Today I would like to address a well known, well documented, and controversial topic of the hardware modding scene: Hackintoshing. First, for those of you who haven’t heard the term, “Hackintosh” it is essentially the installation of the Mac OS X operating system on non-Apple hardware. This is accomplished by taking advantage of the Intel series processor and chipset support that stemmed from the Intel Core MacBook Pros and iMacs. After selecting compatible hardware, it can be as simple as using a retail installation disc, often referred to as a “vanilla” install in the Hackintosh community.
If you are looking for a guide or hardware recommendation so as to build your own Hackintosh, you have come to the wrong place. I will not provide either of these instructions because I am not in the business of condoning copyright infringement. I do however want to explore the subject of Hackintosh a bit further. The first thing that comes to mind is the question: “Is it legal?”
Mac OS X is licensed only for Apple computers, by installing the operating system on non-Apple hardware you are clearly infringing on this license. Of course the chances of you getting into trouble for this are slim, unless you are building and selling these machines, like Psystar.
Secondly, I would like to get to the heart of why there are such stringent rules. In order to do this, you must understand the Mac OS ecosystem. Apple uses a specific hardware configuration and designs their OS to work with this hardware. It is true that the Mac operating system has the foundations of BSD Linux, but it has become much more sophisticated. When you take all of these factors into consideration your end result is a very reliable, robust, and stable operating system.
Unlike Windows and other comparable operating systems, Mac OS X does not require generic sets of drivers from many manufacturers to work. With Apple handling hardware and software updates, the reliability of its operating system is never compromised due to drivers needing to be reconfigured.
Some people may say that from a moral standpoint, if you paid for an operating system based on open source code you should be able to do with it what you want. Normally I would agree with you wholeheartedly (being a serious supporter and user of open source software myself), but I want to keep this as objective as possible. The main issue here is that although based on open source software, the kernel has been modified and customized to a point that it is no longer just another run of the mill linux kernel.
At the time of this writing the only way for you to legally enjoy Snow Leopard is to purchase an Apple branded computer. Although many people may disagree with me, I think we should keep it this way. Some may feel that Apple should open OS X for installation on other hardware; I see this as a problem for Apple and the integrity of the software. OS X was designed for specific hardware. Granted it can be installed on other hardware other than Apple devices, this doesn’t mean it’s going to be stable. Once you start adding other hardware to a custom built machine you’re going to need hardware drivers to run the specific hardware. This will lead to a bloated and unmanageable operating system much like Windows. I do have to say Microsoft has done a fine job of cleaning Windows 7 up, but problems still exist with drivers and finicky hardware. People may feel this would not happen to OS X, but I feel with time it could.
Unless Apple releases the OS with no warrant, you’re installing at your own risk with no support. To me, there is something that feels wrong about installing OS X on non-Apple hardware. Everything runs differently and feels different. I would prefer Apple hardware any day, even if I could build a Hackintosh with similar hardware for less money: that’s all you’ll get… a cheap experience of a top class operating system.
