OpenCore Legacy Patcher project brings macOS Sonoma support to 16-year-old Macs | Hacker News Reader

OpenCore Legacy Patcher project brings macOS Sonoma support to 16-year-old Macs

arstechnica.com

58 pointsksec29 comments

It's amusing to think that old Macs are essentially treated like Hackintoshes now. There is also a contrast here with the Windows world, where there's far more interest and effort spent on getting older software to work on newer hardware, instead of the opposite that this project is doing.

Unfortunately, I suspect projects like this will turn to a dead end once macOS becomes ARM-only.

I wonder if and when ditching the x64-compatibility layer would be feasible.

As far as my limited knowledge goes without checking, ARM builds for major Mac software is already the norm for commercial software, but the lines get blurry sometimes. Just a guess in the blue, but I think if compatibility exists at a library level, it might take long until requiring ARM-specific builds for all code becomes mandatory.

The original Rosetta (PPC to x86) lasted only 5 years.

IIRC the previous version was a cost for Apple due to licensing agreements or something, but in general they are not so big on retrocompatibility (and nowadays it’s “legal” to have a VM which runs an earlier version of macOS, which could let you run Rosetta 2).

I wouldn’t be surprised if Rosetta 2 stopped existing “soon”.

Ditching Rosetta 2 would mean a lot of application support going down the drain (including Crossover/Wine), but such things really haven’t stopped Apple before. On the other hand the Linux VM support at least shows that Apple has interest in building on top of Rosetta 2.

Windows arm64 has a very interesting approach to the same problem: the ARM64EC ABI provides 1-to-1 mapping between x64 and ARM registers, so that an x64 program can link to a ARM64EC library. It blocks you out from additional registers sadly.

A few weeks ago I had excellent results using this to install Ventura on a 2017 MacBookPro13,3. While obviously not as fast as a newer machine, everything I tried so far works great, iCloud, Universal Control, latest apps etc.

Compared to other vendors, it seems like Apple has an aggressive obsolescence position. This app offers a significant countervailing force to eWaste, and IMO deserves broader recognition. Authors: great job, thank you.

Apple has abandoned OS upgrades for a 5 year old, $1000+ laptop?

Windows, Linux and even ChromeOS offer at least double that support lifetime, Apple must really think MacOS hardware and software is an afterthought given their IDGAF mindset towards MacOS upgrades.

More than double at least until Windows 11. You could get 2008 era systems to run Windows 10 fairly decently assuming you replaced the HDD with an SSD.

I mean as much as I sometimes like to shit on Apple. My MBP 2015 is still running with macOS Monterey with security and safari update. Although I think this could be the last year they put an update to it. I hope they will continue to bump out Safari update though.

I've successfully installed Ventura on a 2013 iMac 21.5", and I must say, the patcher has performed remarkably well. This post has prompted me to consider updating to Sonoma.

On another note, I'm contemplating upgrading the storage to an SSD from its existing HDD. A local tech service offers a 1TB SSD upgrade for AUD$400, which is quite cost-effective given the specs - a quad-core i5 processor with 8GB RAM. This upgrade promises to significantly extend the useful life of an already solid little machine.

I spent about $150 USD on a battery, 16GB RAM, and a 1TB SSD to breathe new life into a MacBook Pro 7,1. It’s only a core 2 duo and noticeably slow, but cool to see that I could do it.

I bet that SSD upgrade will be huge (or was it already an SSD in that model).

Definitely get the SSD. It will literally transform the experience. I don't know how people stand HDDs in Macs. Every one I've tried feels unusably slow by comparison.

Thanks to this I'm still able to use a perfectly functional 2015 MacBook Pro.

It's criminal that a 8 year device electronic is considered "trash" because a company bringing $ 100 billion in yearly profit can't consider you a customer anymore if you don't keep buying new shit every year.

Have you updated to Sonoma or Ventura? Is it MacBookPro11,5?

I'm asking as I would like to try, but I'm confused by wording in GH issue saying that this specific model is kind of lost

I have a MacBookPro12,1 (13-inch Early 2015 Mac) running Ventura.

because a company bringing $ 100 billion in yearly profit can't consider you a customer anymore if you don't keep buying new shit every year

How do you think they managed to get that profit in the first place...? I'm not agreeing with Apple here, just pointing out the absurdity of expecting such a profitable company to not be already fully embracing planned obsolescence.

They managed it mostly by inventing iPhone, so it's not an absurd expectation

Monterey still receives security updates. Even Big Sur does and it supports models from 2013 and up. While I agree that Apple artificially abandons older models to sell more, old devices are not trash yet.

OpenCore Legacy is also really easy to use compared to solutions offered in the past (if my memory serves me).

I was slightly confused by some of the instructions at first but once you get what’s going on, it’s not so bad.

Once setup, keeping it updated is incredibly simple. It basically is a button or two you press once in a while.

Recently "downgraded" from an M1 Air to 2012 15" Non Retina. I love parallels running Windows Server 2022 vs. Windows 11 Arm. Being able to buy a 2.5" internal 4TB SSD and basically have my NAS local is a nice bonus.

Installed yesterday on mbp 2013 and mini 2011.

Works very well. Although had to try a few times somehow.

Orbstack also works

I happily ran Monterey on a mid-2012 MacBook with OCLP. I only bought an Apple Silicon MacBook because the hinge got too loose to keep the display upright. Yes, the new computer is significantly faster, but I could have lived with the older one. So, three cheers for OCLP!

OpenCore HN discussion in 2022 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32614135

Great project to limit ewaste (shame on Apple)

I considered installing this, but decided not to trust my security information to an unknown group.

I'm not taking a position on OCLP being trustworthy or not, but at least the project appears to be 100% open source [0], which is more than we can say about Apple.

[0] https://github.com/dortania/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher

I don't have the time or expertise to pore through all the relevant code, and have no insight as to the code-review protocols of this group. They may be on top of it, but I'm not risking my net worth on it.

That's what Big Tech wants you to think. Keeps you on their leash.

There's a whole world out there beyond their walled gardens.

"Those who give up freedom for security deserve neither."

It's not a black and white issue easily swept under the rug by an elitist platitude about what the cowering masses deserve. There's a lot of installation cases (older hardware -> newest systems) where System Integrity Protection will be partially lowered by default[1], and most installations will need to keep it that way.

That needn't be a show stopper, but before somebody starts patching with OCLP, some deliberation about their threat model and their macOS security expectations would be healthy. Specially for hand-me-down hardware that ends up in less tech-savvy hands.

[1] https://dortania.github.io/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher/POST-INST...

Exactly. I use (and support) lots of open-source software and trust it. But a hacked OS is too fundamental, and I don't want to have to remember, "Oh yeah, don't do any banking on this."

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