- Apple’s macOS Tahoe is the final version to support Intel chips
- That means the death of the Hackintosh is nigh
- It’s sad news for the community of tinkerers and custom PC builders
Apple lifted the lid on macOS Tahoe at its WWDC 2025 event earlier in June, and one thing that it announced during the Platforms State of the Union address was that this software update would be the last one to support Intel Macs. That’s had the effect of putting the final nail in the coffin of the humble Hackintosh, and this has left me more than a little sad.
In case you don’t know, a Hackintosh is a computer that runs macOS on custom PC hardware. Apple doesn’t support or condone these computers, so building one requires a lot of complex legwork and specific files that convince macOS that it’s running on Apple-approved components.
Part of the equation is that a Hackintosh usually requires an Intel chip. You can’t buy Apple silicon chips off the shelf, but with recent macOS versions supporting Intel processors, this was a go-to alternative.
With Apple dropping this support, it’s the end of the road for Hackintoshes.
We knew this day was coming
For many years, I was fascinated with the idea of building a Hackintosh. I’ve long been frustrated with the day-to-day quirks of Windows, but love building PCs too much to go all-in on macOS. A Hackintosh felt like the perfect way to get hands on, build a powerful computer capable of both work and gaming, and still get all the smoothness and rich features of macOS.
But with the constantly increasing difficulties in building a Hackintosh and the ever-more complex workarounds that were needed to get one to work, I never took the plunge.
Years ago, a Hackintosh was the best of both worlds: the hardware performance that Apple simply couldn’t provide and the software features and stability that Windows sorely lacked. But now that Apple silicon offers tremendous performance – even in demanding games like Cyberpunk 2077, something once deemed unthinkable for a Mac – the need for a Hackintosh has diminished.
Despite the news, not everyone in the Hackintosh community has taken the news badly. Even before Apple’s announcement, I would occasionally browse Hackintosh forums, and the advice was often the same: modern Macs do a lot of what Hackintoshes set out to achieve.
They offer far more bang for your buck than they used to (the M4 Mac mini is a good example), and unless you fill the specific niche of loving both macOS and DIY computer building and refuse to get a Mac and a PC, Apple’s own products do the job. Many of the more recent reactions are along the same lines.
Perhaps someone will find a way to get Hackintoshes to work on Apple silicon. But with the tough security measures Apple has built into its chips, that is far from guaranteed. While many in the community are taking the news well, I can’t help but feel disappointed for what we’re going to lose.
