesn't make a good server (for most purposes). Most servers don't need GPU, no server needs a way way overdesigned and expensive case. Don't need the expandability. Etc.

Thing is, I'm not a Mac or iOS developer either, but I find that even if alternatives exist, they're rarely as polished as what's available for macOS.

Consider Paste - Ditto exists for Windows, but it's just not as nice in my honest opinion. Or BetterTouchTool, I'm not aware of a Windows alternative.

CopyQ, Touchégg and ElementaryOS (Ubuntu LTS based)

give it a roll.

Then you lose the ability to run things like DAWs and Adobe products. I've used Linux since 1994, but it just doesn't have the commercial software support necessary to make it a serious desktop contender, which is unfortunate.

This is a big part of it for me. I love Logic Pro / Cubase / Ableton, and having access to those is pretty important.

Admittedly part of the reason I prefer macOS to Windows is that I find pro audio software tends to get more love on macOS.

> And then there's the T2 chip.

I wouldn't be too concerned about T2 as a blocker for the next few years, as the latest iMacs continue to ship without it. Presumably they'll give those a minimum 5 year support window from the day they leave the store lineup.

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